Closed Door Meetings. Swanky Fundraisers. Unanswered Questions...
Steve Driehaus met with Congressman James Oberstar, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in a closed door meeting at the local offices of Parsons Brinkerhoff earlier this month. But many questions surrounding the true nature of this meeting, and visit, have been left unanswered.
Parsons Brinkerhoff is a planning, engineering and construction management firm connected to many local projects. They are a member of the Cincinnati Streetcar Development Team, Project Manager for Governor Strickland's pet 3-C Rail project, as well as the Project Manager for the failed Riverfront Transit Center. Parsons Brinkerhoff is most well known for the most expensive highway project in U.S. history, the "Big Dig." This Massachusetts transit project ended up well over budget at $12 billion, was finished nine years late, and was the cause of a tragic death.
Apparently, Oberstar appeared at a fundraiser for the Driehaus campaign following the closed meeting. So the question remains, was this meeting used as leverage by Driehaus to raise money from a contractor that stands to benefit from federal funding for local transportation projects, and who from Parsons Brinkerhoff contributed to his campaign in conjunction with this event. COAST is calling on Driehaus to disclose what was discussed.
"Driehaus tries to make Oberstar's visit appear to be beneficial to the community," said COAST Chairman Jason Gloyd. "But if it were so beneficial, I'm a little confused as to why Oberstar's entire visit was closed to the public." Gloyd continued, "This is exactly what is wrong with Washington. You have an influential member of Congress visit, you hold private meetings where government contracts could be discussed with the very contractor that may benefit from these government contracts, and then you turn around and possibly raise money from these contractors?"
"This entire visit reeks of pay to play. Steve Driehaus should disclose what was discussed and who was involved with the fundraiser," Gloyd said. "If the Driehaus campaign is using local transportation projects as leverage for fundraising, then they need to be held accountable for their actions."
Parsons Brinkerhoff is a planning, engineering and construction management firm connected to many local projects. They are a member of the Cincinnati Streetcar Development Team, Project Manager for Governor Strickland's pet 3-C Rail project, as well as the Project Manager for the failed Riverfront Transit Center. Parsons Brinkerhoff is most well known for the most expensive highway project in U.S. history, the "Big Dig." This Massachusetts transit project ended up well over budget at $12 billion, was finished nine years late, and was the cause of a tragic death.
Apparently, Oberstar appeared at a fundraiser for the Driehaus campaign following the closed meeting. So the question remains, was this meeting used as leverage by Driehaus to raise money from a contractor that stands to benefit from federal funding for local transportation projects, and who from Parsons Brinkerhoff contributed to his campaign in conjunction with this event. COAST is calling on Driehaus to disclose what was discussed.
"Driehaus tries to make Oberstar's visit appear to be beneficial to the community," said COAST Chairman Jason Gloyd. "But if it were so beneficial, I'm a little confused as to why Oberstar's entire visit was closed to the public." Gloyd continued, "This is exactly what is wrong with Washington. You have an influential member of Congress visit, you hold private meetings where government contracts could be discussed with the very contractor that may benefit from these government contracts, and then you turn around and possibly raise money from these contractors?"
"This entire visit reeks of pay to play. Steve Driehaus should disclose what was discussed and who was involved with the fundraiser," Gloyd said. "If the Driehaus campaign is using local transportation projects as leverage for fundraising, then they need to be held accountable for their actions."
Little Stevie Driehaus gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Wasn't he one of the fools parroting Nancy Pelosi and promising to end the "culture of corruption"?
ReplyDeleteSteve Driehaus is as crooked as they come.
Hey Jason, its nice that you're calling out Driehaus and all, but have you paid your mortgage yet you deadbeat?
ReplyDeleteRepresentatives Steve Driehaus and James Oberstar were in town to discuss the $2-3 billion replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge. It is my understanding that Parsons Brinkerhoff is also assisting on this project in some capacity. As a result, it would seem to make perfect sense that they were discussing the project there were all here to discuss. Have you tried contacting Driehaus' office about this?
ReplyDeleteLove how your special interest fringe group mentions all the local rail projects, but completely forgets the Brent Spence Bridgedoggle. Why not call em out on that too?
ReplyDeleteAlso, be careful where you morons lay the blame. If you consider the Transit Center a failure because it has never been utilized for its rail purposes, that's not PB's fault, they built an excellent peace of infrastructure. Its the fault of short sighted hacks like COAST who opposed light rail in 2002. In the meantime the Transit Center continues to be utilized for parking and large scale events and is a source of income for the city who leases it out to System Parking.
However, despite how many times this has been pointed out to you, COAST just ignores it because hey, it doesn't appease Gloyd's special interest puppet masters.
Gordon,
ReplyDeleteWe're turning blue here. We've been holding our breath waiting for one of you trolley types to put together an anti-bridgedoggle petition. Send it to Miller or Gloyd. We'll circulate it and guarantee at least 100 signatures.
So far you have presented no organized opposition to a single project involving paved infrastructure. Not at the city, county, state or federal levels. It leads us to conclude that you're really in favor of any and all government spending.
COAST - Rail freaks have no intention of getting off of their yuppy asses to do work like that. They'd much rather sit on the sidelines and bitch, or repeatedly comment on the blogs of conservative groups that they declare to be irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteRandy - have you tried contacting Representative Driehaus about this? Maybe you could ask him for the names and donation amounts of the PB executives that resulted from that meeting. It's pay for play out of Washington once again, and since it's coming from a pro-rail Democrat you don't care.
ReplyDeleteBris:
ReplyDeleteI will put it on my list of things to do. Life is pretty busy right now, but I should be able to work in a call this work week I hope.
That works for me Randy. Thanks for your prompt attention to this matter.
ReplyDeleteCOAST,
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying you should organize a petition or another of your failed charter amendments against it, I'm merely stating that you failed to call out PB on the Brent Spence project, merely just the rail projects. Which leads me to conclude you're a special interest fringe group.
Bris, we actually have gotten off our asses before. We organized to advocate for a streetcar, organized to show the press and people how ridiculous Issue 9 was, organized to defeat Issue 9 at the polls and now the streetcar is coming.
Glad to see we have someone posing as Bris again, keeps things interesting around here.
Gordon, are you saying that the federal government should not ensure that the bridge stays functional? Should they take it down and replace it with a ferry or tell everyone to swim across the Ohio River? Tell us what you believe should be done there.
ReplyDeleteAs for Pelosi....I mean Driehaus, if all they were meeting about was the bridge, which has been on the agenda for years, why hide it? What is Pelosi's sock-puppet hiding?
B, I'm not much for swimming and I think the Anderson Ferry is great, but I certainly understand the purpose of the bridge, its neccesity to the region's commuters etc. etc. etc, you missed my point though.
ReplyDeleteIf the special interest windbags at COAST are so bent on calling out PB for their Cincinnati region projects, why not call them out on the Brent Spence Bridge replacement, since they'll be getting the contract for that as well. Was simply asking for a reason why they're only upset with PB when it comes to rail projects, anything else and to them PB isn't so bad.
B, I'm not much for swimming and I think the Anderson Ferry is great, but I certainly understand the purpose of the bridge, its neccesity to the region's commuters etc. etc. etc, you missed my point though.
ReplyDeleteIf the special interest windbags at COAST are so bent on calling out PB for their Cincinnati region projects, why not call them out on the Brent Spence Bridge replacement, since they'll be getting the contract for that as well. Was simply asking for a reason why they're only upset with PB when it comes to rail projects, anything else and to them PB isn't so bad.
The Business Courier seemed to have been able to figure out what was discussed at the meeting.
ReplyDeletehttp://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2010/08/02/daily10.html?jst=pn_pn_lk
I would think they also discussed other transportation related matters underway moving Cincinnati forward too. It's okay to move our fair city forward, isn't it?
But, of course for COAST, it is okay when a Republican is appropriating money for a massive highway project. Just not okay for a Democrat to do the same thing:
ReplyDeletehttp://geoffdavis.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=119572
As well, closed-door meetings are just fine if you are Steve Chabot.