Comets Never Compensated Her?

Updated August 12, 2:45pm --
From the Comets: It is the policy of the Houston Comets to not discuss personnel matters publicly.

Note: The Houston Comets have been contacted for comment on the assertions made below. In order to be fair and accurate to both sides, if Mr. Hilton Koch and / or the organization responds, I'll post those comments as well.


With the 63 to 60 loss to the San Antonio Silver Stars Saturday night, the Houston Comets were officially eliminated from the 2007 WNBA playoffs. The Comets will miss the playoffs for only the second time in the 11-year history of the franchise.

Missing the playoffs in his first season of owning the Comets is something new owner Hilton Koch most assuredly did not expect. However, Mr. Koch may now have time to focus on a potentially major off the court issue.

Ms. Paige Mann has claimed she worked for the Comets' organization for months; but, unlike other Comets' employees she was never compensated for her work.

Below are her comments to questions from the HRR:

HRR: Did you have a role working with Hilton Koch and the Houston Comets? If so, describe your role. When did you have this role and are you still working with the Comets?

Paige: I began actual discussions with Darryl Linden ("From Mentor to Out") regarding my role with the 2007 Houston Comets in early November 2006. While we did not actually"name" my position at the time, it was to be a Basketball Ops./Asst. to GM role. We discussed salary, job expectations, and things I could begin to setup before the actual sale took place (preliminary travel arrangements, housing, transportation, etc). Approximately 2 weeks later, I agreed to take a 13% pay cut from the original amount offered to me in order to make room for other staff salaries. I accepted this offer on November 13, 2006, and agreed to start as soon as the sale went through.

In January, 2007, myself and Darryl Linden had meetings and teleconferences with various Comets and WNBA staff members including Andrea Young, President & CEO of the Comets, and Jamin Derschowitz, lead counsel for the WNBA, regarding player contracts, player movement, collective bargaining agreement, etc. During this time we made qualifying offers to a number of players and terminated the contracts of others. I had copies of many confidential files, manuals, etc. for the Houston Comets & the WNBA.

I continued to work in a Basketball Operations mode while confirming uniform and footwear orders; made tentative hotel and flight reservations for the entire season (at a savings of over $40k from the 2006 season); made site visits to possible new office spaces for Comets staff; continued to study the rather lengthy WNBA Instruction Manual;, worked with Darryl Linden and other league coaches to setup pre-season games, etc.

I attended day long transition meetings on January 17-18 with Darryl Linden, Paula Hanson (Sr. VP of WNBA Team Business Development), Tad Brown (CEO of Houston Rockets), Hilton Koch, Paola Furber (Furber Advertising) and April Sanders (Comets Tickets Sales and Service Manager.)

The press conference to announce the sale of the Houston Comets was set up and finalized at this time. I was called out to Hilton Koch's furniture store by Hilton Koch late on the afternoon of January 28 for an impromptu meeting with Hilton, Darryl Linden, Jill Costanza, Kyle Simpson, April Sanders, and Paola Furber to discuss every one's respective roles within the team structure and every one's roles in the upcoming press conference.

I was actively involved in both the press conference to announce the sale of the team and to announce a new head coach.

At Hilton Koch's and Darryl Linden's direction, I purchased and set up a website and email accounts for new staff members on February 3, 2007. I met with Joel Blank on several occasions to set up preliminary television broadcast dates for the 2007 season. I continued to act as a Houston Comets Basketball Operations employee and was physically present at the Toyota Center every working day until February 23.

HRR: Would you care to elaborate on what caused your departure from the organization and has it been resolved?

Paige: I am no longer working with the Comets for one simple reason: I was never compensated in ANY way for the time that I worked for the organization. WNBA representatives were aware that I had not received any compensation as their transition team had been in place in our offices from the time the press conference announcing the sale took place on January 31, 2007.

ALL ticket sales and services staff were receiving their paychecks as they had before the sale of the team. I expressed my concerns about this on several occasions and actually met face to face with Hilton on February 20, as he was on his way to attend the Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras Parade in Galveston with several staff members. I was told at that time that I would have "a check for my back pay by noon tomorrow" and that "we need to get you on the insurance plan right away." Neither of these things ever materialized.

I met with Katherine McConnell, acting COO of the Houston Comets on February 22, 2007, to express my disappointment over how the situation was being handled. Miss McConnell knew that I had not received any compensation up to this point as I had to arrive late two weeks prior to this in order to make some arrangements with my bank to transfer some of my funds into another account. She assured me she would look into it and asked if I would be open to accepting another position within the organization if need be. I said I would certainly consider that. The media relations position was discussed. I let her know that I would not be back in the office until my situation was resolved. I was again told that "a check for my back pay"would be ready and waiting for me at the Season Ticket Holder Crawfish Boil that took place at Hilton Furniture on February 27, 2007. Upon arriving at the event, I was told that Hilton HAD the check but that he had "spelled my name incorrectly" but that he would "fix it right away and take care of me."

On March 1, 2007, I received a phone call from Mike Fuerst, a lawyer for Hilton Koch, requesting a meeting with me. I met with him on March 6, 2007, and he presented me with, and asked me to sign, a document stating that I had never worked for the Houston Comets or for Hilton Acquisitions but that I had served as a consultant during that time. Mr Fuerst stated that if I signed the agreement that day he had a check for me in his office that he would release to me.

I was uncomfortable with signing a statement that clearly was not true. I chose to hire my own legal counsel, Scott Newar, and try to reach some sort of agreement.

As of today, I have not received ANY compensation for my work at the Houston Comets.