Highlights and [bracketed comments] added

A succession of homeowner horror stories today at a House subcommittee considering legislation to abolish the state agency created at the behest of Houston homebuilder Bob Perry. Critics say the agency is designed to frustrate homeowners who have defective houses. They say the Texas Residential Construction Commmission is an expensive, time-consuming hurdle homeowners must jump before taking their disputes to arbitration or the courts.

That was the message today by Mansfield homeowner Bob Cull. He and wife Jane have been in a decade-long legal battle against the billionaire homebuilder. They won an arbitration award, but Perry refused to pay it -- and they've been in court ever since. The Culls were featured last weekend in an NPR two-part program about Bob Perry and his sizeable campaign contributions to the governor, the Texas Supreme Court and the Legislature - all of which have acted in his favor. Perry himself was in the Capitol on Monday, meeting with lawmakers. Perry spokesman Anthony Holm says the Houston homebuilder supports politicians and judges who are doing a good job.

[HOT: Bob Perry is known to be intensely media-shy, so it's interesting to find him at the Capitol just one day after a damning NPR broadcast on 3/29 and one day before the TRCC hearings. We would have loved to have been a "fly on the wall" in those meetings, learning what to expect next.

A companion NPR report on  3/28 said Bob Perry contributed more than $21M since 2006 to political candidates and judges, including all 9 the Texas Supreme Court justices. That ties to a  May'08 article by Wayne Slater, which said the Cull's case was overturned by the Texas Supreme Court. Isn't c onnecting the dots fun?

Our consumer advocacy and testimonies from angry homeowners are having a profound effect on news coverage, and the fact that the builder community is responding is a good sign that we're on the right track. ] 

In testimony presented to the House committee, Bob Cull said after Perry lost the arbitration award, he had the Legislature create the business-friendly Texas Residential Construction Commission: "Birthing the TRCC did nothing but give homebuilders a gatekeeper to control access and flow of complaints" against builders.

Texas Association of Builders executive director Scott Norman said his group supports tweaking the agency, but not abolishing it. He said the TRCC is doing a good job resolving homebuilder-homeowner disputes.

By Wayne Slater, Reporter, Dallas Morning-News (wslater@dallasnews.com), 03/31/2009
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/03/homeowners-denounce-bob-perry-.html

Reader Comments

Posted by john cobarruvias
Scott Norman is paid by the Texas Association of Builders. Him saying the TRCC is going a good job is like Osama Bin Ladin saying George Bush was doing a good job with homeland security. Neither represents the interests they claim to be representing.

If Norman wants to talk about how great the TRCC is for the building industry, knock yourself out, but dont talk on behalf of the consumers. Norman represents the builders and not consumers.

Posted by The Obamination
I agree with john. It's almost like ANYBODY saying that Obama is doing a good job or even has a clue!!! Just Ridiculous!

Posted by John Cobarruvias
good come back, but the point is, Can you really trust a home builder to fix the Bob Perry Residential Construction Commission? PRCC

It is like:
* Trusting Osama Bin Ladin to fix Homeland Security.
* Trusting a sex offender to baby sit your kids. 
* Trusting an alchoholic to guard your liquor cabinet.
* Trusting a cat to guard your birds.
* Trusting Joe the plumber to fix your plumbing. [He wasn't a licensed plumber.]
* Trusting Sarah Palin to teach sex education.
* Trusting Tom DeLay with the Texas Ethics Commission.

[John's analogies are the basis for cartoons featured on our home page. Thanks, John.]