The new code to which he refers outlines the principles behind state rules on the acceptance of gifts, on expenditures, and on other ethical matters. But as far back as he can remember, controller Karass says — and he has been with the Department of Administrative and Financial Services since 1986 — the prohibitions on gifts and excessive expenditures have existed. Long-standing state laws on bribery and corrupt practices also lie behind the rules.
An expanded application of state financial ethics standards, as the governor suggests, would cover a large list of public servants. According to Karass, the university and community college systems, the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, and the Finance Authority of Maine are among the independent agencies that he doesn’t oversee.
Some of these agencies, though, already have financial ethics controls in place. The University of Maine System, for example, prohibits employees from soliciting or receiving “gifts or entertainment from suppliers of goods or services,” according to its written conflict-of-interest policy. The university system’s spokesman, John Diamond, also supplied the Phoenix with documents detailing how the system puts stringent limits on money spent for meals.
They don’t see a problem
In defense of their management dinners, turnpike authority officials say that neither Leonetti nor the HNTB consultants bill their time spent at the dinners and, therefore, are working on these occasions without compensation. And the salaried turnpike personnel at such affairs also are working overtime without extra pay, they say.
Leonetti, the consultant, rejects the idea that his generosity might be perceived as currying the turnpike officials’ favor. “I already have a contract with them,” he replies.
“It was a moment when I wanted to show my appreciation,” he says from his home in New Jersey, about the June 20 dinner. “I was just trying to be a nice guy.”
Lavallee, an HNTB vice president who runs its Portland office and who bills the turnpike at $241 an hour, says the dinners perform the function of “trying to get the management team together in a quiet place.” The fact that HNTB normally buys the drinks “doesn’t amount to much,” he says.
The business part is “front loaded,” he adds. When dinner actually starts “it winds down and becomes more social,” he admits, although the participants “continue to talk about business.”
HNTB, a national firm, is the turnpike’s chief engineering consultant, overseeing planning and construction. The authority paid HNTB $5.3 million in 2005. Lavallee says his company has been the turnpike’s major consulting firm “since the inception of the turnpike.” Personally, he has advised the authority since 1981.
According to authority executive director Paul Violette, the June 20 dinner brought together himself, Leonetti and Lavallee, chief financial officer Neil Libby, chief operations officer Peter Merfeld, public affairs manager Paradee, government relations manager Conrad Welzel, and another HNTB employee, Robert Driscoll. This was a typical participant list, he says, except it was a first time for Leonetti. (Later, the authority added another person to this list, Chuck Dulic, one of HNTB Corporation’s top executives.)
Violette believes the question of whether normal state-agency expenditure restrictions should apply to turnpike employees “is a decision for the Legislature to make. We operate as a business. I’m comfortable with what it is we do.”
