8/29/2006
8/24/2006
10 of 12: How Krusee Cohort, John Langmore, syphons tax dollars for special interests.
This is Attorney John H. Langmore, one of the key confidence tricksters behind the Krusee & Perry TTC Land Grab and Freeway Double Tax Tolls. Langmore is a key player for the Special Interests.Attorney John Henley Langmore (DOB 11/30/1962) was the Policy Director for the Texas House Transportation Committee during the 78th Legislative Session in 2003. Langmore played a principal role in formulating and drafting State Rep. Mike Krusse’s HB 3588, one of the most comprehensive transportation bills ever passed in the state of Texas, it completely altered the accountability of transportation projects. New powers were given as unelected bureaucratic mini-TxDOTs were created to toll already funded freeways. This “Frankenstein” law also allowed the TTC to take private land for foreign profits.
Many elected officials had no idea that 3588 was a Trojan horse. Most only skim the summary of a bill and use trust as a barometer.
Today, John Langmore continues the confidence game as he impersonates a Transportation Planning Expert to continue to bilk taxpayers for his special interest pals as well as get insider contracts for himself.
But, shockingly, Attorney Langmore has NO education in transportation planning, not even an online college course.
The snakelike Langmore has gone beyond the call of special interest duty. Since creating HB 3588, he’s slithered his way into the deep nooks and crannies of the unaccountable deals his legal language helped to create.
Langmore's SafeRail PAC Opens the Door for Looters.
Langmore was the one man band for SafeRail PAC. He was the campaign treasurer, campaign manager and PR contact for SafeRail PAC, a political action committee that had success in altering our Texas Constitution in 2005. Prop 1 in 2005 allowed unlimited tax dollars and debt to be syphon for new corporate rail in the TTC.
A quick glimpse of state records show Zachry Construction (of Cintra Zachry) gave SafeRail PAC $10,000, Herzog Construction gave $10,000, HNTB gave $6,000, PBS&J, Carter Burgess, Pate Engineer folks each gave $5,000 each.
TateAustin received over $12,000 for PR and Langmore’s SafeRail PAC spent over $32,000 on a radio buy in Houston to trick voters. Langmore contributed $471.31 in cash and $10,000 of campaign management and public relations services, sure to be repaid with thank you contracts.
The Proposition 1 constitutional amendment that Langmore helped to secure (53% to 47%) is a simple open-ended corporate subsidy scheme --- literally a blank check. Taxpayers will pay unlimited tax dollars (and generations of debt) to move private corporation rail lines into Gov. Perry's Trans Texas Corridor (and this after the governor had promised Texans that no public funds would be used for the TTC). Unaccountable people will decide how the taxpayer based rail fund will be spent, as corporations profit.
Langmore registered as a Texas lobbyist in 2005 representing Toll & Road Lobby companies such as Pate Engineering and Infrastructure Corporation of America. Pate and Langmore contributed to Krusee in 2005. Some say “that’s how the wheels stay greased”. Langmore has contributed to other politicos like Gonzalo Barrientos and Kirk Watson as well.
Is the system built for corruption and incestuous deals?
AND, how does Langmore get himself placed on every committee Krusee is not already on? He's also on the CAMPO Growth Subcommittee.
The address that Langmore submitted to the State for lobbying is interestingly the same address as Mike Weaver’s Prime Strategies, 1508 S. Lamar Blvd. Mike Weaver helped to create the local freeway tolling authority (CTRMA) and gave his own company, Prime Strategies, the first Toll Authority NO BID contract. Comptroller Strayhorn’s report shows Weaver's company billed the CTRMA for well over $600,000 from 2002 to 2005. The NO BID contract was paid for with tax dollars.
In 2006, I witnessed the special interest trio, Mike Weaver, John Langmore and Bill Burnett (former CAMPO board member who voted to toll roads we’ve already paid for) as they told Travis County Commissioners that Hays, Williamson County and two dozen other local governments across Texas are moving forward with a common sense NO TOLL option (pass through financing) while Travis must tolls on roads we’ve already paid for. The Commissioners bought it hook line and sinker.
As a very close associate of Mike Krusee, like Melinda Wheatley, Langmore cleans up on "Good Old Boy" transportation contracts. So many transportation contracts came his way, including Zachry, in 2004 that he needed to create a new business as a Transportation Consultant. He calls it “John Langmore Consulting” and it to offices out of 1508 S. Lamar Blvd. Langmore has also received toll road related marketing contracts through TateAustin, paid for with our tax dollars.
Having NO education in Transportation doesn’t stop Langmore. Hey, Mike Krusee has NO college degree, and that doesn’t stop him. Langmore is a Co-Chair of Envision Central Texas Transportation and Land Use Committee, which is now focused on planning the details of the primer for the TTC, the $1.5 Billion dollar SH 130. Mike Heiligenstein joins Langmore as a board member of ECT.
After graduating from UT’s School of Law and Graduate School of Business in 1989, John began his career working in Akin Gump’s Washington D.C. office. Langmore was Licensed in Texas in 1991 (State Bar Card Number 11922650), but, as of this year his license is inactive. Langmore had an executive role with Caterpillar in Tennessee for 11 years and a short stint as a photographer in San Antonio.
Langmore’s past also includes two (2) DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED (DWI) CONVICTIONS, at least 24 months of probation and hundreds of dollars in fines.Public records show Langmore and his wife Catherine Langmore owning 1408 Preston Ave. Austin TX 78703-1902, with an assessed value of about $500.000.
John Langmore has altered our Texas Laws and our State Constitution to where it is now legal to steal our roads, our land, our tax's and even generations of debt for the Toll Road Mafia's Personal Enrichment Program.
To this day Langmore, continues to influence where and how our tax dollars are spent, as he skims a bit for himself and impersonates a Transportation Planning Expert.
This article is part 10 of a 10 part series called “Circle of Parasites”. Freeways have never been tolled in the history of the U.S., but that doesn’t stop a close circle of self serving individuals with a long history of looking out for themselves at the expense of others.
Read the other “Circle of Parasites” articles (just click below):
1 of 10: Deadbeat Mike Heiligenstein Runs Freeway Tolling Authority
2 of 10: Two Toll Authority Board Members Refuse to Resign
3 of 10: Austin American Snakesman
4 of 10: Convicted CRIMINAL, Pete Peters, Connected to Freeway Tolls
5 of 10: Rep. Mike Krusee and Lobbyist Melinda Wheatley.
6 of 10: Ghost Organization Voted to Toll Austin Freeways
7 of 10: State Rep. Dawnna Dukes Payolla Toll Vote Ignores Constituents and Federal Law
8 of 10: County Commissioner Limmer and Convicted Criminal formally do business.
9 of 10: TxDOT Engineer, Bob Daigh: Secret Deals, Lies and a Convicted Criminal
Click on the small envelope icon directly below
to automatically share this article with others.
to automatically share this article with others.
8/23/2006
8/22/2006
NO NEED FOR TOLLS, TEXAS AWASH IN ROAD MONEY, HIGHWAY BUDGET MORE THAN DOUBLED UNDER PERRY
Strayhorn Camp Says Texas
Needs Leadership And New Direction
Needs Leadership And New Direction
(
8/18/2006
PERRY AIDE WORKING FOR TTC's CINTRA and More
MORE NEWS ARTICLES: PERRY AIDE WORKING FOR CINTRA BELOW:
8/17/2006
9 of 12: TxDOT Engineer, Bob Daigh: Secret Deals, Lies and a Convicted Criminal
TxDOT District Engineer Bob Daigh, to the left, arrived at the CAMPOmeeting with Richard Ridings of HNTB (183A contractor) seen at right.
I went to TxDOT this week (8/14/06) to pick up documents I asked for via a public information request. I requested cell phone records of TxDOT District Engineer Bob Daigh (more about what I found in the next paragraphs).
While I was at the I 35 and 183 TxDOT campus Monday, I was asked to sign in. I noticed that CRA International, who was hired to do the Independent Review of the Double Tax toll roads, had signed in at least two people to meet with TxDOT District Engineer Bob Daigh. At the same time, at 1pm, the toll authorities executive director (CTRMA), Mike Heiligenstein also signed in to meet with Bob Daigh and CRA. I assume CRA was meeting with TxDOT and CTRMA to gather information for the City of Austin Independent Review. Both CRA and Heiligenstein signed out at 4pm. I was shocked to see that no neutral party joined this meeting.
Three hours is plenty of time alone to discuss Phase II (Double Tax Toll) details and maybe even cut a deal. It would give the public a little confidence if these meetings were either made public, or at least had some neutral person, or a reporter attending.
I emailed Councilmember Brewster McCracken this information and my opinion, since he spearheaded the Independent Study, and he sent me this response,
“Thanks for letting me know, Sal. This stuff needs to be done in public, in my opinion.”And, the beat goes on.
Back to that pile of 450 pages of Bob Daigh’s (567-1059) cell phone records.
Get this. Convicted criminal Amos “Pete” Peters cell phone number, 415-6037, shows up over and over on Bob Daigh’s cell phone records. These records show the two actually spoke numerous times a day, right up until the comptrollers report came out in early 2005. Then the calls became less frequent. But, as the months have passed, calls between the two have picked up again to a rate of many times a month, at times, more than a dozen times a week. Bob Daigh’s appointment calendars also reflect many face to face meetings with this convicted criminal.
20 year Convicted Criminal Amos "Pete" PetersWhy is this important? When folks are trying to toll roads we’ve already paid for, and a convicted criminal is at the heart of it, something stinks like month old fish.
Pete Peter’s numerous contacts Daigh could represent communications directly with a member of the executive branch to influence administrative action. It is a violation of Texas Law to do so, without registering as a lobbyist.
Peters is not registered as a lobbyist. It is illegal for a convicted criminal to lobby in the state of Texas. But that never stopped ol Pete, as he’s been seen over past years hanging out at the capital, only to tell those who know better that, “I’m not lobbying here” while in the capital.
Page 45 of State Comptroller report on Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority: A Need for a Higher Standard, March 2005 states this about a Peters communication that points to his lobbying:
“HNTB subcontractor Amos “Pete” Peters stated that “elected officials have been shored-up and alliances have been formed to see the HWY 183-A through to completion.” "Peters, as per the Comptroller’s investigative report, has received numerous NO BID toll road contracts from Mike Heiligenstein’s unaccountable freeway tolling authority.
You would think stealing tax funded public highways and shifting them to tollways would be enough to make the freeway toll plan make good business sense, but it’s not. To sell this pig in a poke, you need to LIE BIG as well.
CTRMA's Mike HeiligensteinIn March of 2004, Bob Daigh and the toll authorities Mike Heiligenstein LIED to the public and CAMPO when they went to dozens of neighborhoods with a scare tactic (as well as included the LIE in a press release) about the alternative to double tax tolls, "...the alternative of paying a two-to-three-dollar per-gallon gas tax would never be accepted." In 2005 CAMPO Executive Director, Michael Aulick, estimated it would cost only an additional 2 cents per-gallon gas tax for the same plan without tolls.
In the summer of 2004, Bob Daigh and Mike Heiligenstein LIED again as they claimed it would cost 12 to 15 cents a mile to drive on the freeway toll roads (the national average is 9 cents a mile). Confidential CTRMA documents show the actual cost at 44 to 64 cents a mile.
I’m sure Dob Daigh will be rewarded well. History has shown the revolving door swings best for those who lie, cheat and steal from the public.
This article is part 9 of a 12 part series called “Circle of Parasites”. Freeways have never been tolled in the history of the U.S., but that doesn’t stop a close circle of self serving individuals with a long history of looking out for themselves at the expense of others.
Read the other “Circle of Parasites” articles (just click below):
1 of 12: Deadbeat Mike Heiligenstein Runs Freeway Tolling Authority
2 of 12: Two Toll Authority Board Members Refuse to Resign
3 of 12: Austin American Snakesman
4 of 12: Convicted Criminal Connected to Freeway Tolls
5 of 12: Rep. Mike Krusee and Lobbyist Melinda Wheatley.
6 of 12: Ghost Organization Voted to Toll Austin Freeways
7 of 12: State Rep. Dawnna Dukes Payolla Toll Vote Ignores Constituents and Federal Law
8 of 12: County Commissioner Limmer and Convicted Criminal formally do business.
Click on the small envelope icon directly below
to automatically send this article to others.
to automatically send this article to others.
8/16/2006
8/15/2006
PODER speaks: Tolls are Economic Racism!
PODER and LULAC gave a fantastic presence last night, before and during CAMPO's hearing. They held a press conference with 3-4 news outlets at 5:30. Here is the text of the Fox news report that was broadcast last night.
PODER's Co-Director, Susana Almanza, directed her comments to CAMPO (full speech here):
"PODER is here today to state for the public record that we oppose toll roads for East Austin. The Current Phase II Toll Road plans calls for 6 times as many freeway toll lanes miles in East Austin, than West Austin. This is a clear case of environmental and economic racism!
Rep. Eddie Rodriguez voted to NOT toll roads we've already paid for, while Rep. Dawnna Dukes (payolla documented here) and others voted to toll tax funded freeways.According to President Clinton’s Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations, Public agencies such as the Transportation Department must identify and avoid “disproportionately high and adverse” effects on minority and low-income populations. Keeping tolls roads for US 290 East, US 183 and SH 71 will impact low-income and people of color communities. Again, removing proposed toll roads for west Austin and shifting the burden to East Austin roads violates Executive Order 12898 and Title VI of the 1964 Rights Act."
DALLAS NEWS: Mayor's company has $2.6 million contract with TOLL Authority
Texas Toll Roads are just too UNaccountable for the crooks to resist.
Unaccountable tolls provides a feeding ground for political snakes looking to take advantage of the taxpayer.
The central Texas Toll Authority, under the leadership of Mike Heiligenstein as Executive Director, gave out NO BID contracts to themselves and thier friends.
Now a longtime Richardson mayor has two separate conflicts involving his software company, CapitalSoft, Inc., which has a $2.6 million contract with the North Texas Tollway Authority as well as his firm is housed in a business incubator owned by the city of Richardson since 1999.
From the Dallas News article today:At a recent coalition meeting, Mr. Slagel apologized to members who were unaware of his private dealings with the authority. But he said he didn’t use his position to lobby for his client. “I pushed for a system solution,” he said Monday.
Statesman Letter to Editor today
Just a way to get money
I wish the Austin City Council could be honest with us at least one time.
The red light cameras are NOT going to prevent accidents — all they are going to do is hand out tickets. It's about money, nothing more. Where did the U.S. Constitution go? Seems to me that when one is accused of a crime, prosecutors need to prove who did the deed, not who owns the car caught on camera. Unless they can prove who was driving, how can they charge someone with a crime?
CARL SWANSON
8/14/2006
Can you say PODER?
PODER is a powerful East Austin group of citizens that has a history of success. PODER has been activated on the double tax toll issue and will hold a press conference today at 5:30, just before the CAMPO meeting tonight.
There are 6 times as many FREEWAY toll lane miles in East Austin, than West Austin to date with the Phase II toll plan.
Federal law, Title VI (Environmental Justice): We must avoid disproportionately high economic effects on low-income populations. Freeways have never been shifted to tollways in the history of our country.
The "business plan" to toll Austin is so extremely unviable that TxDOT and the toll authority need to steal our public highways, and lie to the public about the low cost of tolls - and the plan still won't work.
CAMPO Meeting, Monday, August 14, 2006, 6:00 p.m.
Room 2.102, Joe C. Thompson Center, UT
Dean Keeton (26th Street) and Red River Streets
8/11/2006
8/10/2006
8/09/2006
Tolling roads we’ve already paid for - In Afghanistan!
The guys in the photo must be the "Mike Heiligenstein","Pete Peters" and "Mike Krusee" of Kabul.
As usual, it looks like they are doing a dance
to gin up more unaccountable toll taxes.
Our Tax dollars paid for a road in Afghanistan.
Yup. Apparently we don’t have any money for roads here at home, but we can sure destroy, build and buy roads for other countries.
But, the authorities are having a problem with collection of the tolls on the Kabul-Kandahar toll road.
This NPR Report says that most Afgans don’t want to pay the toll because they associate tolls with corruption. Corruption? No Way!
Here’s the Afgan toll collection “problem”: There is only one shift of toll collectors at the toll plaza south of Kabul. So in the mid- afternoons drivers sleep, and wait for the toll collectors shift to end. And come 15:30 each day and the end of the toll collectors shift, scores of white-robed drivers stir, diesel engines rumble, and the trucks begin to roll, to drive free to Kandahar.
8/08/2006
8/05/2006
Who Said Crime Doesn’t Pay?
Convicted Criminal connected to TxDOT Freeway Tolling Scheme, Amos “Pete” Peters, is selling his 3,000 sq foot downtown home on 1309 MARSHALL LANE, Austin 78703 this week.
$1.2 Million Dollar Home
The home is under contract, pending, for $1.2 Million after 7 days on the market.
In 2002 Peters received a City of Austin building permit to upgrade 1309 Marshall Ln with a little Kitchen and Bath remodeling. City records show it was a $93,000 value.
Peters has a 20-year criminal record, including charges for check fraud/swindling, fraud/illegal use of credit cards, larceny and DUI. He was convicted of three felonies and three misdemeanors.
Pete Peters is one of the key players in the freeway tolling boondoggle. Peters was considered so close to Williamson County officials that the state Attorney General’s Office joined a recent investigation of him. According to one report, “Peters has handled campaign work for almost every major office holder in the county.” The investigation focused on several meetings related to the Williamson County Road Bonds Program for which Williamson County paid Peters; some persons who were supposed to be at these meetings allege that they never took place.
I’ve been told by numerous reliable sources that the toll authority's Mike Heiligenstein (Peters ran his campaign as county commisioner) and other Wilco tollers make sure “Pete Gets Paid” with the plan to toll roads we’ve already paid for. Thanks to Heiligenstein, Mike Weaver and others, Peters has already received NO BID contracts, which were paid for with our tax dollars.
If you have additional information
email me at Sal@TexasTollParty.com
Sources are kept confidential. I verify and confirm all leads.
email me at Sal@TexasTollParty.com
Sources are kept confidential. I verify and confirm all leads.
8/03/2006
"PBS&J had done nothing but spend millions of taxpayer dollars to 'study' the problem"
After you read the story in the link above, note: Everett Owen of Owen Consulting received a NO BID contract with the toll authority. Owen threatened to sue me months ago. He's part of the toller "circle".
8/02/2006
County Commissioner Limmer and Convicted Criminal formally do business.
Williamson County Precinct 4Commissioner Frankie Limmer
Williamson County Commissioner Frankie Limmer pushes the “Williamson County Mafia” envelope, and the arrogance, as he formally creates business partnerships with convicted criminal Pete Peters.
Convicted criminal Amos “Pete” PetersAs a CAMPO board member, Commissioner Frankie Limmer, voted to toll roads we’ve already paid for. Convicted criminal Amos “Pete” Peters, as per the Comptroller’s investigative report, has received NO BID toll road contracts from the toll authority, the unaccountable bureaucracy Frankie Limmer helped to create.
As brazen as it may sound, Texas Secretary of State records show both Commissioner Frankie Limmer and Amos “Pete” Peters as board members and managers of Round Rock Mallardwest, LLC and Taylor Mallardwest, LLC. Round Rock Mallardwest lists Providence Funeral Home as an associated entity.
Hey, what mafia would be complete without a funeral home under their control? Forgetaboutit!
Ted W Hejl (Taylor city attorney), Rodney L Hortenstine, Paul S Bennett, Gilbert Repa, John Nelson, Charlotte Albert are also listed as managers or board members of the above corporations.
County records also show Limmer as President of Limmer Construction and numerous properties being owned by Frankie Limmer and his wife Judy Limmer.
Back in 2003, the Austin Chronicle’s article “Commissioner Limmer's Private Business” focused on the ethics of Limmer being in a position to use privileged county information for profit:
“Williamson County Precinct 4 Commissioner Frankie Limmer assumed office in 1999. Since then he has expanded his real estate development activities in eastern Williamson County -- the area he represents on the court -- to include several major development companies currently building large housing subdivisions.According to the Comptroller's investigation, Round Rock city attorney Charles Crossfield's Sheets & Crossfield received a NO BID contract for well over half a million dollars ($588,332.01) from the corrupt toll authority (CTRMA).
Several of Limmer's business associates are also doing business with the county: Charles Crossfield, the Round Rock city attorney who has been negotiating many of the rights-of-way acquisitions for the county's $350 million road-bond projects; Dan Hejl, of the consulting firm Hejl, Lee & Associates, has done engineering work for at least one of the county's road-bond projects within Limmer's precinct; and Ted Hejl, the Taylor city attorney, who has also recently been cut a host of county checks for road-related bond work.”
The article also states:
“In July 2002, Limmer formed Magellan Water LLC. According to an Oct. 28 article in the Austin Business Journal, Limmer founded Magellan in an effort to bring a $30 million water pipeline to Precinct 4 from the relatively untapped, 48,000-square-mile Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. "Right now we don't have enough water to sustain economic development in eastern Williamson County," Limmer told ABJ. The article said that by that time, Magellan had raised more than $5 million in funding from investors and had secured three additional letters of intent from potential customers -- yet to date, Limmer has declined to name any of his partners or investors.”Also, from the Chronicle article:
"My problem with Limmer," said one observer of the Commissioners Court, "is that he is in a position to use privileged county information to line his own pockets."Also read the Statesman 2002 investigative article (pre Ben Wear) “In Williamson, politics, roads and money mix”.
Read the Muckraker's “Convicted Criminal Connected to Freeway Tolls” (about Pete Peters).
Read the Muckraker's “Austin Toll Roads to fund Williamson County Freeways”.
email me at Sal@TexasTollParty.com
Sources are kept confidential. I verify and confirm all leads.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
