Seattle City Councilman Jim Compton says he has

reimbursed billionaire Paul Allen's mother for a private plane trip

and game tickets he accepted in March to attend a Portland Trail

Blazers game.

Compton says he wrote a 950-dollar check over the

weekend to cover the cost of the airfare, game ticket, a bus ride

to and from the stadium and a hot dog. Compton says he reimbursed

the money to clear up any perceptions that the trip to the game was

somehow intended to influence him in dealing with issues related to

the South Lake Union area of Seattle.

Allen's real-estate company,

Vulcan, owns about 50 acres there that it plans to develop, along

with other companies and institutions, into a center for

biotechnology.