Alan Benson, The Woodlands Fire Department’s (WFD) fire chief is currently using resident’s assessment fees to pay for his own personal golf outings.
Documents show the residents of The Woodlands have subsidized the chief’s golf for the amount of nearly $9,000 in the last two years. Documents also show that some of the golf outings are occurring on normal business days during normal work hours. Just think, using the average homeowner’s yearly assessment payment, nine homeowners could pay their entire yearly assessment dues with the resident provided money The Woodlands fire chief has spent on golf.
One might wonder why the fire chief gets a perk such as this? We do not believe that the fire chief had this resident provided golfing privilege when he was originally hired in January of 2005. In mid 2005 the fire chief and Monique Sharp served as dual General Managers after the then current General Manager, Sherman Yehl, was run out of town. Apparently, the Woodlands Community Association (WCA) board members, and possibly other property owner’s association board members, had approved a golfing package for the General Manager’s position. Therefore, while the fire chief was acting co General Manager he had access to the golf package. When the new general manager (Don Norrell) was hired, and the fire chief and Ms. Sharp were relegated to their old positions, the fire chief possibly no longer had access to the golf package. Sources tell us the possibility of losing access to resident provided golf did not sit well with the fire chief. The fire chief apparently complained that he had a right to milk the residents for golfing privileges. Someone either agreed with him or lacked the courage to say no and his resident provided golfing privileges were either reinstated or not revoked. Remember, Bruce Tough is president of The Woodlands Fire Department Board of Directors and Joel Deretchin is vice president. Certainly these two leaders of The Woodlands Fire Department are aware of this perk.
While the fire chief is wasting resident’s money and time for his own golfing pleasure, the Woodlands Community Service Corporation (WCSC), led by Don Norrell, is wasting resident’s money trying to prevent the release of his golfing records.
When asked for the records for 2006 using a standard Public Information Request, we received this response which is an obvious stall tactic. Similar results occurred when the same information was requested for 2005 and 2007.
The response claims that, “[t]he Woodlands Fire Department Inc. does not pay for any “transactions related to golfing” for Chief Alan Benson.” The very next sentence in the letter states, “[o]nly monthly membership dues for Clubs of The Woodlands on behalf of the Fire Chief are paid…” Remember that up until just recently, Clubs of The Woodlands (aka the golf courses in The Woodlands) were owned by the Developer. Therefore, this is another example of resident’s money flowing back to the Developer.
Since when are paying dues for a golf membership not considered a transaction relating to golf? Only individuals attempting to hide information would not consider golf membership dues a “transaction relating to golf.” The last sentence of the letter says that if I want the invoices that I should send in a request. Just to recap; a request is sent asking for golf related expenses including all itemized bills, receipts, invoices, and statements. The response to the request tells me if I want the information to send in a request?
It is obvious that even though Ms. Sharp, as a representative of the WFD, has argued to the Attorney General that the WFD does not engage in semantic antics, they clearly are doing just that in this letter.
Instead of sending another request on this matter, I think a complaint to the Attorney General is in order.
Related Information
Chief Benson Golf Expenses - October 06
Original Request for Golf Expenses - Benson
Response to Request for Golf Expenses - 2006 Benson
