OFFICIALS IN STATE LAVISHED WITH GIFTS

Companies that Gave Presents

 

Often Received Contracts from the State

 

By John Christoffersen, and Matt Apuzzo,  Associated Press

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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,"
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's a political culture implicating Rowland, a
Republican in his third term. He's 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.

A state's or city's top government official sets the tone in regard to kickbacks, said FBI Special Agent Dennis Aiken, who led the investigation that resulted in Providence, R.I., Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci's 2002 conviction for racketeering.

"If he doesn't say no, word travels like wildfire," said Aiken, who wrote the
FBI field guide to investigating corruption and is not involved in the
Connecticut probes. "I call it a super-secret. It's a secret you can't keep. The
contractors who pay have groups they travel in, and that super-secret travels
fast. Once it becomes that way, then it's systemic."

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 Tomasso.

Tomasso has had a knack for winning major state contracts, even when the
company wasn't the preferred bidder.

In Waterbury, Rowland's hometown, 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, Tomasso was not the first choice to build a $37
million juvenile court. But a state selection team took a second vote and chose
Tomasso.

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 Claywell ran into a contract snafu, he appealed to Rowland for help.
Claywell's attorneys say Peter Ellef, 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,"' attorney M.H. "Reese" Norris said. "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," 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."

In addition to the investigation swirling around Rowland, a second federal
probe focuses on allegations of kickbacks for environmental cleanup work.

Connecticut is rife with scandals involving contracts for bribes, including
schemes that have landed the former state treasurer, Paul Silvester, and mayor
of Connecticut's largest city, Joseph Ganim of Bridgeport, in prison.

In Waterbury, former Mayor Philip Giordano was convicted on charges of
molesting two girls. He acknowledged during his trial that he received "occasional"
payments of as much as $2,500 from a construction contractor. Testimony showed
how business was conducted in Waterbury.

When the contractor bid on a massive downtown revitalization project,
Giordano insisted that his friend get the contract.

"You better be sure," Giordano told the contracting agency, according to
court testimony. "Like you're sure your mom's going to have her next birthday."

But even that telephone conversation was not enough to steer the contract. It
went to Tomasso.