Todd Bensman & Robert Riggs

DALLAS MAYOR DEMANDS COMMISSIONER'S RESIGNATION, CITING CBS-11 REPORT OF ETHICS LAPSE, FBI PROBE

MAYOR PRO-TEM DON HILL DEFENDS HIS APPOINTEE, REFUSES TO ADDRESS CBS-11 ETHICS REPORTS

Aug 12, 2005 5:38 pm US/Central By Robert Riggs, Todd Bensman and Jack Fink, CBS-11 News

Citing a serious alleged ethical lapse reported by CBS-11 News and the prospect of criminal indictments from an ongoing FBI corruption investigation, Dallas City Mayor Laura Miller on Friday called on Dallas City Plan Commissioner D?Angelo Lee to resign or face forced removal next week in an exceptionally rare kind of council vote.

?He is at best an unethical planning commissioner, and at worst, someone who is going to be indicted shortly,? the mayor told reporters at a press conference Friday outside her office.

Commissioner Lee could not be reached and did not return calls. Mayor Pro-tem Don Hill, who appointed Commissioner Lee, said he would stand by his appointee.

"He believes he can make a contribution to the city," Hill said at a press conference he called later Friday.

Mayor Miller's unusual call for a plan commissioner?s resignation and a threat to ask the full council to remove him came amid a gathering FBI corruption investigation that has in part enveloped Councilmember Don Hill and his planning board appointee, Commissioner Lee. The call also comes amid news reports since the FBI investigation became public in early June that have raised questions about Lee?s ethical conduct. The media reports have revealed his work as a ?consultant? advocating deals related to large-scale affordable housing projects that went before the plan commission and are now at the center of the FBI?s investigation.

Commissioner Lee?s current two-year term is almost up. Councilman Hill has indicated he planned to re-nominate Commissioner Lee if he wanted the post but that re-nomination papers had not yet arrived from the commissioner. Mayor Miller said she decided to press publicly for Commissioner Lee?s removal after privately asking Councilman Hill to reconsider keeping the commissioner on for another term.

?I met with Mayor Pro-tem Don Hill on Monday afternoon and asked him if he would consider asking his plan commissioner to resign in the best interests of the city, and Mr. Hill said that was not his call to do that,? Mayor Miller said. ?And I said, ?Why, ? he is your appointee. Why is it not your call?? And he said, ?It is because I have already asked Mr. Lee to serve another two-year term.'?

Although it has rarely been invoked, a city charter provision allows a simple majority of the council ? eight members ? to remove appointed board and commission members ?for any cause deemed by the city council sufficient...in the interest of the public.? In any resolution to have him removed by council vote, the mayor would have to publicly cite specific charges. Commissioner Lee would have the right to request a public hearing on the charges within 10 days of any vote removing him.

If the mayor follows through on her threat to call a council vote, a CBS-11 News report will likely become the subject of further public debate next week.

The mayor cited as her top reason for why Commissioner Lee should resign a June 27 report by CBS-11 News that he secretly accepted a $5,000 commission from the Dallas Urban League in exchange for helping the organization land an annual social services contract at an affordable housing project. Lee then voted on a zoning matter regarding the building that would house those social services, without disclosing his financial interest in it or recusing himself from voting as required by ethics rules.

?It?s been clearly reported by the media that Mr. Lee took a $5,000 consulting fee from the Dallas Urban League on a project that he subsequently voted to approve?? the mayor said during a press conference she called Friday afternoon. ?So here is a guy who is out getting money from people wanting to do business with the city and then voting on those projects, which is clearly unethical and probably illegal.?

Councilmember Hill said he saw the CBS-11 report but has never questioned his appointee about wrongdoing. He said the city ethics commission should consider whether Commissioner Lee's vote was improper, not him.

The zoning vote in question centered on a 280-unit multi-family development now under construction in Oak Cliff beside Laurel Land cemetery, in the 300 block of Camp Wisdom road. The development is called Rosemont at Laureland and is owned by a major low-income housing developer also believed to be under the FBI's magnifying glass, Southwest Housing Development owner Brian Potashnik.

Last March, Potashnik's company submitted an application to the Dallas Plan Commission for a special use permit to build a community center on the property to provide social service activities to its residents. During the same time frame, Commissioner Lee worked as a housing consultant for the Dallas Urban League, a non-profit group providing social services, which are a prerequisite for the developer to receive lucrative federal tax credits.

Dr. Beverly Mitchell-Brooks, President and CEO of Urban League of Greater Dallas told CBS-11 News that it paid Lee $5,000 for helping the group become the development's social services provider, and that Lee proposed that he be paid $5,000 every month to get other social service deals for the league.

But in mid-April, according to records, Commissioner Lee made the motion for the Dallas Plan Commission to approve the permit for the community center that would house the league's social services, and he cast a vote for it. The motion did not carry but did pass during a later vote at which Commissioner Lee was not present.

City ethics rule strictly forbid planning commissioners from voting on projects with which they have a financial relationship or stake. The rules also clearly spell out an obligation that commissioners publicly declare financial relationships with any project under their consideration and recuse themselves from voting. CBS-11 has learned that Commissioner Lee did not recuse himself.

Mayor Miller also cited reports by The Dallas Morning News about outstanding tax liens and alleged efforts by Mr. Lee to broker an affordable housing deal with unnamed Dallas Independent School District officials. She cited questions raised by a July 14 CBS-11 report about the ownership of luxury vehicles Lee has been driving. The report traced a Mercedes and a Land Rover used by Commissioner Lee to a small auto dealer named Rickey Roberts, whose partnership in an affordable housing company has been under FBI scrutiny.

?He?s driving a car that he can?t tell anyone how it was paid for or who owns it,? Mayor Miller said. ?Um, I think that?s a problem.

Councilman Hill, who also has been driving a luxury automobile procured by Rickey Robertson, declined to answer questions about the vehicles. He said the vehicles are the subject of the FBI's investigation and that he would not discuss any such matters Friday.