As Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman delivered a speech at the Athletic Club of Columbus in September, city Utilities Director John Doutt dined at a table sponsored by Burgess & Niple Engineering.

Over the $17-a-plate lunch, company executives had the opportunity to listen to the mayor while chatting with two top officials in his administration, Doutt and Cheryl Roberto, the deputy director of utilities and a key Coleman adviser.

"It was their mayor's speech, and we just thought they might like to see it," Burgess & Niple Chief Executive Francis C. Smith said of the invitation.

Partners in the firm, which was paid $3.5 million in unbid engineering contracts through the city's department of utilities in 2000, donated at least $9,600 in 1999 and 2000 to Coleman's campaign fund.

The firm's partners give money to candidates, Smith said, to encourage good government. Smith said he has never thought about whether his firm's political donations gain Burgess & Niple better access to city officials, much less extra consideration when the company is up for a contract.

"They return calls when I call them," he said, "but, then, I'm the chairman and CEO of one of the largest engineering firms in the city, too."

At that Sept. 26 speech, other Coleman administration officials lunched at the table of Evans, Mechwart, Hambleton & Tilton, an engineering firm that received $1.5 million in unbid contracts from the city last year. EMH&T executives donated at least $6,000 to Coleman in 1999 and 2000, campaign-finance records show.

Both companies are among dozens of city vendors that receive millions in contracts and support the campaigns of the mayor and City Council members with thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

Doutt said he sees no problem in having lunch with people from a firm that works closely with the city.

"It's just a courtesy," he said.

Both Doutt and Roberto said they don't know whether engineers donate to the mayor. Even if he did know, Doutt said, it wouldn't matter because qualifications, not political donations, matter when a contract is at stake.

Although most city contracts are awarded based on sealed bids, which emphasize the lowest cost, the process for professional-services contracts with engineers, architects and construction managers is more subjective. Panels of city employees evaluate proposals to determine the best, not necessarily the least expensive.

Coleman said donors have no greater access to his administration than anyone else and are not receiving special consideration for city business.

Anyone, he said, can meet with him or his administrators.

"I am about as accessible as a human being could possibly be -- to everybody," he said. "I take great pride in being visible and accessible to the city of Columbus."

But not everybody has the kind of access in evidence at the Metropolitan Club luncheon, held at the Athletic Club on E. Broad Street.

As Coleman addressed Metropolitan Club members and guests, the Coleman campaign's chief fund-raiser, Melissa Barnhart, accompanied a BBS Corp. executive, Edward O. Vance, to the event and introduced him to city officials. Like Burgess & Niple and EMH&T, BBS Corp. does engineering worth millions for the city.

In 1999 and 2000, campaign-finance records show, Vance and other BBS executives donated at least $3,000 to the Coleman campaign. Vance also was among BBS executives who donated $11,400 to a lobbyist's political action committee, which gave Coleman $27,000 in 1999 and 2000.

The Coleman administration paid BBS $1.8 million from unbid engineering contracts in 2000.

Vance declined to comment, and Barnhart did not return repeated telephone calls seeking comment.

Catherine Turcer, campaign-finance director for Ohio Citizen Action, a nonpartisan group that promotes campaign-finance reform, said donations from city contractors don't necessarily mean the companies are paying to play.

"But it doesn't pass the smell test," she said. "It looks really shady. That's the problem -- it looks that way. We don't really know."

The September speech isn't the only place donors such as BBS Corp. obtain access. In August 2000, BBS, The Limited and Columbus engineering firm DLZ Corp. sponsored glitzy receptions for Coleman each night at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.

Linking donations to the companies is not always easy in Columbus' relatively unregulated campaign-finance reporting system. In BBS' case, some of the company's money likely reached Coleman and council members through a third-party political action committee run by lobbyist Richard Hillis.

The company made donations to Hillis' PAC, and the PAC made donations to the city officials.

Hillis said his PAC's records are easy to find in state databases, but the contributions show up on city reports as coming from "Government Policy Group/MERIT PAC," with no indication who the PAC represents.

Hillis said he wants the PAC to be among the top givers to Columbus officials.

"If I get the PAC into the top 10 or 12, I'm pretty comfortable that I'm going to be very respected from the standpoint of someone that I want to talk to," he said. "I just really believe that you have to get into that level before you're a serious player."

Others give often and in small amounts that aren't likely to be noticed, especially because donors are not required to list their employer or occupation on city campaign-finance reports.

The $9,600 that Burgess & Niple executives gave to Coleman -- and nearly $1,500 spread among City Council President Matt Habash and other council members -- came in 70 donations ranging from $50 to $400 from 10 Burgess & Niple engineers and executives.

The money is only that from executives The Dispatch identified through a list on the company's Web site. Burgess & Niple has 18 partners, some of them out of state, Smith said.

Reporting of campaign donations at the municipal level is generally poor, said Larry Makinson, senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that supports campaign-finance reform.

"There's an irony here that the best reporting is at the federal level, and the agencies people pay the most attention to are the local governments," he said. "The closer you go to the local level, the more blatant the quid pro quos are. There's less scrutiny, and everyone knows each other."

Coleman is not the first Columbus mayor to take money from firms that do business with the city.

Both Coleman and then-Mayor Greg Lashutka received thousands of dollars in 1999 from the same engineering firms.

BBS donated at least $1,725 to the outgoing mayor in 1998 and 1999. EMH&T donated at least $3,300 to Lashutka. Burgess & Niple executives gave the Lashutka campaign at least $2,850. All continued to donate well into 1999, when it was clear the Republican mayor was not running for re-election.

Lashutka said donors may seek access, but that doesn't mean they receive everything they want.

"Some have gotten contracts; some don't," he said. "There are those who do believe in good government and do believe it's part of how they have the opportunity to otherwise meet with public officials."