Parker shuts down councilmembers' accounts

What, you may be asking yourself, is going on with the City Hall bonus scandal these days? The investigation into government spending is continuing, and it keeps turning up interesting things like news about City Controller Annise Parker shutting down 11 special bank accounts set up by City Council members. Parker said she shut down the accounts, which held donations that councilmembers used to fund special events, to avoid any inadvertent violations of city law or campaign finance rules.

"We don't have any evidence that there was anything illegal or necessarily improper in the creation of the accounts, but they clearly were not a good idea, and the potential for abuse was there," Parker said. "It was a very informal process. It was very sloppy."

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"You can give money to the city of Houston but in order to expend that money, it takes some formal action by City Council; there has to be some appropriation," she said. "None of that was taking place with these balance sheet accounts."

The largest account, with $9,000, was set up by M.J. Khan to pay for an annual Ramadan dinner; the rest of the accounts held less than $700 each. The city is trying to figure out what to do with the money from the accounts — it could be spent as intended if Council approves the expenditures, or it could be put in the city's general fund.