January 19, 2003

Cruise Ship Parking Controversy

Galveston northside developer Bill Hughes was arrested for disorderly conduct on Sunday morning, but he later apologized to the police officer, complimenting his professionalism.

Hughes, who operates a parking lot for cruise ship passengers, and leases property to the Port of Galveston for another lot, said he was perturbed that a rival lot owned by James J. Flanagan of Beaumont was causing traffic to back up.

Hughes said the use of a gate near Harborside was causing the backup.  He said no cars were getting to his lot, so he began trying to flag cars into the port's lot.

That's when he got into a verbal confrontation that led to the arrest.  Hughes said the dispute with the operator of the other lot became personal, which led to his behavior.

"I just exploded," Hughes said.  "I had to go to jail and I had to apologize to the policeman, who did nothing wrong at all except listen to my bad temper."

Hughes stresses that he did not have the port's permission to flag cars into the lot, but felt that it was the right thing to do.

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