Contractors Giving Gifts To Politicians Common Practice In Connecticut

By John Christoffersen

and Matt Apuzzo

Associated Press

HARTFORD — A contractor who gave gifts and vacations to Gov John G. Rowland took a trip in 1998 with top gubernatorial aides for an exclusive look at an Ohio reform school that Connecticut would use as a model for its own project.

Months later, the contractor won the $52 million contract, bypassing the traditional competitive bidding process.

Another contractor lavished the governor with Cuban cigars and Dom Perignon, figuring it would help out come contract time. He says it did.

One of the state’s largest architectural contractors, who is awarded frequent state work, provided free blueprints for a state official’s home.

And an employee of Connecticut’s largest environmental contractor told federal investigators that it was his job to clean the pool at the home of a state official who oversaw company contracts.

This, investigators have found, is how competitive bidding frequently works in Connecticut, a state where cozy relationships between contractors and public officials are commonplace and where gift-giving is an important part of doing business.

Contractors have showered state officials with concert tickets, meals, golf games, and trips, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said.

“Some of what we’ve seen in our investigation is absolutely staggering,” Mr Blumenthal said. “Gift giving and favoritism has become endemic to the system. It is like a virus that has spread and created its own tolerance for the disease.”

Critics and officials say it is a political culture implicating Mr Rowland, a Republican in his third term. He is the subject of state and federal investigations and a legislative inquiry that could lead to his impeachment.

Two federal grand juries are investigating kickback allegations in Connecticut and prosecutors have already won several recent high-profile corruption cases. Contracts of all sorts have come under scrutiny, from environmental cleanup work to pension investments.

William Tomasso, whose company did free work on the governor’s summer cottage in 1997, joined administration officials on a 1998 trip to Ohio, where they toured a reform school. Connecticut would later pattern its own building after that model and officials awarded the project to Mr Tomasso.

Mr Tomasso has had a knack for winning major state contracts, even when the company was not the preferred bidder.

In Waterbury, Mr Rowland’s hometown, Mr Tomasso was picked as construction manager for the largest project in the city’s history even though his initial bid was the highest. In Bridgeport, Mr Tomasso was not the first choice to build a $37 million juvenile court. But a state selection team took a second vote and chose Mr Tomasso.

Mr Rowland has said none of the people who gave him gifts got anything in return. But one electrical subcontractor, Kurt Claywell, said he believed expensive cigars and champagne would buy him access to the governor.

When Mr Claywell ran into a contract snafu, he appealed to Mr Rowland for help. Mr Claywell’s attorneys say Peter Ellef, Mr Rowland’s then co-chief of staff, intervened.

“One of the things I’ve heard the governor say is, ‘My office never had anything to do with contracts,’” said attorney M.H. “Reese” Norris. “Obviously, we, as Kurt Claywell’s lawyers, know that not to be true.”

The Department of Public Works is at the heart of one of the probes. Former Commissioner Theodore Anson was forced to resign after acknowledging that he accepted free architectural drawings from a company that has state contracts. Current Commissioner James Fleming said he is trying to turn around his agency.

“I don’t know how that perception happens in an agency, but I think I know how to get rid of it,” Mr Fleming said. “I instituted a no-gift policy. Nothing. There will be no gift taking. There will be no lunches in this agency. It’s simple and it sends a clear message.”