Under Pressure: Angela Hunt Sends a Letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

By Robert Wilonsky Sat., Feb. 14 2009 at 5:11 PM

Categories: News

Hunt with State Senator Royce West in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the Obama inauguration

Unfair Park today received a missive Angela Hunt sent on Wednesday to General Kenneth Cox, Colonel Christopher Martin and Ray Russo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in which the city council member expresses concern over Mayor Tom Leppert's lobbying political officials and the Corps to "expedite its evaluation of the NTTA's levee testing plan." On Thursday, Leppert and City Manager Mary Suhm were in D.C. to meet with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who yesterday announced that she received "a commitment from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create a Trinity River Project office in Dallas, and to assign a point-person to oversee project operations and work with city officials."

"I was surprised a little bit by Senator Hutchison's involvement, because she's been such a vocal opponent of toll roads," Hunt tells Unfair Park today. "I'm not a fan of them myself, and I've respected her position on the issue, and it surprises she would asisst the city on moving foeward with a project that's in the red by a billion dollars. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I think its irresponsible, and it's really weighing on me. It's all I've been thinking about the last two days, and it's unconscionable to me we'd have the mayor expediting the approval of safety standards just so he can meet his political deadline he set for himself of 2014. Anyone watching the [toll road] debate knew it would be unrealistic."

Hunt's missive, also sent to Hutchison and Dallas's Congressional delegation, follows in full.
Hunt Letter to Army Corps