Bribery charges filed against former Houston Public Works employee in $700,000 water pipe repair project – Houston Public Media

A former Houston Public Works employee has been criminally charged for allegedly defrauding more than $700,000 in city emergency funds in a scheme related to pipeline repair and inspection contracts. ‘water.

Patrece Lee, a former maintenance manager at Houston Public Works, is charged with abuse of office and four counts of bribery. She is one of seven people who have been criminally charged in connection with the alleged scheme.

So far, at least three city employees have been fired. The case is still ongoing.

The alleged scheme

As first reported by KPRC, this all happened between January and November of last year, after the Houston City Council – under the administration of former Mayor Sylvester Turner – allocated $80 million to provide outside assistance to repair broken water pipes caused by extreme drought. That approval did not require bidding through what are called emergency purchase orders, which expedites the hiring process rather than going through the city’s normal procurement process for contractors.

Authorities say Lee was only responsible for verifying information from potential Houston Public Works suppliers. According to court documents, Lee allegedly used his position to funnel more than $400,000 in city funds to his brother’s company, LCI Construction. Lee’s brother, Andrew Thomas, is accused of abuse of power.

Additionally, investigators believe Lee induced contracted vendors working with his department to hire his own company, KB3 Construction, for “consulting services” and also allegedly targeted inexperienced companies to solicit bribes to to “help them get paid faster, or become bigger and more profitable”. better contracts in the future,” according to court documents.

At least four vendors paid money directly to Lee or his company in order to obtain city contracts, according to court documents. These alleged bribes were worth more than $320,000.

The four sellers – Frank Perkins, Edelmiro Castillo, Tieasha Coleman and Joseph Nerie – are all accused of corruption. Castillo and Nerie are also accused of falsifying a government document for allegedly lying on conflict of interest questionnaires filed with the city.

Danielle Hurts, a former Public Works contract employee, is accused of abuse of power and corruption for allegedly helping Lee throughout the project.

The ongoing investigation

After a KPRC report in November raised questions about water main repair contracts, former Mayor Sylvester Turner ordered the city’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate the allegations. However, during a press conference Friday, Mayor John Whitmire criticized the former mayor’s refusal to turn the investigation over to an outside agency and added that he was “concerned about the functioning” of the OIG .

“I want a little more aggressiveness, a little more transparency in this office,” Whitmire said.

As of Friday, the OIG’s internal investigation was not yet complete, Whitmire added.

Moving forward, Houston Public Works plans to ensure multiple people are involved in order to move forward with any future emergency purchase orders, according to Randy Macchi, the department’s chief operating officer.

“There will never be a situation where a single person will be the sole author and verifier of the submitted truth,” Macchi said.

During Friday’s news conference, Harris County Prosecutor Kim Ogg said the criminal investigation — led by the Texas Rangers — was still ongoing and acknowledged the possibility of more charges being filed.

“Overall, the damage caused by public corruption is the loss of public confidence in government as a responsible steward of its money,” Ogg said. “This may be a problem that we, as taxpayers, continue to pay for. »