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Zavaletta denies conflict of interest over recent vote
Comments 0 | Recommend 0Brownsville Navigation District Commissioner Peter M. Zavaletta said that his vote to further negotiations with Bay Bridge Texas — whose employee joined him in his lawsuit against Dannenbaum Engineering Corp. — does not pose a conflict of interest.
On Wednesday, the BND board unanimously voted to pursue negotiations with Bay Bridge, a Virginia-based shipbreaking firm.
Barry Chambers, previously employed by International Shipbreaking, appears as the registered agent for Bay Bridge Texas, incorporated in the state Oct. 2, public records show. International Shipbreaking alleges that Bay Bridge’s arrival would mean unfair competition.
Chambers also is a plaintiff in the lawsuit that Zavaletta filed as a taxpayer against DEC Aug. 13 in state district court.
The BND board initially voted to negotiate with Bay Bridge on Aug. 29. Chambers was added as a plaintiff-taxpayer in Zavaletta’s lawsuit on Sept. 7.
“There is no conflict whatsoever. Barry was added after the BND board voted to enter negotiations with Bay Bridge, otherwise, there perhaps would have been a conflict,” Zavaletta said.
“I will tell you categorically that he did not express any interest in joining the lawsuit and I did not add him until after the (Aug. 29) vote was taken to negotiate a lease to Bay Bridge,” Zavaletta said. He is asking the court to nullify the Feb. 14 agreement that BND and DEC executed regarding the $15.4 million in taxpayer money paid to the firm for a nonexistent international bridge. The litigation is pending.
Zavaletta said that after the board vote of Aug. 29, Chambers announced his interest in joining his case as a plaintiff. “I welcome him and any other taxpayer,” Zavaletta said.
Chambers said Thursday that after Aug. 29 and before Bay Bridge hired him, Zavaletta asked him if he was interested in joining his lawsuit. “I reacted and said ‘sure’. I never signed anything. Being interested doesn’t mean I signed on,” Chambers said, adding -that he will remove his name from the lawsuit.
“I have no interest in that whatsoever. I never gave it a friggin' thought,” Chambers said.
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