Texas Residential Construction Commission Schedules Seminar in Houston
May 25, 2005
Texas Residential Construction Commission Denies Media Access to Public Seminar in Houston
 May 26, 2005   Houston - The Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) Thursday evening denied access to the media during a public seminar held at the Marriott Sugar Land Town Square.  Chaos broke out after the only attending TRCC Commissioner Scott Porter left early and Debra Ellis, a department lecturer for Texas A&M asked Channel 13 to leave.  Ellis who is a risk management attorney told the media they would not be allowed inside. 

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Texas Residential Construction Commission Denies Media Access to Public Seminar in Houston

Houston – The Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) Thursday evening denied access to the media during a public seminar held at the Marriott Sugar Land Town Square.

Chaos broke out after the only attending TRCC Commissioner Scott Porter left early and Debra Ellis, a department lecturer for Texas A&M asked Channel 13 to leave.  Ellis who is a risk management attorney told the media they would not be allow inside. 
           Ellis and Joe Horlen, A&M assistant professor who also specializes in business risk management, are both in the A&M Construction Science Department.  The two were co-principal investigators for a TRCC, $40,000 grant project, which was responsible for creating the widely criticized drafts and less stringent recommendations that were eventually adopted by the builder dominated TRCC as the State Building Performance Standards and Statutory Limited Warranty.  See report: Standards tarnishing the image of a fine University.

 “When the media is not allowed in a taxpayer funded public meeting that speaks volumes,” said distressed homeowner Jordan Fogal.  “Our only voice is silenced and we remain invisible and our problems go unheard.”

TRCC has been holding public meetings throughout Texas to promote the agency and inform new homebuyers of the mandatory state process, which is supposed to keep homeowners out of litigation by resolving construction defects in new homes. The $3.25 million state agency was created by the homebuilding industry to administer a process that regulates the way the consumer files a complaint against a builder. 

 During the recent legislative session, TRCC come under fire from its original sponsor, Senator Robert Duncan, of Lubbock who expressed disappointment with the commission and the lack of authority to take action against problem builders.

 “I think the concern I had about this act in the beginning was the fact that it appeared to be to the public a regulatory body, when in fact the people who are being regulated by the act are the consumers…  When I saw there was such resistance to giving the agency more ability to deal with problem builders who cheat people, who build poor homes and give the industry a bad name, that kind of bothered me,” remarked Duncan.