Road work enhanced official's property

Board of Transportation member Louis W. Sewell Jr. says all projects he backed were in the public interest

A state Board of Transportation member from Jacksonville steered roughly $375,000 in public money to road improvements adjacent to properties that he or a son co-owned at the time.

In 2004 and 2005, board member Louis W. Sewell Jr. recommended or voted for spending $200,000 in state money to improve a busy commercial intersection where he or his son, along with business partners, were selling two properties at more than $1 million each. He also asked a state senator to provide another $125,000 for the intersection improvements from a DOT discretionary fund.

In 2006, Sewell recommended and voted for $50,000 in state money to patch a section of road on the outskirts of Jacksonville where he and business partners own a 250-acre parcel. The land is now for sale.

State law requires members of the transportation board to refrain from seeking money for projects that might directly benefit them. Minutes of board meetings do not show Sewell mentioning his financial interests in those two areas of Jacksonville. Twice, he voted for some of the funding for the road improvements.

Sewell insists that all the road projects he has recommended or voted to approve have been in the public interest. "All I try to do is help the people of Jacksonville and North Carolina," he said in a brief interview before a recent board meeting.

Sewell followed up with a letter, sent by his lawyer, in which Sewell wrote that he had sought the money at U.S. 17 and Western Boulevard to improve safety at an intersection widely considered the area's busiest. He said the patching at Ramsey Road on the northern outskirts of Jacksonville aided a new housing development that includes an elementary school.

"I understand, and have always understood, that any decision I make, or influence I exercise, as a member of the Board of Transportation must be made on the merits of the proposed transportation improvement project," Sewell wrote. "I challenge you to refute the justification, from a highway improvement viewpoint, of any of the projects which I have approved."

State Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett said Friday that he would forward information about the transactions to the State Ethics Commission for an investigation. He said he made the decision after conferring with Gov. Mike Easley.

"The circumstances of this thing are a bit unusual," Tippett said.

Sewell, 73, was a fundraiser for Easley, who appointed him to the transportation board.

Sewell's land benefits

Department of Transportation records show that the intersection at U.S. 17 and Western Boulevard was a hot spot for vehicle crashes. Soon after Sewell recommended road work, the Jacksonville City Council and a regional planning group urged the department to increase the intersection's capacity.

And over on Ramsey Road, the department received several complaints about cracked pavement, among other problems.

But both projects also benefit Sewell's real estate investments.

In March 2004, Sewell recommended $115,000 in state money to add and extend turn lanes, move overhead signs and add concrete medians at U.S. 17 and Western Boulevard. It was the first of three recommendations or requests he made for state money in 2004 and 2005 at the intersection for a total of $327,000.

Real estate records show Sewell was trying to upgrade the intersection while he and his partners were developing a parcel near one corner, and a son and his partners were developing a parcel at another corner.

Sewell and his business partners subdivided a parcel about 300 feet west of the intersection into four lots that are now home to a medical clinic and a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. Sewell and his partners paid $603,000 for the land in 1999 and sold three of the four subdivided parcels for a total of $1.7 million over a yearlong period beginning in September 2004. That's six months after he began requesting DOT money for improvements.