“It’s bogus,” responded DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney to Pepper’s allegation.
This newspaper published a story Sunday showing that the DeWine administration passed over more experienced vendors to hire CELCO Ltd., a newly formed collections agency owned by Pete Spitalieri. DeWine describes Spitalieri as a friend he has known for about 25 years.
The newspaper also found that hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions flowed to DeWine and the Ohio Republican Party from collectors as they sought work from the attorney general. Additionally, DeWine involved his former fundraiser and other politically connected people in the selection process.
“Let’s call it what it is: This is Mike DeWine’s corruption tax,” said Pepper.
But Tierney said DeWine’s annual collection numbers are the highest in Ohio history and the percentage of debt being collected also has increased. Vendors, he said, are selected on their qualifications.
“The attorney general is trying to pick a team with a good mix of complementary skills and geographic diversity across Ohio and the work that they’ve done has yielded the highest collections of any attorney general in history,” he said.
The work can be extremely lucrative, as collectors are paid a percentage of debt that they collect for the state. In 2013, the office collected $448.67 million of what was owed from back taxes, unpaid student loans and other debts.
Pepper said he would hire an experienced collector to manage the system and hire outside counsel based on performance; improve transparency by posting online the names of collections agencies and attorneys hired by the state; impose a four month blackout period for political fundraising around the bidding window; and ban lobbying of state staff overseeing collections decisions during the bidding window.
Ohio already are strict contribution limits for vendors seeking unbid contracts with statewide officeholders but often they give big money to the statewide political party instead. Pepper did not commit to trying to limit contributions routed through state parties.
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