The "rich experience" of METRO's Frank J. Wilson
If you've nothing else to do Thursday morning, you can go hear METRO President Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson talk about the future of mobility:
Frank Wilson, our March guest, will speak about the upcoming plans METRO has to take Houston into the next decade. With METRO making headlines throughout the entire City of Houston, the Starbucks Breakfast Speaker Series is a great time to get the information straight from the top. With rich experience in both the public and private sectors, Mr. Wilson will describe how commuting to Downtown Houston and mobility for the entire region will be transformed by infrastructure investments that go beyond rail and bus.
As Houston continues its dramatic growth, how can mobility improve without adding more lanes of roadway and worsening air pollution? Answers to these questions and others about METRO’s $2 billion expansion program will be addressed.
Houston Downtown Alliance invites all to submit questions to Mr. Wilson at downtownhouston.org.
The actual email address to submit questions is: [email protected]
As for the first bolded part, that's pretty interesting wording: "rich experience in the public and private sectors." Let's take a look back at Wilson's "rich experience" in the public sector:
[...]the Commission found that the procurement unfolded against the backdrop of events and circumstances that evidence the taint of multiple conflicts of interest. On one level, then-NJDOT Commissioner Frank J. Wilson engaged in private-sector employment discussions with companies doing business with the state, including two with corporate links to the procurement, one of which hired Wilson. Though he signed a letter purportedly recusing himself from the procurement process at the time, an examination of the full record suggests he violated the terms of that recusal at a critical stage in the vendor-selection process.
And let's recall Wilson's "rich experience" at hiring cronies to well-paying consultant positions:
Mr. Wilson stipulated in the contract he awarded to Mr. Russo that he would make $1 million over the first two years of his employment with Metro, at a rate of $300 per hour. The contract was amended this past April, where Mr. Wilson bumped up Russo's pay by $10 per hour and increased the contract ceiling to $1.1 million.
So what have Mr. Wilson and Mr. Russo done to earn such pay? Mr. Wilson and Mr. Russo have been together for a very long time, indeed Mr. Russo has been following Mr. Wilson around even before the people up in New Jersey salted them up before sending them down to Houston, much as Mr. Wilson's predecessor Shirley Delibero was before him.
So, by all means, soak up Wilson's "rich experience" as he talks about "investments that go beyond bus and rail." He knows of what he speaks!
RELATED: METRO CEO to Speak at Starbucks Breakfast Series (METRO's blog)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/17/08 06:47 PM | Print |
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