Item one: We have another candidate for Comptroller.
Jew Don Boney
Jew Don Boney, who sat on City Council for three terms in the 1990′s, will run for City Controller, he told the Chronicle Wednesday.
Boney joins Houston Community College trustee Carroll Robinson and 2013 candidate Bill Frazer in the race for the city’s top financial officer. Two other candidates, current Deputy Controller Chris Brown and METRO board member Dwight Jefferson, are seriously considering joining the race, but have not yet done so.
Currently an administrator at Texas Southern University, Boney served as mayor pro-tem under Mayor Lee Brown and represented District D, a predominantly African-American district. Boney lost to Robinson in a testy election for the seat on HCC’s board in 2011.
Here’s the interview I did with Boney for that 2011 HCC Trustee race. He was my Council member for about two years when I lived in Montrose. I liked him them and am glad to see him get in this race. This is the first time I’ve seen the name Chris Brown listed as a possible candidate. I’d heard his name mentioned before but had confused him with former Council Member and Mayoral candidate Peter Brown. Let there be a big field for this race. It would be nice to have a spirited debate about the Controller’s office and duties.
Item two: Chris Bell fires another shot in his campaign finance battle.
Mayoral candidate Chris Bell filed a formal complaint to the Houston Ethics Commission on Wednesday charging that former City Attorney David Feldman overstepped his authority when he granted permission to Rep. Sylvester Turner to raise money for his mayoral bid when other candidates couldn’t.
In a six-page complaint, Bell’s attorney, Geoffrey Berg, argued that the City Attorney is only allowed to advise city officeholders, which Turner is not. That was a key point of contention in court last month: Feldman replied that since he advised the Houston Ethics Commission — a board that Berg said should interpret campaign finance law for mayoral candidates — he effectively could advise Turner directly.
“I received a simple email from Sylvester Turner,” Feldman said as he defended himself in court last month. “I responded with an answer. We do serve our citizens, whether they happen to be state representatives or not.”
[…]
In Wednesday’s complaint, Berg reiterates much of the case he has made in court for months, arguing that the legislative history of the city’s campaign finance law makes clear that Turner’s strategy violates it. Berg also responds to the City’s argument, central to its case, that a January federal court decision that declared Houston’s blackout period unconstitutional renders Bell’s grievance obsolete.
“Mr. Feldman is wrong. The contribution cap reflected in the Ordinance is in no way dependent on the constitutionality of the blackout period,” Berg wrote.
See here, here, and here for the background. Another lawsuit from Bell on this issue remains a possibility. I don’t have anything else to add to this.