Bob Watkins repays Charger tickets after true purpose of outing is revealed

It turns out that Bob Watkins, formerly of SDCOE and now airport authority chairman, did not take a member of parliament to a baseball game as he claimed.

See all posts about Bob Watkins.

Watkins Repays Chargers Tickets
Voice of San Diego
by Rob Davis

Bob Watkins, the airport authority chairman, has reimbursed the authority $1,200 for the Chargers-Saints game he attended in London last October, an authority spokeswoman announced today.

Watkins didn't attend the game with the person he said he had. When I talked to him in July about the expense, he told me he'd taken a member of the British Parliament. He said they sat on the 5-yard line. At the time, he said this:

The tickets that I got were for myself and a member of Parliament over there who essentially is involved in airport security and as a result of that particular activity, we then met with a number of other people who were involved in England’s -- Great Britain’s airports -- Stanstead and Heathrow, so it was a business expense, not a junket.

Diana Lucero, an authority spokeswoman, said that Watkins actually took James R. Burrows, then the CEO of Litelogic, a British company that puts LED advertisements on buses and that had interest in doing business in San Diego...




Watkins Took Niece's Husband to Chargers Game
Voice of San Diego
by Rob Davis
Sept. 15, 2009


In early August, Bob Watkins, the airport authority chairman, told me that when he went to the Chargers-Saints game in London last year -- with tickets paid for by the airport authority -- he took a member of Parliament involved in airport security issues.

The authority corrected Watkins last week, saying he'd actually taken James Burrows, then the CEO of Litelogic, a British company that puts LED advertisements on buses and that had interest in doing business in San Diego. Watkins repaid the $1,200 tickets in late August after our coverage highlighted that expense and others.

What the authority's correction didn't say: Burrows is part of Watkins' extended family.

Burrows is married to Watkins' niece, Gwynneth, said Peggy Fainelli, Watkins' ex-wife.

In an interview Monday, Watkins refused to confirm the relationship. He later acknowledged that his brother, who now lives in San Diego, had lived in England and still has family there. Watkins said he contacts them when he's overseas...