A billion dollar mystery...where is Frank Wilson?

Courtesy of Barry Klein

A dozen Metro critics went to Houston city council on Tuesday. Among them was Richmond Avenue businessman Paul Magaziner who brought city council two letters from the Federal Transit Administration that show Metro has deceived Houstonians about the cost of light rail extensions in two corridors, the North and the Southeast.

Metro told local taxpayers and voters on March 4 that the North line would cost $387 million and the Southeast line would cost $441 million. 19 days later on March 23, however, The Federal Transit Administration released letters indicating that Metro had told the FTA that the cost would be $786 million for the North line and $911 million for the Southeast line. That is a difference of $979 million... a difference of roughly a billion dollars.

Mayor White responded by saying that the points raised deserve "an appropriate response." Along that line, Channel 11 had been trying to interview the president of Metro, Frank Wilson, for two days but he won't make himself available.

Here is a link to the newsstory that played on Channel 11. An interesting aspect of this development is that the Houston Chronicle has not brought this news to its readers even though the story first broke three days ago.