We have an update on the story we broke today about former state Rep. Fred Hill. He's the ex-chairman of the House Local Government Ways and Means Committee who recently became a lobbyist for some local governments in North Texas.
Texas Watchdog found a letter from Fred Hill -- dated Jan. 3 -- soliciting work from the city of Allen, Texas. That might have sounded a real alarm for us, because we naturally thought Hill was going to be a legislator until his successor was sworn in on Jan. 13.
We talked about that to Hill. He said he resigned as a legislator on Jan. 2. We checked on that, and he's correct. Here's Fred Hill's letter of resignation, which he filed with Gov. Rick Perry's office.
But then we talked to the office of Texas' state comptroller today. Here's a twist to Hill's resignation: Although he "resigned" on Jan. 2, his last day on the payroll was Jan. 13.
So, was he a sitting legislator when he was soliciting lobbying work?
He'd tendered a resignation, but he was still on the payroll.
That's what your mama might call an ethically gray area.
And that's a problem.
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Update on Fred Hill: A revolving door at the Texas legislature? Or a red carpet leading through the front door right into the parlor?
Thursday, Feb 19, 2009, 06:02PM CST |
By Trent Seibert
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Comments
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Peggy Venable
Friday, 02/20/2009 - 09:02AM
Interesting information. I am glad to hear that he resigned in early January, but didn't your story say he filed paperwork to establish a lobby company in November? I anticipate that Fred Hills' constitutents knew that he had resigned in early January and they knew that they didn't have an acting state rep for almost a month and a half, right? Did he send out a press release and the local media cover it? Maybe I just missed that. When did he start soliciting clients? And how can he be on the payroll if he resigned? Was that an error on the part of the Comptroller's Office? I think taxpayers would still have questions. |
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Jennifer Peebles
Friday, 02/20/2009 - 09:42AM
Peggy, To answer a couple of your questions: + Rep. Hill filed paperwork with the Secretary of State's office to create Solutions for Local Control LLC on Nov. 20. + He had announced back in September that he wouldn't run for office again, and that announcement was covered by several major media outlets and political blogs across the state. (If you Google something like "Fred Hill" and resign, it should come up.) + His resignation letter to the governor was dated Jan. 2 and was received that day, so there would have been about an 11-day lag period between his resignation and the day that his replacement, Rep. Button, was sworn in (Jan. 13). For your other questions, we're still working on getting answers. |
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