Rep. Dukes: Follow the money, she says.

Today’s flurry of suits in House District 46 isn’t the only legal issue that Rep. Dawnna Dukes is involved in. But she’s swinging back at a claim her company owes money to another local business.

Her consultancy firm, D.M. Dukes & Associates, is being sued along with Pro Arts Collective by S.W. Hale Consulting LLC over unpaid bills for a fundraiser in late 2005 and for organizing the 2006 Heritage Festival held at Huston-Tillotson University. Former City of Austin Planning Commission member Stephanie Hale says that she was sub-contracted by Dukes, and Dukes still owes her.

Hale said that her contract to organize the 2005 festival had been with Dukes, and that she was working under the same conditions in 2006. However, Dukes says that Hales was paid in 2005 by ProArts, and she has documentation to prove it. “It speaks for itself, and she knows it,” said Dukes. “The entire claim is with ProArts”

Dukes has sent the Chronicle scans of a May 2005 check from ProArts and communications between herself, Hale, and ProArts executive director Aaron Clay. The delay in payment in 2005, she said, was in part due to the tragic death of Boyd Vance, founder and director of ProArts. “How cruel of [Hale] to make misleading statements concerning both me and ProArts,” Dukes said in a separate email.

This article appears in February 29 • 2008.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.