Lawyers belatedly submit affidavits on Dann donations

Lawyers are required to limit donations to Dann to qualify for state contracts.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Well over half the lawyers required to limit their campaign contributions to Attorney General Marc Dann to qualify for state work didn’t fill out the required paperwork until this month, long after the office began doling out contracts, according to a review by The Associated Press.

The cap on donations to Dann, the state’s top lawyer, stemmed from a law he championed as a state senator and later used as a centerpiece of his 2006 campaign that sought to curb the role of donations in the awarding of state contracts.

Fifty of the affidavits by outside lawyers who have landed state legal work came in on a single day, Sept. 12, after Dann’s office faced scrutiny from lawmakers over two of the contracts. An additional 29 were submitted after a records request was made by The Associated Press, many bearing the marks of fax machines from around the country.

Ben Espy, an executive attorney general who oversees outside legal contracts for Dann, conceded that the office went out and collected the affidavits after public interest arose.

“The agreement they must sign advising them of the rules for outside counsel contains everything that’s in the affidavit. So there is some overlap there,” Espy said. “But after we got these requests we just decided we should have them on file.”

Flurry of affidavits

Altogether, 126 of the 194 affidavits clearing attorneys to do special counsel work were filed in September, and 97 came over a five-day period surrounding the most recent meeting of the contract-approving state Controlling Board, documents show. A staff member for the board had also requested copies of the affadavits, said Dann spokeswoman Michelle Gatchell.

In the affidavit, a lawyer agrees that no legal partner, spouse or child of the firm will give more than $1,000 to the Dann for Ohio campaign over a two-year period. Beginning Jan. 1, all those firm associates plus their political action committees will be limited to $2,000 collectively over a two-year period.

Changes made

In at least three cases, lawyers signing the affidavit made changes. Kevin Zuheir of Erie County inserted a parenthetical statement in bold: “On November 1, 2006 I donated a total of $2,500.00 to Dann for Ohio in my name and in the name of my spouse, Cathy Grespin Zuheir.”

Another lawyer, Richard J. Erickson of Frost, Brown & Todd in Cincinnati crossed out the phrase “within the two previous calendar years.”

The contract of a third law firm, Beveridge & Diamond, was put on hold by the Controlling Board because it had crossed out a section of its contract.

Espy said that the changes don’t necessarily disqualify the firms. He said there has been some confusion about the start date on the contribution limits because it was tied up in court.

He said he believes duplicate language contained in any state outside counsel contract covers the law firms.

However, the language of the affidavit itself tells lawyers that any contract awarded to them after they violate contribution limits can be rescinded and three times any amount contributed in excess of the cap may be recovered by the state.