[StBernard] New law blocks donations from no-bid contractors to candidates

[Westley Annis]

New law blocks donations from no-bid contractors to candidates

By Meghan Gordon
West Bank bureau

Halfway through his first term, St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior"
Rodriguez Jr. created what he hoped would become an annual golf tournament
to raise money for future re-election bids. But as his chief of staff puts
it, the inaugural 18-hole scramble set for Aug. 29, 2005, was "rained out"
by Hurricane Katrina. 

So the colorful politician rescheduled the fund-raiser for the hurricane's
anniversary. He marked the somber day with a morning ceremony before heading
to the links, where he collected $17,000 in donations for his 2007
re-election campaign. 

Two months later, his treasurer hasn't deposited the checks. 

A new law that strips away a potentially hefty amount of campaign cash from
local elections has metro New Orleans elected leaders cautiously holding
onto similar donations while they await clarification of a campaign finance
provision that went into effect in July. 

It targets any donor who received a contract or a first-tier subcontract for
emergency work after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when mayors and parish
presidents had the authority to ignore competitive bidding rules. The ban
stays in place until 2009. Any politician or donor who violates the new law
faces a penalty double the amount of the illegal contribution and, likely
more damning, negative attention from the gaffe's disclosure. 
In a political climate where engineers, law firms and builders religiously
donate to sitting politicians and likely winners, some leaders predicted the
number of returned checks might be staggering. 

"The people who typically contribute are the people who have business with
City Hall," said New Orleans City Councilwoman Shelly Midura, who welcomed
the restrictions. 

Rep. Gary Beard, R-Baton Rouge, said he sponsored the bill during this
year's regular session to prove to locals and the rest of the nation that
leaders aren't rewarding companies for greasing the wheels of government,
even if the notion of the "Louisiana way" persists. 

"We were going to make sure that the trust and the confidence in the public
officials was justified," Beard said. "And even in an emergency situation,
we were going to make sure that it wasn't just going to businesses that
helped out with campaigns."

A feel-good measure? 

Many recipients of emergency contracts in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and
Kenner were chronic donors with long ties to the officials who tapped them
for the work, while others were out-of-town disaster chasers hustling for
jobs without the same connections. Some simply offered capabilities no other
firms held in the deserted region. 

But if the companies long ago completed the lucrative work of clearing
roads, repairing key infrastructure and other tasks necessary before the
evacuated population could return, is the campaign finance legislation a
feel-good measure that saves the firms money after they've already benefited
from past relationships or donations? Or will the legislation change
behavior during the next disaster? 

Politicians, naturally, wouldn't touch the question. Instead, most praised
the legislation as worthy campaign finance reform that would lessen
citizens' skepticism of the process of doling out huge contracts without
public hearings. 

Though saying he is happy to abide by the new law, Jefferson Parish
Councilman-at-large Tom Capella pointed out what he sees as the
restriction's flaw: He didn't sign any of the emergency contracts in his
role last fall as council chairman. Parish President Aaron Broussard, the
ultimate parish authority under declared emergencies, selected firms and
awarded the work. 

"Certainly nobody on this council had the right to issue those contracts,"
Capella said.

'Gray area' in law 

The Jefferson Parish Council asked for a parish attorney's opinion on
whether the restrictions applied to council members, despite their limited
powers during the declared emergency. 

"I would love the Ethics Board to rule on who this statute covers, because
it would sure clear up some confusion on this end," Parish Attorney Tom
Wilkinson said. "But without that, out of an abundance of caution, I think
all of them need to comply with it." 

Wilkinson sent letters to 41 contractors asking them to name all first-tier
subs and has since distributed their partial responses totaling 80
subcontractors to Broussard and the seven council members. Without word from
three of the contractors, campaign treasurers for Broussard and Council
Chairman John Young have halted all deposits of checks issued after the law
went into effect. 

Ron Pursell, chief of staff for the New Orleans City Council, agreed that
the bill contained some "gray area" that he has asked the city attorney to
define. He said council members don't have a list of prohibited New Orleans
donors to refer to when depositing donations and he is not sure it will be
very long once the law is definitively interpreted. 

Pursell pointed to the law's definition of "hurricane rebuilding efforts,"
which he interpreted to mean only capital projects, not contracts for
professional services in which council members have a say. 

The law defines the work as "any project for the improvement, construction,
erection, reconstruction, modification, repair, demolition or other physical
change of an immovable or its component parts damaged or destroyed or
necessitated by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita."

Seeking clarification 

One of the few formal requests to the Ethics Board on the matter came from
an aide to Rodriguez of St. Bernard. Chief of Staff Charles Reppel said he
is still unclear on which companies can't contribute. He didn't follow up on
specific questions from the Ethics Board, so the body pulled it from its
October agenda. Though Rodriguez has a year to plot his bid for a second
term, Reppel said he wants clarification before campaigning begins in
earnest. 

"We don't want to do anything illegal. I'm too old to go to jail," Reppel
said, laughing. 

Still another uncertainty in the law's enforcement is whether it restricts
government heads from accepting donations from companies to which a
predecessor awarded emergency contracts. The law's language doesn't appear
to make exceptions for contracts a politician didn't award on his or her own
initiative. 

Kenner Mayor Ed Muniz, who nevertheless vowed to turn away donations from
any company that did business with the city, said the new campaign finance
restriction shouldn't apply to the emergency contracts that his former
opponent, Phil Capitano, awarded while in office last fall. 

"With all due respect to Capitano, whom I have no respect for, that's
ridiculous," Muniz said. "I cannot be responsible for anything he did." 

A nonbinding opinion prepared by staff attorney Kathleen Allen of the state
Ethics Board says the only hurricane-related contracts exempt from the ban
are those competitively bid under the Public Works Act. The document says
the exemption doesn't apply to work issued after "competitive negotiations"
such as through requests for proposals. 

The interpretation might require governments such as St. Tammany Parish to
abide by the donation ban. Parish President Kevin Davis awarded what turned
into a massive debris contract to Omni Pinnacle before Katrina, after the
Slidell firm submitted the lowest quote in a request for proposals. 

Given the unknown implications of the new law, it remains to be seen whether
it will dent one of the greatest advantages held by incumbent politicians,
who often receive donations from companies as soon as they take office. 

"When you look at these companies that do contribute to politicians in the
parish, they contribute to everybody and, no, they're not just on one
person's lists," Kenner City Councilman Kent Denapolis said. "Companies give
across the board." 

Meghan Gordon can be reached at mgordon at timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3785.