Consultant claims city and county agencies have secret dome deal

“The amount of things that the city and the county are trying to keep secret from the public is growing every day,” said consultant Wayne Dolcefino.

While the County Judge and city officials adamantly deny a secret dome deal they sure seem to be spending a lot of time and resources on keeping Dolcefino in the dark.

He’s got two tax funded agencies in his cross hairs.

One is Houston First Corporation which he describes as the city’s tourist agency on steroids.

“They own the convention center they run all the museums, theaters,” Dolcefino said.

The second is the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation.

“Your tax money on one side your tax money on the other side,” said Dolcefino.

Dolcefino claims the city and county agencies are spending as much as 30 million dollars to help fund a deal to renovate the dome.

“They’re going to find a way to use that 30 million dollars in cash I’m told from Houston First as seed money to the Sports Corporation.” Dolcefino said.

A spokesperson for Houston First Corporation told us there’s no deal.

We heard the same thing from Judge Ed Emmett who in a statement says there have been preliminary talks with Houston First regarding its potential involvement in re-purposing the Astrodome but there is no deal and Houston First has not attended or been part of the Astrodome task force’s ongoing planning discussions.

But those denials don’t explain why the city and county agencies refuse to turn e-mails over to Dolcefino and are asking for a ruling from the attorney general’s office.

“All I’m asking for is tell us where the money is,” Dolcefino said. “Folks can judge for themselves if it’s a good deal.”