Houston mayoral candidate Bill King has announced a "Seven-Point Ethics Reform and Transparency Plan" he'd put in place—if elected—to prevent corruption and increase transparency within Houston city government.
King's city ethics reform plan would create a truly independent office of inspector general, expand access to public information, bring fairness back to the contracting/bidding process and increase budgeting/spending accountability. The plan also includes support for the pay-to-play petition and its proposed new limits on campaign donations from those who do business with or are regulated by the city.
"The reason we have ethical rules is because they have consequences on public policy. All these things effect how much money we spend on say like infrastructure improvements," said King. "These are safeguards that will improve public policy for the city of Houston, especially having money to spend on things like streets and drainage, more police officers."
He said taxpayers need to know rules are in place to assure officials are acting ethically.