mayor received donation from vista ridge consultant soon...

By Gilbert Garcia | March 15, 2016 | Updated: March 15, 2016 8:18pm

0

On Oct. 30, 2014, the City Council approved the ambitious, controversial Vista Ridgeproject, a $3.4 billion venture that would pump water from Burleson County into SanAntonio via a 142-mile pipeline.

Four days after the council vote, Sam Dawson, CEO of Pape-Dawson Engineers, acompany that is the project engineer and environmental consultant for the Vista RidgeConsortium, made a $1,000 contribution (the maximum allowed by the city in a givencontribution cycle) to Mayor Ivy Taylor.

That contribution would appear to violate the spirit — if not the letter — of SanAntonio’s Municipal Campaign Finance Code, which mandates that no contributionfrom someone “seeking a high-profile contract” with the city — including businessentities, and lobbyists, attorneys and consultants hired to help those entities — canmake a contribution to a council member until at least 30 days after the contract is

Mayor received donation fromVista Ridge consultant soon aftervote

Local

Mayor received donation from Vista Ridge consultant soon afte... http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Mayor-receive...

1 of 5 3/15/16, 8:29 PM

awarded.

Taylor’s representatives argue thatthe “Water Transmission andPurchase Agreement” with the VistaRidge Consortium approved by thecouncil did not constitute theawarding of a contract, andtherefore did not violate the CityCode’s blackout law.

“Pape-Dawson is an outstandingcorporate citizen,” said Justin

IMAGE 1 OF 2Sam Dawson, CEO of Pape-Dawson Engineers


2 of 5 3/15/16, 8:29 PM

Hollis, Taylor’s campaign manager. “From all the facts we have available, they are incompliance with the City’s Municipal Campaign Finance Code.”

Gene Dawson, Jr., Pape-Dawson’s president, said he worked pro bono for much of2014 on the Vista Ridge project, adding that his company “donated hundreds ofthousands of dollars of time and effort” to negotiate a contract “that both sides wouldfind acceptable.”

Dawson’s $1,000 donation was just the first in a string of contributions from him andhis family members to Taylor over the course of a 10-month period, book-ended by theVista Ridge vote and the council’s 2015 approval of San Antonio Water System rateboosts designed to fund the pipeline project.

During Taylor’s first 51/2 years on the council — including her first three months asmayor — she received a single $300 contribution from the Dawson family.

From November 2014 through September 2015, however, Dawson and his familydonated $18,000 to Taylor’s coffers, far more than any other source of campaignfunding for the mayor.

Taylor’s role in the Vista Ridge process was particularly important, because she casttwo votes on the project: first as an ex-officio member of the SAWS board, then fiveweeks later as a member of the City Council.

In addition, she used the bully pulpit of the mayor’s office to address concerns fromlocal residents who urged the council to abandon the project or at least delay a vote.

Those concerns focused on three issues: pumping excess water into San Antonio coulddiscourage conservation and harm the water’s sources, the Carrizo and Simsboroaquifers; the cost of the pipeline project would cause water-bill boosts for SAWSratepayers; and the parent company of the pipeline builder, Abengoa Vista Ridge,showed some financial warning signs.

Sure enough, Abengoa now is deeply in debt and has teetered on the edge ofbankruptcy in recent months. Last month, the company announced it will sell 80


3 of 5 3/15/16, 8:29 PM

percent of its share in the project.

On Oct. 8, 2014, three weeks before City Council approved the Vista Ridge project,Taylor spoke at a luncheon held by the San Antonio Clean Technology Forum, andpraised Abengoa as a “proven, globally tested corporation.”

The 2014 emergence of the Vista Ridge project marked a reversal of course fromSAWS, whose CEO, Robert Puente, had suggested early that year that a pipelineproject would be too difficult. Puente recommended the utility instead focus onexpanding desalination efforts.

An Oct. 29, 2014 piece by the Texas Tribune quoted an email exchange between GeneDawson Jr. and an unnamed SAWS official, in which Dawson complained about thedrought restrictions that would result if SAWS did not seek new water sources.

“It appears our new strategy is to use Stage III and IV Drought Restrictions to bridgeour water shortfalls. Is this correct?” Dawson wrote.

When the SAWS official explained how much water could be saved by stepping uplawn-watering restrictions, Dawson replied: “You guys are giving me a headache.”

The Dawson family’s string of contributions to Taylor ended with a $1,000 donationfrom Gene Dawson Jr. to the mayor on Sept. 18 of last year, two months before theCity Council approved the SAWS rate increase.

In fairness to Taylor, Vista Ridge would have cleared its hurdles with or without hersupport.

The SAWS board vote and both of the council votes were unanimously affirmative. Buther willingness to take a lead role in support of the project affirmed her bona fides withbusiness leaders such as the Dawsons, and paved the way for her stunning electoral winlast year.

[email protected]


4 of 5 3/15/16, 8:29 PM

Twitter: @gilgamesh470

Gilbert GarciaMetro Columnist |San Antonio

Express-News

© 2016 Hearst Communications Inc.


5 of 5 3/15/16, 8:29 PM

mayor received donation from vista ridge consultant soon...

Documents