DOT official's fund-raiser questioned

Engineering firms invited to barbecue

By PATRICK MARLEY and STEVEN WALTERS
pmarley@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Oct. 28, 2005

Madison - The No. 2 official of the state Department of Transportation organized a fund-raiser last month for Gov. Jim Doyle and invited dozens of employees of engineering firms that do more than $100 million a year in work for the department.

DOT Deputy Secretary Ruben Anthony Jr. said Friday that he did not believe the firms felt pressured to attend the Sept. 8 barbecue fund-raiser.

Anthony insisted he played no role in awarding contracts but acknowledged that he took no steps to assure those firms' representatives that getting state contracts was not contingent upon attending the fund-raiser.

"I didn't do anything to try to give anybody that impression" that donations were tied to state work, he said. "I just assumed that we were having a barbecue and that anybody who wanted to come could come and have barbecue.

"Even if you showed up, you didn't have to give anything. I told people that, too. There was a $100 minimum, but I told people that if you came, you know, you came. I wasn't telling anybody what to give."

Asked to clarify, he confirmed attendees had to give at least $100 to attend the event. "That's what they expect usually at these fund-raisers," he said. "They expect a minimum."

Doyle, a Democrat, was at the event along with DOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi. About 90 others attended, including representatives of HNTB Corp., CH2M Hill Inc. and Ayres Associates, Anthony said.

Disclosure of the fund-raiser comes as U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic in Milwaukee investigates Doyle's administration for awarding a contract to Adelman Travel of Milwaukee, whose owner, Craig B. Adelman, gave Doyle's campaign $10,000.

Anthony said he did not know how much the campaign collected from the event. If everyone gave the $500 suggested donation, the event would have generated $45,000.

Jay Heck, executive director of government watchdog Common Cause in Wisconsin, called Anthony's role in the event "totally improper and outrageous."

"In the first place, why is the deputy secretary for the DOT involved in fund raising?" Heck said. "Secondly, if these folks are actively bidding for contracts with the state of Wisconsin, that's a huge conflict of interest.

"It's almost as if (Anthony) is saying, 'By the way, the governor is having a fund-raiser, and it'd be great to see you there.' The implicit message is, 'That might help your chances of landing a contract.' The other implicit message is, 'If you don't come, it's not going to help your chances; it'll probably hurt you.' "

Fund-raiser called aboveboard

Doyle was in northeast Wisconsin late Friday and could not be reached. Aide Dan Leistikow said there was nothing improper about the event.

"Ruben is a person of great integrity," he said. "He followed the letter and spirit of the law, and no one has even suggested otherwise. He has no role in approving contracts or choosing consultants for the department."

State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Wineke called Doyle "as ethical a man as I've ever known" and said there was nothing improper about the Sept. 8 event.

Wineke said the two Republican candidates for governor, U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, have both taken special-interest donations.

Wineke said Green, for example, accepted $54,000 from drug manufacturers after he cast a key vote on the Medicare reforms that will begin to provide drug coverage to the nation's elderly, and Walker benefited from a fund-raising event hosted by former state official and investment banker Nick Hurtgen, who is now fighting federal corruption charges in Chicago.

And, Wineke added, "Did you guys write these stories on (former Gov.) Tommy Thompson, when he took (donations) from the road-building industry?"

Indeed, road interests have long given to candidates of both parties. In 2002, they gave nearly $475,000 to candidates running for governor and about $202,000 to legislative candidates.

Employees of HNTB, CH2M Hill and Ayres gave more than $35,000 to Doyle's re-election campaign and more than $5,000 to Republican legislators between January 2003 and July 1 of this year, records show.

In May 2003, Bill Kennedy of road builder Rock Road Cos. held a fund-raiser at his Janesville home for Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo), just three days after the Legislature's budget-writing committee scuttled a plan by Doyle to delay 99 road projects because of tight finances.

HNTB and CH2M Hill are the engineers on the reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange, the most costly state road project on record.

HNTB Chief Operating Officer Scott Butzen was the only person from that firm to attend the Doyle event, said Brian Swenson, vice president of HNTB's Wisconsin operation.

Butzen was out of the office Friday, but Swenson said the firm had no problem with a high-ranking DOT official organizing the fund-raiser.

"As you can probably imagine, we get a lot of requests from both Dems and Republicans," he said. "We evaluate them on a case-by-case basis . . . This was one that we felt would be good to be in attendance at. It was an event for the governor and, obviously, he's got a good stance on transportation, so we felt it would be something worthwhile for us to be there."

A party at the new house

Anthony previously had never held a fund-raiser for Doyle, but said he decided to do it this summer because he was looking to have a party in the backyard of his new house. Four to six weeks before the event, he contacted Doyle's campaign because his backyard did not yet have grass.

Doyle's campaign then arranged to have the event at the home of Michael Leffel, a Madison attorney who lives in Middleton.

The state gave engineering firms such as HNTB, CH2M Hill and Ayres $106 million worth of work in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Unlike road-building contracts, which are awarded to the lowest bidder, engineering contracts are given to firms without taking price into account. Federal law precludes the Transportation Department from considering cost when requesting engineering work to ensure that states don't hire firms that lowball bids and then design shoddy roads and bridges.

The state selects engineering firms on their proposals for projects. Once the DOT selects the firm, it enters negotiations on price. The DOT can pull out of those talks if it feels the companies are being unreasonable on price.

Marc Marotta, chairman of the governor's re-election campaign and the former secretary of the state Department of Administration, said cabinet secretaries and deputy secretaries of state agencies are political appointees who can do whatever they want "on their private time."

Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) called the event "another example of in-house politics that is, appearance-wise, corrupted by the money chase for elections."