I sure believe it having done some building planning there and a lot of consulting.

 

I inspected the Houston Grand Opera back about 10 years ago, and they had not one word of OSHA programs written, had never trained anyone on anything ever including rigging and stage electrical work, and they had no written safety procedures or programs.   It was an HR person who brought me in. She was new to theater, had worked in industry and knew immediately something was wrong.  The last thing I said to her was, they are going to kill someone here.   Exactly 30 days later she called and they had.  And it was a friend of mine, someone who had stage managed several productions I was in in NYC back in my performing days.  I called the TX OSHA and told them I'd share any information with them about conditions and I made it clear on the phone that all they would have to do is ask the Opera to see ANY written program or training records and they would find none.   OSHA never even cited the Opera.  That's just how it's done in Texas. 

 

And they are proud of it. Note in the article you sent how convivial people were in court with this guy.  And all they did was act solemn after the judge's sentence. And the judge will go easy, the guy will be out in a fraction of the sentence, and those good old boys will still be his buddies.  The Texas business community will all rally around and get him up on his feet and he'll be back to business as usual in a few years.  Trust me.  It is only the workers and their families who suffer.

 

The reason the rest of the boys will help him, is most of the employers in the state could be in the same trouble if one of their workers' deaths came to the attention of the authorities in a way that was not easy to deflect. And this guy was in waste disposal, something they think it a dumb federal government intrusion on the right to do business.  The other men would expect the same help if it happened to them.

-----Original Message-----
From: Debbie M. Decker <dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**UCDAVIS.EDU>
To: DCHAS-L <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU>
Sent: Mon, May 13, 2013 3:56 pm
Subject: [DCHAS-L] CSB video from West, TX explosion