Conflicted? Hellz Yeah!

Brownsville 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.

No, the article in the Herald wasn't surprising in the least. And, in a way, serves as an intriguing segue from the point brought up elsewhere of judging politicians by how they treat folks in normal life.

Namely, judging politicians by how they act in PUBLIC life.

Answers.com defines "conflict of interest" simply:

A conflict between a person's private interests and public obligations.

And now, more from the article:

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.

How can this NOT pose as a conflict? How else should Chambers have replied? In typical quid pro quo fashion, Peter Zavaletta asked Mr. Chambers for a private quid, Chamber's name on a lawsuit, only after Zavaletta performed a public quo on August 29th, voting to start negotiations with Bay Bridge.

This clearly creates an appearance of impropriety, folks. And ironically, it's precisely what Zavaletta has championed against, via BND ethics code implementation, in the past.

IMHO, a tiger doesn't change its stripes.