Dann set to renew pact he criticized

The contract is listed as a renewal, but Dann said it isn’t the same one.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann is poised to renew a state legal contract that he used to ridicule predecessor Jim Petro for engaging in pay-to-play politics.

Roetzel & Andress, a politically generous Akron law firm, will receive $1 million in state legal work representing the University of Akron if the State Controlling Board approves the agreement today.

Petro first turned the lucrative job over to Roetzel in March 2006, after taking the work away from five other firms he said were tied to the “political money machine” in Summit County. Two Akron lawyers contended at the time that their firms lost the work because they didn’t support Petro’s 2002 campaign for attorney general, a charge Petro denied.

Dann joined fellow Democrats in blasting Petro for the move, suggesting he gave Roetzel the work because its lawyers had donated generously to his campaign and hosted fundraisers for him.

The firm, likewise, has donated to Dann. State records show he received $3,450 from Roetzel lawyers in 2006, including a pair of donations from Roetzel partner Wayne Jones that appear to exceed the $1,000 limit the Dann’s office imposes on outside legal firms.

On Friday, Dann said the contract on today’s agenda “is not the same contract,” despite its being listed as a renewal.

“Our whole process is completely different for selecting special counsel,” he said. “We are employing an objective prequalification process and, among the firms that meet our criteria, we’re asking them to put their best foot forward. All the contracts we’ve awarded have been to the best firm with the best price, and with no other consideration.”

Catherine Turcer, of the government watchdog group Ohio Citizen Action, said of the contract renewal: “On the face of it, it looks wildly hypocritical.”

As part of qualifying for the work, each firm must sign an affidavit agreeing 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.

Donation limit

Beginning Jan. 1, all those firm associates plus their Political Action Committees will be limited to $2,000 combined in a two-year period.

The affidavit grew out of a bill, which is being challenged in court, that limited campaign contributions in the wake of a series of pay-to-play scandals in the state that Dann made central to his attorney general campaign.

Records show that Jones gave $500 to the Dann for Ohio campaign Oct. 18. But he had given $1,000 to the Marc Dann for State Senate committee — an entity not listed on the affidavit — on Jan. 30, 2006.

Dann said the system is set up so that law firms police their own donations. When asked whether he was under the impression that donations of the two committees were not required to be added together, Dann replied: “He [Jones] may be.”

“What I don’t want to do is have the people awarding the work checking on who donated to the campaign,” Dann said. “We’ve asked them to sign that affidavit, and they should be verifying they haven’t contributed more than the limits.”

A message was left with Jones seeking comment.

State campaign finance records show that Dann’s state Senate campaign fund collected $119,613 in contributions between his Nov. 14, 2006, announcement for attorney general and January 2006, when he transferred operations to the Dann for Ohio campaign.

Of that, $70,540 was collected in January 2006 — at least $20,333 of it from attorneys.

Dann said he was uncertain whether those January donations would be counted by law toward the two-year totals imposed in the affidavit, but Turcer said they certainly should.

“Yes, the names of the committees are different, but the intent is the same: To get Marc Dann elected,” she said. “It seems like a clear attempt to get around the limits.”

Dann said he stands committed to removing the influence of money from politics.