Defendant in Dallas City Hall trial says he, Hill, others sought kickbacks

The Dallas Morning News reports:

One of the defendants who has pleaded guilty in the Dallas City Hall corruption case testified Monday that he and a colleague worked with former Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and others to pressure developers to hire more minority contractors from whom they could receive kickbacks.

Allen McGill said that in August 2004, he and Darren Reagan used their group, the Black State Employees Association of Texas, to call for a moratorium on affordable housing developers' building in southern Dallas. They sought the delay to give themselves and others involved time to pressure developers Brian Potashnik and James R. "Bill" Fisher for contracts for themselves and certain minority firms, McGill told jurors.

"We were asking for a piece of the action," McGill testified. "If there was a way to politically pressure them, then we would have an opportunity to do that."

In a free market in housing, you might not have these problems.