Not a one...

Ostensibly, the idea behind a Board of Directors is to have a diverse group of independent thinkers whose competing thoughts hedge against the tendency of any sizable organization to group-think and to keep things from running off the rails into multiple cars, pedestrians and bu....Wait, wrong organization....sorry.

Except when polling for a majority on trivial matters, a unanimous board vote in the private sector is something seen with less frequency than a Democrat who understands the concept of the opportunity cost of deficits or a Republican who thinks the Government occasionally gets things right.

With this in mind, I present to you Exhibit "A" in the case of what's wrong with Government done "The Houston Way"....

(Harris County-Sports Authority gives green light to Dynamo East End stadium, Ford Gunter, Houston Business Journal, 03/25/2010 2:49pm CDT)

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority unanimously approved moving forward with the East End stadium for the Houston Dynamo Thursday in a 10-0 vote.

With apologies to Lyndon Johnson "When 10 people in politics agree, one person is telling them what to think."

That's not to say the HCSA overseeing stadium construction is a bad thing, given their experience building stadiums with taxpayer money it's probably a pretty good idea. (Granted, you want to keep them far away from urban development around the stadiums AFTER the fact, something Houston just can't seem to get right.) A better idea would have been to abolish the HCSA a few years ago but, since they're still hanging around.....

But you grab any 10 people off the street and ask them whether or not they think the Dynamo Stadium is a good idea and I'll guarantee you at least one of them would say no.* This suggests that the board of directors for the HCSA is not as diverse as it would like to be. It also suggests that quasi-public organizations in Houston aren't giving the expenditure of Houston taxpayer dollars a real, old-fashioned double-scoop of due diligence.

I don't care what your political philosophy that last suggestion should scare the hell out of you.







*Conversely, if you asked 10 smart-growth proponents they would say it's a swell idea, 10 conservatives would probably all say it's a bad idea, 10 Dynamo fans, a good idea. The problem with that theory is that you're biasing your sample pool, just as the HCSA board has been biased.