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Attorney with experience against City of Houston

2,871 Views | 25 Replies | Last: 19 days ago by Bondag
HoustonAg12
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9:54a, 4/8/24
AG
My company is looking for a attorney with experience against City of Houston and more specifically the Office of Business Opportunity.

If you have any recommendations please send them my way!

houstonag2012@gmail.com

Thanks!
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BQ_90
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10:49a, 4/8/24
AG
bribes will probable be cheaper and more effective
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CDUB98
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10:51a, 4/8/24
AG
If you're waiting on a building permit, you might as well just find a different job. Those people give no ****s.
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Irish 2.0
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11:17a, 4/8/24
Chris Thornhill
cthornhill @ thornhilllawfirm . net
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Ciboag96
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11:33a, 4/8/24
Ahhh, dealing with the City of Houston. It's a DEI experiment taken to its fullest limit. Good luck!
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Booma94
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In reply to BQ_90 • 1:59p, 4/8/24
AG
BQ_90 said:
bribes will probable be cheaper and more effective
Al Swearengen would be proud...
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James Forsyth
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In reply to BQ_90 • 10:59a, 4/9/24
BQ_90 said:
bribes will probable be cheaper and more effective
I represented a company who bid on City of Houston cleaning contracts (for buildings). They were awarded but the vote to approved by council was held up. A certain city councilman told our client's representative that the contracts had to have some percentage of minority ownership. Our client rep says they're 100% Hispanic-owned. Said councilman said...."not the right kind of minority".

We got our lobbyist in to start going around to everyone on council and the mayor and politely raising a stink. Finally got the vote through.

Some of the buildings to be cleaned were fire stations. The firemen were shocked when cleaning crews arrived. They had always just done them themselves. Apparently, the prior vendor just pocketed the money from the contract but didn't provide services.

Another case did involve a city employee alluding to needing a "cut" from a contract. City of Houston procurement is not a place for the unwary to tread.

If you want to run your issue past me, happy to discuss with you.
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one MEEN Ag
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In reply to BQ_90 • 11:37a, 4/9/24
AG
BQ_90 said:
bribes will probable be cheaper and more effective
The problem is if you don't know who to bribe, how much, where to hide it, who else has to be bribed to cover yourself, and what other strange endeavors this will cost you in the future - you're just going to get caught and roasted on the 5 o' clock news.

And if you did know all of these things, you wouldn't be here on the outside looking in trying to get a permit approved.
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BQ_90
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In reply to James Forsyth • 11:53a, 4/9/24
AG
I was joking
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HoustonAg12
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In reply to James Forsyth • 2:19p, 4/9/24
AG
Please contact me at the email above.

Thanks!
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Psycho Bunny
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In reply to BQ_90 • 3:01p, 4/9/24
BQ_90 said:
bribes will probable be cheaper and more effective


City officials like the small bills, 5's 10's and 20's. Just leave the money in the storage unit next to Rodney Ellis storage unit. You know... the one with all the "art work".
Americans new motto
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate
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Build It
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5:23p, 4/9/24
AG
1. You need to find the right bag man.
2. You absolutely need an African American as a partner
3. You'll have to understand sometimes you lose because someone has a bigger bag of money

These have been the rules for a long time. It was way better when I started, the building inspector left his trunk open while on the job. When he came back it was closed with a nice surprise inside.
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maroon barchetta
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In reply to Build It • 5:29p, 4/9/24
My dad became friends with a restauranteur in Brazoria County. He had left houston to start over down there.

He said the price of paying off building inspectors and health inspectors had gotten to be too high. And they would shut you down if you didn't pay.

This was in the late 80's.

It's always been like this.
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Irish 2.0
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In reply to maroon barchetta • 6:03p, 4/9/24
This is why I may or may not have recorded every interaction with a city official during the buildout of our place.
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Build It
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In reply to maroon barchetta • 6:15p, 4/9/24
AG
Yup, I started in late 80's. I'm an old guy. Mayor Whitmire cleaned up the building department. Lasted a long time. The money is still changing hands somewhere.
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ThunderCougarFalconBird
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In reply to Irish 2.0 • 2:43p, 4/10/24
AG
Irish 2.0 said:
This is why I may or may not have recorded every interaction with a city official during the buildout of our place.
friend of mine collects classic guitars. Had a CoH inspection where the inspector told him he could pass inspection if he could have his [if I recall correctly, very expensive] 1960 Gibson ES 330.

He failed and made it clear the next inspection was recorded (where he passed).
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AgLA06
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In reply to Build It • 2:53p, 4/10/24
AG
Build It said:
Yup, I started in late 80's. I'm an old guy. Mayor Whitmire cleaned up the building department. Lasted a long time. The money is still changing hands somewhere.
Interesting isn't it.

I was involved in commercial development in Houston for almost a decade between 2005 and 2015. 100s of projects that I was on site from preliminary planning to final site inspections. I saw some really ignorant / didn't give a damn code enforcement employees. But I don't recall a single request for a bribe.

Maybe the actual owner of the projects handled that in private. Or maybe it didn't happen.
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Build It
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In reply to AgLA06 • 3:13p, 4/10/24
AG
Not sure how Kathy Whitmire cleaned it up but she did. It's lasted a long time. Since cell phones can record someone so easily it would be hard for an Inspector to get away with it now.

The cabal that runs the COH now is based purely on racial lines. There are bigger paydays available than a case of whisky or a few hundred bucks in an envelope.

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Ryan the Temp
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9:27p, 4/10/24
AG
As much as there's no love lost for me when it comes to Houston Public Works, the idea that it is rife with corruption and bribe-taking is a myth. There will always be isolated incidents, even incidents involving huge sums of money (as we saw recently), but by and large 99.9% of the employees are not on the take.
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Build It
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In reply to Ryan the Temp • 9:40p, 4/10/24
AG
Agreed, I've never heard of it since the 90's.

But who could forget Ben Reyes, the Port Commisioner, and a few council members in the mid 90's who got caught in an FBI sting. Ben did 20 years I think. All over a hotel construction approval.
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Diggity
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10:01p, 4/10/24
AG
Your narrative seems to be changing on an hourly basis
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Jason_InfinityRoofer
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In reply to CDUB98 • 9:12a, 4/11/24
CDUB98 said:
If you're waiting on a building permit, you might as well just find a different job. Those people give no ****s.
HAHAHA....I applied for a roofing permit first week of March, and received it the second week of April. Not even kidding. It's a piece of paper that requires nothing more than a signature. A MONTH. It's the worst system I have ever used and getting in touch with someone who isn't apathetic is a task. I wish Ron Swanson worked in every department. He DGAF, but it was for the right reasons, the people working there now just DGAF at all.

It took over a month to get a finished roof 'approved' through the city because it had to go to the FLOODPLAIN planning. There were 3 departments it had to go through. It was nuts.

I am in full support of permits, but they need to be administered properly and serve their intended purpose. For most jurisdictions, they do neither.
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AgLA06
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In reply to Jason_InfinityRoofer • 9:26a, 4/11/24
AG
It went through floodplame to make sure it isn't a house that isn't supposed to be repaired.

This isn't college station. A month isn't exactly a long wait for any permit in the largest cities in the nation. As someone who's done projects in other top 10 largest cities, perspective might be off.

Hell, in many smaller cities your waiting a month for the permit group just to meet (work) to approve it.
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Martin Q. Blank
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In reply to Jason_InfinityRoofer • 9:29a, 4/11/24

Quote:
but they need to be administered properly and serve their intended purpose.
We're talking about the government, right?
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Diggity
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10:50a, 4/11/24
AG
I didn't even know roofing permits were a thing. Guess I've been hiring shady people.
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Bondag
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3:32p, 4/13/24
AG
One of Sylvester's buddies went around town right after he was elected. His pitch was to add 3% to dollar value and we would get project. The contracts would go through his name but he was not liable for anything and didn't do anything and we would have to write the contracts.

Then Harvey hit and we didn't hear from him again.
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