Texans for Public Justice, the local nonprofit devoted to “tracking the influence of money and corporate power in Texas politics,” has released a report detailing the money trail between lobbyists tied to Gov. Rick Perry’s administration and HNTB, the engineering firm that was charged with managing more than $1 billion in non-housing federal disaster funds for the state.
In our exclusive story this week revealing the outsourcing arrangement, we noted that Ray Sullivan, communications director for Perry’s presidential campaign and Perry’s former chief of staff, is a former lobbyist for HNTB. According to the nonprofit, HNTB paid Sullivan from $500,000 to $850,000 (state ethics commission records show a range of dollar values for lobbying contracts, not a specific figure) between 2003 and 2009. Another Perry loyalist who has lobbied for the Kansas City, Mo.- based firm is Perry campaign advisor Reggie Bashur (paid $150,000-$300,000 between 2009 and 2011).
In its timeline of Sullivan’s service during various Perry administrations,TPJ pegged Sullivan’s departure from the governor’s office in 2002 and his subsequent association with HNTB in 2003. Sullivan stopped lobbying for HNTB on June 25, 2009 and six days later became Perry’s chief of staff. The following month, the state entered into a no-bid contract with HNTB to manage federal grants for new infrastructure projects in communities stricken by Hurricanes Ike and Dolly.
In all, Congress appropriated $3.1 billion to the Texas disaster recovery effort. Three years after the hurricanes, Texas has spent more than 90 percent of the funds budgeted for grant overhead, but only 20 percent of the money meant for the infrastructure projects, few of which have been completed.
HNTB’s contract, which has netted the company $45 million so far, was cancelled as of last month and the General Land Office posted new requests for companies to submit their qualifications for the work. Meanwhile HNTB still runs the infrastructure program on a temporary basis.
As our story also noted, some of the disaster money for non-housing projects has gone to East Texas counties far from where the hurricanes made landfall and did the most damage. The deputy city manager of Lufkin, where disaster money is paying for an expansion of the civic center, called us to defend the town’s $5 million project.
Construction began this week on the addition of a full kitchen, laundry, showers and other facilities to outfit the civic center to facilitate the housing of future evacuees for at least three days.
Reminded that some might question the value of such improvements when they might be used only a few times over the course of a decade, Lufkin Deputy City Manager Keith Wright said, “They would be wrong. I get a little bit irritated at being attacked for this.”
Added Wright: “We shelter people anytime they evacuate the coast. We’ve done it multiple times. We had 4,800 people during Ike … we had 17,000 during Rita. They wiped out our food and staple goods. We’re doing this alone out of the goodness of our hearts. We don’t have to do it.”