BIKE: Nothing as crooked as Texas road politics

[Roger Baker]

[First Rick Perry and TxDOT publicly approve the $7.2 billion toll road 
deal lobbied by Rick Perry's newly hired aide -- and only afterwards do 
they work out the key details. It looks like this thing is fixing to 
come unraveled, especially since the recent Time Magazine article 
revealed just how sleazy Texas road politics are. Here is some 
background on CINTRA deals from another list and then today's Dallas 
Morning News article. -- Roger]

When politicians sell out citizens, you get Highway 407
An arbitrator says Ontario highway operator can charge any tolls it 
likes
http://www.nupge.ca/news_2004/n11jy04b.htm


IS CINTRA A GOOD PRIVATE PARTNER?

A lot of people and officials in Canada don’t think so. Just last month 
the
Brampton Guardian reported on list of nightmare problems with tolls on 
their
407 ETR toll road. The Minister of Finance says fixing the problems 
isn’t
easy because of the “air-tight contract” negotiated by the previous 
Ontario
government. He also remarked that under the 99-year lease, 407 Group
(Cintra) is “all but exempt from paying property taxes.” He also 
remarks,
“the Ontario government is severely limited in its power to change
anything.” “The lease, he added, also gives the company tremendous 
power to
increase tolls and administrative charges, provided it satisfies certain
conditions.”

Will Texas come to regret our CDA, our own "air-tight contract?"

The Canadian experience also demonstrates that the goal of taking truck
traffic off the parallel route and relieving congestion has failed. The
Ontario official says that trucks are not using the toll road because 
it has
the highest truck tolls in North America!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1306152/posts


                   
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12/31/04

Account of aide's role at Cintra contradicted.

Before joining Perry, lobbyist met TxDOT officials several times

By PETE SLOVERand TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News

  AUSTIN – A former lobbyist who is now a top adviser to Gov. Rick Perry 
met at least five times with state transportation officials on behalf 
of a Spanish construction company months before it won a multibillion 
dollar road deal, state records show.

  Those documents contradict the previous account of state 
Transportation Commission chairman and Perry appointee Ric Williamson, 
who said he recalled only one instance in which Dan Shelley had visited 
the department on behalf of Cintra.

  Mr. Shelley, the governor's legislative director, declined to comment 
on the meetings. A spokesman for Mr. Perry said that Mr. Shelley's 
activities did not constitute lobbying, and he reiterated that Mr. 
Shelley and the rest of the governor's staff had no role in the 
awarding of the $7.2 billion contract.

  Mr. Williamson said Thursday that he'd had just one meeting with Mr. 
Shelley, while the other meetings were with Transportation Department 
staffers.

  The question of whether Mr. Shelley's activities amounted to lobbying 
is unclear. He has never registered as a lobbyist for Cintra, which 
state law can require for those seeking specific actions from state 
officials on someone else's behalf.

  Mr. Shelley began consulting for Cintra a year ago, working on a 
contingency that paid him solely based on how much business Cintra 
secured in Texas, the governor's office said. Contingency fees are 
banned for most lobbying contracts, with some exceptions.

  Upon joining the governor's office as staff liaison to the Legislature 
in September, he gave up any right to that fee – which would have been 
paid upon the eventual signing of the contract, the governor's staff 
said. The governor's aides said they did not know the amount of the 
fee.

  Robert Black, the Perry spokesman, said that the meetings – documented 
in visitor sign-in sheets for the Transportation Department's Austin 
headquarters – do not alter the governor's support of Mr. Shelley.

  "Dan's role in these meetings was to introduce Cintra to TxDOT and to 
get out of the way and let them talk," said Perry spokesman Robert 
Black. "These meetings were informational only. ... There was no lobby 
effort made."

  "Cintra had hired Dan not specifically for any project, but to 
determine if there were business opportunities in the state," Mr. Black 
said, adding that Mr. Shelley also talked to local officials in Dallas 
and Houston on behalf of the company.

Corridor project

  The Trans-Texas Corridor is the cornerstone of Mr. Perry's 
transportation policy, overseen by a five-member board he selected.

  "I don't think anyone from any of the three bidders had undue 
influence," said Mr. Williamson, a longtime friend of the governor. "In 
the end, they were all graded on how much money would have to come from 
the state and when they could start construction."

  Mr. Williamson said his meeting with Mr. Shelley occurred late last 
year. The visitor logs show that since then, Mr. Shelley met with 
Transportation Commission staff five times, for a total of six hours 
between January and June. The logs did not include some meetings 
described by participants that occurred at outlying buildings.

  The logs indicate that for all but 35 minutes of the six hours, no 
competing bidders were present. Cintra executives accompanied Mr. 
Shelley on all of his visits but one, a five-minute stop that fit the 
description the governor's office gave of a time when Mr. Shelley 
picked up a package for delivery to Cintra officials in Spain.

  Records of meetings between Transportation Department officials and 
bidders for the corridor contract were not available late Thursday, but 
a department spokeswoman said that each of the three finalists had 
about a dozen sessions with department staff about their proposals for 
the Trans-Texas Corridor.

  "Mr. Shelley's role was no role," said spokeswoman Gaby Garcia. "He 
was just another player and another member of the Cintra team."

Sitting quietly in corner

  She added that Transportation Department officials at the meetings 
said Mr. Shelley did nothing more than sit in a corner quietly during 
the discussions.
  Mr. Williamson said the one meeting he had with Mr. Shelley did not 
appear designed to affect the road pick.

  "He didn't have four to five meetings with me," said Mr. Williamson, 
who distinguished between meetings Mr. Shelley had with department 
staff – who recommended Cintra – and the final decision-makers on the 
Texas Transportation Commission. "We erect a wall between the 
department staff and us. We have no idea who comes and who goes. And to 
tell you the truth, I don't want to know."

  Mr. Shelley's work with Cintra also extended to at least one meeting 
with North Texas transportation officials. Representatives of the three 
competitors met Feb. 26 with Michael Morris, transportation director of 
the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and Mr. Shelley signed 
in as the sole representative of Cintra.

  Mr. Morris said he sought the meeting so that the bidders would 
understand the region's concerns about the corridor's path. Mr. Shelley 
handed a copy of a presentation to Mr. Morris, but that was the extent 
of their direct contact.

  "No one was really lobbying us," Mr. Morris said. "He had a 
presentation, but it's hard for me to conclude that was lobbying."

  The general counsel of the Texas Ethics Commission would only discuss 
the issue hypothetically. But given the circumstances in this case, 
such activities could fall outside the technical requirements for lobby 
registration, in part because they cover "a purchasing decision."

  Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen, whose watchdog organization 
advocates for tougher lobbying regulations, said such legalities can 
obscure the obvious benefit of contact with state officials.

  "Lobbying is not only promoting a particular piece of legislation or 
contract," Mr. Smith said. "It's opening doors."

  E-mail pslover
  and thartzel
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