CINTRA'S INSIDE MAN - DAN SHELLEY

Cintra consultant turned Governor Perry's legislative aide, turned Cintra lobbyist. It's hard to keep up with who is working for who. Or is it?

Austin lobbyist Dan Shelley has been one of Governor Perry's aides and Cintra's inside men.

Shelley worked for Cintra making introductions to TxDOT just in time to see them get a winning proposal submitted for the Trans Texas Corridor. Then he worked for Governor Perry just in time to lobby the Legislature to protect and strengthen laws benefiting Cintra. Now he's back working for Cintra again planning all expense paid trips to Canada for TxDOT and Texas law makers.

The Dallas Morning News reports this morning, "Mr. Shelley resigned his state job in September and struck a lobbying deal with Cintra worth between $50,000 and $100,000 to work from March through the end of this year. In addition, his daughter and lobbying partner, Jennifer Shelley-Rodriguez, will earn between $25,000 and $50,000 from the company over the same period, state records show."

The four-day, three-night, trip to Canada would have put key Texas legislators and senior TxDOT officials together with Cintra well out of the view of Texans. CorridorWatch.org has learned that rooms were ready booked for the group at the luxurious Le Royal Meridien King Edward Hotel in Toronto.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the lawmakers invited by Cintra included Rep. Mike Krusee, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee and three members of the Senate committee that writes the state budget: Royce West of Dallas, John Whitmire of Houston, and Kim Brimer of Fort Worth. CorridorWatch.org has learned that an invitation was also extended to Sen. John Carona, new Chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

TxDOT had their bags packed too. Here's the list obtained by CorridorWatch.org: Mary Ann Griss (Aide to Chairman Ric Williamson); Steve Simmons (Deputy Director); James Bass (Director of Finance); Amadeo Saenz (Asst Executive Director for Engineering Operations); Jefferson Grimes (Manager State Legislative Affairs); John Munoz (Deputy Director of Finance); and, Jeremiah Kuntz (former policy analyst for Sen. Staples’ Senate Infrastructure Development and Security Committee, and now a TxDOT employee).

And don't forget the TxDOT TTC Citizen's Advisory Committee. While most members of the committee (including Linda Stall of CorridorWatch.org) were apparently unaware about the all-expense-paid trip to Canada, select members were indeed invited. Committee Chairwoman Judy Hawley and Vice Chairman Tim Brown were among the four members invited by Cintra according to Tim Brown when asked by Linda Stall at their Committee meeting last Wednesday. Mr. Brown is a Bell County Commissioner and also President of the North America's Super Corridor Coalition (NASCO).

"If there were a smell test, we would all need some serious gas masks," says David Stall, co-founder of CorridorWatch.org.

In their most recent comment filing CorridorWatch.org asks that the draft statement prepared by TxDOT for TTC-35 be found inadequate. CorridorWatch.org points to three specific reasons, including the suppression of critical environmental impact information and improper use of privileges to circumvent compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

TxDOT has used an agreement with Cintra Zachry LP to exclude any consideration of alternatives to the plan favored by Governor Perry. CorridorWatch.org believes that unless the FHWA takes action, alternative transportation plans such as that favored in North Texas will be improperly eliminated from meaningful consideration.

CorridorWatch.org notes that TxDOT has been in possession of a Conceptual Development Plan provided by Cintra Zachry LP more than a year ago. That plan addresses a range of anticipated effects, impacts and implications of the TTC-35 plan. This document has been central in a legal fight between the Attorney General who required that the agreement be made public and Cintra Zachry who was joined by TxDOT in bring legal action against the state to keep the contents secret.

CorridorWatch.org contends that disclosure of environmental impact information contained in the agreement is necessary and required for TxDOT to comply with NEPA regulations.

"Public officials and the general public have not been provided with the information they need to reach an informed decision on the TTC," says David Stall, co-founder of CorridorWatch.org. "It's a clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act," he said. "The Federal Highway Administration granted Texas special considerations to facilitate innovation and TxDOT used that privilege to circumvent broader regulations."

Stall says, "TxDOT has improperly limited the range of alternatives evaluated. All twelve of the alternatives presented in public meetings along the TTC-35 corridor are an identical grouping of facilities varied only by location. Accordingly, TxDOT has violated an agreement with the Federal Highway Administration to allow other alternatives to be equally evaluated."

Stall concludes, "Recent claims by TxDOT and politicians that the North Central Texas proposal is now being considered isn't of any value whatsoever if the review process continues to use criteria dictated by Cintra Zachry in their agreement with TxDOT."

NOTE: It is the position of CorridorWatch.org that the TTC is a flawed project that needs to be completely abandoned. However, within the framework of the DEIS it is important that other alternatives be fully included to demonstrate that there are other transportation improvements available that would better serve the public.

08.18.06 CorridorWatch.org PRESS RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE - CorridorWatch.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FAYETTEVILLE – Corridorwatch.org, a citizens group organized challenge the wisdom of the Trans Texas Corridor, has filed a formal complaint with the Federal Highway Administration in conjunction with the State's environmental impact study of TTC-35.

In a three-page letter sent to FHWA Administrator J. Richard Capka, CorridorWatch.org asks that the draft statement prepared by TxDOT for TTC-35 be found inadequate. CorridorWatch.org points to three specific reasons, including the suppression of critical environmental impact information and improper use of certain privileges to circumvent compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

According to CorridorWatch.org, TxDOT has used an agreement with Cintra Zachry LP to exclude any consideration of alternatives to the plan favored by Governor Perry. CorridorWatch.org believes that unless the FHWA takes action, alternative transportation plans such as that favored in North Texas will be improperly eliminated from meaningful consideration.

CorridorWatch.org contends that disclosure of environmental impact information contained in the agreement is necessary and required for TxDOT to comply with NEPA regulations.

# # #

Full text of the CorridorWatch.org letter to the FHWA can be found at:
http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/expand/20060817.htm

CorridorWatch.org is a not-for-profit non-political organization with members in 186 counties across Texas.

For more information see: www.CorridorWatch.org

David Stall
CorridorWatch.org
Challenging the Wisdom of the Trans-Texas Corridor

================

YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL obstructionist: David Stall!

Dave Stall --- Welcome to DaveStall.com a comprehensive look at the transportation industry from someone who has lived and worked in the industry for 30 years. Host of ENVIRONMENTAL RADIO

[CorridorWatch.org Files Comment and Complaint at NEPA Tier One TTC-35 DEIS Public Hearing During the July 27, 2006, Public Hearing in Dallas, Texas, David Stall presented oral comments and submitted written comments on behalf the members of ”CorridorWatch.org

Texas Environmental Grantmakers Group “David Stall of Corridor Watch, a 501[c][4] monitoring the Trans Texas Corridor project, began our discussion about transportation and environmental impacts. He explained that his background was in government, both as general manager of the cities of Nassau Bay, Columbus, and Shoreacres, and as a 4th generation public servant. With that experience, he considers the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) project to have little to do with transportation, nor with the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M, nor regional urban traffic planners. To Mr. Stall, the TTC seems to be a rather desperate effort by the Governor’s office to generate revenue……………”

******************

CorridorBotch.org, or David Stall-ed “It appears that as a political issue, the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) does not cut nearly the swath its opponents allege the asphalt itself will. For we find CorridorWatch.org (CW.org) founder David Stall falling pronouncedly flat in his bid to become District 18's state Senator. In a jurisdiction he has spent the last two years dousing with disinformation regarding just what the TTC will be, his attempts at grassroots movement failed to translate into grassroots support…………

According to their website, Stall's wife Linda founded CorridorWatch.org in February of 2004. Of course her beau had a hand therein, but because he was the City Manager of Columbus, Texas, at the time, the website leans heavily on her influence at the organization's inception.

David Stall's involvement in so political an institution as this quickly led to his dismissal from his city post. Columbus officials were also less than thrilled that Stall had registered CorridorWatch.org using the city's account. Oops.

The Stalls immediately began driving hours in any direction from their Fayetteville home to attend Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) meetings to disingenuously participate in the open forum process. As their disinformation spread, they began culling fellow travelers on the no-Road to Anywhere; we here know from first-hand accounts that either the Stalls or members of their growing circle of lubricious surrogates have fanned out across the state to pitch false information on the potential throughway.

If everything with which these CW.org miseducators, and their brethren in groups such as Texas Toll Party, have been frightening or angering these poor residents into intellectual submission were true, the TTC would be a slab of concrete spanning from Beaumont east to El Paso west, and pave the state in totality between San Antonio and Dallas.

Every town to which these people pay a visit is told that they are in dire danger of being diametrically bifurcated by the coming highway, no matter how far east or west they might be. To cite but one fraudulent example, residents of every single city, town and village along the Taylor-Manor corridor have been regaled with egregiously fabricated tales of municipalitive destruction and vociferous eminent domain pillaging.

The problem is, Corridor Watch et. al. are by no means allowing the facts to get in the way of a good beating. Every proposed path (and there are still at the very least three) currently under consideration places the TTC on the northern and southern ends of planned SH-130, which is a good fifteen miles west of the villes in question and in crisis over their alleged impending devastation.

That these Corridor clowns are asserting anything with certitude belies their veracity on all things, because right now NO ONE outside of the TxDoT TTC circle knows anything about any aspect of the plans…………………..”

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.