10/22/02

Columbus- Democratic state treasurer candidate Mary Boyle acknowledges that she accepted campaign contributions from county contractors during and after her time as a Cuyahoga County commissioner.

The veteran public servant, however, disagrees with anyone who draws a parallel be tween her fund-raising track record and that of her opponent, in cumbent Re publican Trea surer Joe Deters.

A Plain Dealer review of more than $1 million in Boyle contributions from 1991 to 1997 identified nearly $160,000 from those who held contracts with the county.

That figure excludes $20,325 from those who benefited financially from construction of the Gateway sports complex undertaken while Boyle was in office - including members of the wealthy Gund family.

It also exludes $5,450 from employees whose firms handled trades for the county's SAFE investment fund.

Though some of the Boyle contributions go back a decade or more, the newspaper undertook its review because the issue of "pay to play" politics has been so pervasive in the fall race for state treasurer.

Boyle acknowledged that "when I'm running, I ask everybody to help support my candidacy."

But she said she doesn't recall ever being lobbied by the county contractors on her donation list - perhaps because an individual commissioner could not have made a difference in the awarding of work.

"The differences between this report on my donors and Joe Deters' pay-to-play operation are monumental," said Boyle, 60, of Cleveland. "First of all, the totals are monumentally different. Second of all, nobody paid to play in county government. A contribution to me wouldn't get anybody a contract."

Deters has acknowledged steering political donors to the Hamilton County Republican Party, which he once chaired, after they had reached their contribution limits to his campaign. That party gave more than $300,000 to Deters' campaign from early 2001 to early 2002, the rough equivalent of what those doing business with the treasury donated there.

Roughly two-thirds of the $4 million campaign war chest that Deters had amassed by mid-2002, or some $2.6 million, has been linked to those with business ties to his office.

But Deters campaign spokeswoman Lisa Peterson said the situations are indeed similar.

Boyle "has spent months accusing us of paying to play when she's done the exact same thing," Peterson said.

In her runs for county commissioner and U.S. Senate, Boyle received very few contributions from county or local party affiliates, a review showed - and the single-biggest chunk of her money came from relatives.

Still, several big givers with county contracts did emerge. Here are the largest:

Eight members of the Ratner family, which owns the Forest City Enterprises development firm, gave a combined $19,700. The Ratner companies, major stakeholders in the Tower City complex, earned more than $1.2 million in lease payments from the county in 1994 and 1995.

Former Indians owner Richard E. Jacobs gave $9,000. In addition to the obvious business benefits to Jacobs from construction of a new stadium for the Indians completed during Boyle's tenure, his Richard Jacobs Group earned $195,000 in lease payments from the county in 1994.

Employees or political action committees of three law firms - Ulmer & Berne , Squire Sanders & Dempsey and Hahn Loeser & Parks - gave more than $18,600. All three firms held legal-services contracts with the county during Boyle's tenure.

Adache Ciuni Lynn Associates President Joseph Ciuni and his wife, Mary Jo, gave $4,550. Ciuni's engineering consulting firm landed a $267,000 contract with the county in 1996.

Executives of Donley's Inc., a general contracting firm, gave $4,150. The firm won $1.4 million in county general trades work in 1991 and 1992.

Osterland Cos. Chief Executive Peter Alex and his wife, Theodora, gave $3,750. From 1991 to 1997, Osterland received six county road construction contracts totaling almost $12 million.

Boyle, a commissioner from 1984 to 1996, pointed out that she supplied only one of three votes on county contracts. She also emphasized that all county contracts were either competitively bid or selected through a request-for-proposals process that was subject to staff review.

"We had a prosecutor sitting next to us at every single board meeting week after week after week, making sure the state laws in bidding and [requests for proposals] were met," Boyle said.

Most of the work of the state treasury is unilaterally awarded by Deters' office or by a Board of Deposit that Deters chairs.

"I would never have been comfortable talking about the pay-to-play information that we've received regarding Joe Deters and the Hamilton County Republican Party," Boyle said, "if I didn't believe that there was a sharp contrast between his fund raising and what I've been doing for the last 18 years."

The $160,000 figure was culled from donations of $100 or more to Boyle's county campaign coffers during the last six of her 12 years as a commissioner and to the federal committee she established for an ultimately unsuccessful run for U.S Senate in 1994. Earlier contribution information was not available.

Gateway and SAFE contributions were broken out because, though the firms and individuals benefited at the hands of the county, the commissioners did not directly award the work.

Plain Dealer Reporter Dave Davis and Computer-assisted Reporting Editor Thomas Gaumer contributed to this report.

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jsmyth@plaind.com, 1-800-228-8272