[Vision2020] Paying for Conservative Whoremongering

[Gray Tree Crab aka Big Bertha]

 Friday, November 16, 2007

*Curtis trip on public dime
Disgraced lawmaker in Spokane for GOP retreat
*
Documents: Receipts from The Davenport Hotel

Richard Roesler
Staff writer
November 16, 2007

OLYMPIA – An awful lot is known about then-state-lawmaker Richard Curtis'
recent encounters with men at a Spokane Valley adult bookstore and downtown
hotel last month. But here's something you probably didn't know:

You paid for the trip.

Curtis' travel records, obtained Thursday by The Spokesman-Review through a
public records request, show that his three-day trip to Spokane cost
taxpayers nearly $800.

They also show that during his three years as a legislator, Curtis racked up
more than $18,000 in expenses in 37 overnight trips around the state, as
well as to New York City, San Francisco and Boston.

The late-October bills for his Spokane trip include about 49 cents a mile
for the Vancouver-area lawmaker's 718-mile drive to the Lilac City and back,
as well as $100 a day for food and expenses.

Taxpayers also picked up the $77-a-night tab for the Davenport Tower hotel
room in which Curtis had sex with waiter and part-time porn model Cody
Castagna.

Curtis was in Spokane Oct. 24 through 26 for a House Republican retreat to
discuss the upcoming legislative session. In the predawn hours of Oct. 26,
he reportedly donned women's lingerie and had sexual contact with a man at
Hollywood Erotic Boutique. Curtis, who voted against gay rights bills as a
legislator, then returned to the Davenport Tower, where Castagna joined him
for sex.

Legislative staffers said Thursday that no one questioned paying the cost of
the trip. Curtis by all accounts did attend the Republican meetings during
the day.

"House policy authorizes member to be reimbursed for travel expenses
associated with their attendance of official meeting of legislative
caucuses" and similar events, said House deputy chief clerk Bernard Dean.

The details of Curtis' night became public when Castagna allegedly tried to
blackmail him, triggering detailed police reports. Amid national publicity,
a news conference by Castagna and a cascade of what one political blogger
called "almost unbelievably lurid" details, Curtis quit Oct. 31.

Curtis' travel receipts also show that he was in Spokane two weeks earlier
as a member of the state gambling commission. A Hollywood Erotic Boutique
employee told police in late October that a cross-dressing Curtis had been
in the shop three times in the past month. All told, Curtis made five
state-paid trips to Spokane since 2005.

The biggest bill of Curtis' legislative career, in fact, stemmed from a June
visit to the city. Over the course of six days, taxpayers picked up a $2,876
tab for Curtis, including a $332-a-night room at the Davenport Hotel,
airfare and $443 to rent a black Chrysler convertible. For five nights, his
hotel bill alone – including several in-room movies and room-service meals –
was $1,937. The state didn't reimburse Curtis for the movies.

What was the former Vancouver fire captain doing in Spokane? Attending a
firefighters' convention.

A legislative accounting staffer questioned the cost in an e-mail to Curtis.
Curtis said the $332-a-night room was the only one he could find.

Bill Wegeleben, then the deputy chief clerk for the House and now director
of government operations for Gov. Chris Gregoire, said it's common for
lawmakers to exceed normal state rates when hotel rooms fill up.

"In this case, it was quite a bit more," said Wegeleben, who approved
Curtis' request. "He said the only place that he could find was at that
rate. I'm not going to second-guess a (legislative) member when he says he
can't find a room at the per diem rate."

As for the point of the trip, he said, lawmakers get eight "discretionary
days" of travel a year outside the usual schedule of committee meetings.
It's common for lawmakers to use those days to attend meetings of
associations or labor groups, Wegeleben said, "as long as it's legitimate
business and they're there as a legislator."

In an unusual public slap of one of their own, House lawmakers recently cut
off future travel reimbursements for Rep. Jim Dunn, R-Vancouver, after he
allegedly made sexual comments to a woman after a committee meeting.

"No such decision was contemplated with Rep. Curtis, who resigned shortly
after the incident at the hotel in which he was staying," said Dean.

-- 
Gray Tree Crab aka "Big Bertha"
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