Residents speaking at Council meeting tonight brought forth charges that I breached my loyalty as Council Member through friendship with Oliver Luck, President of Houston Dynamo. Since I was advised by Bellaire’s City Attorney that the Open Meetings Act (since Dynamo issue was not on the agenda) only allowed a “very brief” response during Council comments, I succinctly stated the facts leaving no doubt as to the propriety of my actions. This is my complete discussion.
Timeline of Relationship and Activities with Oliver Luck and Dynamo Organization
Oct 2008 = Until their recent move to GRB, the Dynamo’s offices were in the same building I work in. I first met Oliver by approaching him in parking lot to speak to the Rotary Club I founded at our weekly meeting, which he did in January 2009. Shortly after he spoke, the club setup a community service tutoring program with the Dynamos’ Under 15/18 Soccer Academy where we tutor those student-athletes that require it.
Mid-May 2009 = Oliver was the MC for club’s Outstanding Community Impact Awards held at Hyatt. Many Houston city officials and community leaders attended this great celebration of profoundly serving the community.
End-May = Oliver bought me and about 10 other tutors lunch, and offered us Dynamo tickets for our time spent tutoring. Later in season I attended the only Dynamo game I have ever been to with another tutor.
Mid-July 2009 = Oliver asked the club to move one of our weekly meetings to a luxury tent the Dynamo were placing at East End stadium property during October. They thought they were about to break ground on construction and intended to start the buzz on the new stadium and get as many community groups as possible into the tent. The club began making plans to do a reception on Oct. 29th.
August 25th = I asked Oliver if he would introduce me at a campaign reception/let me use his name as supporting me from our working together on tutoring program. At this point, the Dynamos were moving forward on groundbreaking on East End site, and my guess is Midway still hadn’t approached Dynamos yet.
August 31st = Club was told by Dynamo Charities that they were no longer doing community organization events in the tents at East End stadium site, so club canceled planned reception.
Sept 15th = Oliver introduced me at campaign reception at Bellaire home (media present). OLIVER CONTRIBUTED ZERO DOLLARS TO MY CAMPAIGN. My campaign contributions are mostly Bellaire residents and longtime family friends, none are related to Dynamo. (All my campaign finance reports).
Sept 15th – Dec. 14th = I did not talk to Oliver about or hear a single thing about any developments as to East End site. I did offer him congrats in early Nov. about the successful season his son and Stanford were having.
Dec. 15th = Oliver asked me to have coffee before work, which is the first time I heard anything about potential Westpark/S. Rice site. He told me Midway recently approached him and that he told them to put together financial package comparable to the East End stadium site. He stated that they were very early in preliminary discussions, and that the Dynamos were not going to waste timing chasing/researching deal or let it interfere with his East End stadium site. I told him about Comprehensive Plan and pointed to the section discussing Bellaire’s plans for RDD.
Dec. 16th-Jan 26th = I did not talk to Oliver about or have any developments as to potential site given to me.
Jan 27th = I found out that possible stadium site was discussed in Commissioner’s Court. In the very phone call I learned of this, I told city staff that I was friends with Oliver and had previously heard that Midway approached Dynamos about this but that it wasn’t far along at all. I also called the City Manager and Mayor and discussed it with them, including discussion with Mayor of abstaining from voting if the stadium site ever came to fruition. When asked by Bellaire Examiner if I had a conflict of interest, I immediately answered possibly and that I would look into it.
Summary and Additional Facts
- I consulted Bellaire’s City Attorney, relayed to him the majority of these facts, and was told that it was NOT appropriate for me to recuse myself.
- Oliver Luck did not give me a penny before, during, or after campaign.
- To my knowledge, my law firm has never represented the Dynamo or Oliver Luck or had any other contact with them in any capacity.
- I have never had a conversation with or even met anyone from Midway, even though I talked to everyone I could during the campaign (tons of conversations about RDD area). I also did not even know that former Councilwoman Pam Holm (also a friend of mine who spoke at Rotary club) was helping Midway. Despite us being friends, she never contacted me, nor did any of my other community leader friends before the Commissioner’s Court discussion.
- I have zero financial interest from the Dynamos getting a stadium built, much less where it is built. I do not own (and no one related to me owns) any property in/near the RDD area. I have not been given or promised a single penny from anyone in anyway related to any potential Dynamo stadium.
- At no time have I tried to conceal or play down my friendship with Oliver Luck whether with city staff or council, or when asked by the media. I told Bellaire’s Mayor in our very first conversation that I was friends with Oliver and discussed with her whether I should abstain if anything came to vote…and did same with City Attorney.
- I am VERY active in community (often attend social/political/charity events) and there are a significant amount of other community leaders that I have developed similar friendships to through serving Houston community. I gave up and continue to give up a huge chunk of my salary serving the Bellaire, Houston and International community and supporting others that are impacting community.
- I have responded to every resident email/call almost immediately upon receiving it, and every media request. It would have been nice if those residents accusing me of impropriety had picked up the phone to inquire about a single line in newspaper, in which I openly admitted friendship with Luck and consideration of my conflict.
Now that you have the facts, feel free to share them with those residents questioning my integrity without having the facts.
Corbett
Related Articles: State of the City: mainly anxiety over stadium, Dynamo chief cautious about stadium plan, doubts ‘private’ funding, Who knew? Dynamo private stadium deal was privileged info, Mayor catches heat for stadium stand but ‘had to do it’ (Bellaire Examiner 2-3), “There’s no such thing as a project like this without public money” (Off the Kuff 2-5), Not in Dynamo’s pocket, councilman says (Houston Chronicle 2-2), Bellaire mayor fears traffic, noise from stadium (Houston Chronicle 1-30), Bellaire Residents Voice Opposition To Stadium Idea and Parker Says No Conflict Of Interest With Dynamo Stadium (InstantNews Bellaire 2-1)