Fri Jun 26 15:50:24 2009 CST
By Jennifer Peebles
The former head of the Houston Airport System says he did not do business for a nonprofit airport construction-and-management firm he chaired while on a trip to Libya earlier this year that cost the city $13,000.Richard M. Vacar, who retired in May as the head of Houston's three commercial airports, said he was trying to build relationships for the eventual establishment of Houston-to-Tripoli airline routes when he visited the North African nation in February. In a wide-ranging half-hour phone interview, Vacar said everything in relation to the trip was completely above-board -- "there are no exceptions to that" -- and said that the city will likely get back most of the ticket price through an agreement between the airport system and its air carriers.
Vacar also said that he always put his work for the Houston Airport System first, and gave it a higher priority than work for the nonprofit, which is now building and running airports and air facilities in several countries.
The nonprofit, which has ongoing projects in Ecuador and Costa Rica, "doesn't really have an interest in Libya," Vacar said in a phone interview Wednesday. "That was not the purpose of that trip."
Had the nonprofit, called the Houston Airport System Development Corp., wanted to do business in Libya, it would have been required to seek approval from the mayor's office, Vacar said, as Libya wasn't on the list of approved countries for its business dealings. He said he didn't have that approval for Libya and never asked for it from Mayor Bill White.
Texas Watchdog reported Wednesday that HASDC and key players in some of its business matters held multiple meetings regarding Libya in the weeks leading up to Vacar's trip, according to records from Vacar's office calendar and travel expenses made public under the state's Public Information Act.
A meeting on Jan. 27, marked “Discuss Libya,” was held at the Houston offices of AECOM, a company that has done business with HASDC. The attendees, the calendar said, included Vacar, HASDC chief Jeff Scheferman, and the head of AECOM.
Another meeting, on Feb. 10, bore a notation of “Libyan Group,” and said it met at HASDC’s offices on the North Sam Houston Parkway; the attendees included Vacar and another airport official. By virtue of his position as director of the airport system, Vacar was chairman of the board of HASDC.
Another record, a request by Vacar for an increase in the maximum for per diem expenses while in Libya -- from the standard $40 a day to $60 "due to the inflated cost of food" -- noted that someone from HASDC would be going on the trip, as well as people from the Port of Houston and Methodist Hospital.
(Continued on Page 2: Vacar says city signed off on $10K biz-class airfare)
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