10/8/06
Travis County District Attorney’s Office
314 W. 11th St.
Austin, TX 78701
Public Integrity Unit,
This is a formal request for your office to investigate Senator Kirk Watson, chair of Capitol Area Metropolitan Organization Planning Organization (CAMPO) for numerous conflicts of interest, and violations of the law.
Roads and development go hand in hand, soon after Sen. Kirk Watson became Chair of CAMPO in 2007, an organization that directs billions of road dollars in Central Texas, City of Austin records show Watson was put on the payroll of developers who profit from
important transportation decisions:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/cityclerk/lobbyist/detail_clients.cfm?id=69
Watson is now pushing an unpopular plan to shift our freeways to toll ways using $910 million tax dollars (see attached). Developers see the double tax tolls as an eternal slush fund to pay for more roads to their cheap land.
The 2006 Austin Chamber of Commerce annual report, reveals that Sen. Kirk Watson individually, and his law firm both contributed money to the pro toll Chamber. see page 23: www.austinchamber.com/WhatsNew/2006OAAnnualReport.pdf
A signed letters of agreement by Sen. Kirk Watson, as partner of law firm Hughes & Luce, and the City of Austin show Watson billing the city at a rate of $450 per hour for representation on land deals with developers. Over $420,000 has been paid to Watson’s law firm, by the City of Austin in the last two years. (see attached)
How can Sen. Watson fairly represent the people while benefiting from so many seats at the table?
On 9/12/07 Watson sent emails to CAMPO Board members offering them free tickets/gifts to his campaign fundraiser. (see attached)
Also, the constitution states there must be a “separation of powers between the legislative and executive branch”, therefore, the legislative Senator Watson cannot sit on CAMPO’s executive board. Only City and County officials are allowed to sit on the CAMPO board.
Sincerely,
Sal Costello
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment