Making a business out of getting one government to talk to another:
Scott Owens, former executive director of the Butler County Republican Party, has been paid $50,000 this year as a lobbyist for the city of Hamilton.
Rick Carne, who was chief of staff for former U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, has been paid $27,500 by the Miami Conservancy District for lobbying in Washington D.C.
Bob Doyle, former state representative from the Beavercreek area, is now paid $42,000 by Trotwood and $30,000 by Monroe for work including lobbying in Columbus.
Local governments spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbyists each year in an effort to get public agencies and elected lawmakers to hear their voices over the clamor of competing interests on Capitol Hill.
A Hamilton JournalNews/Middletown Journal analysis of data maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics found southwest Ohio cities and counties have paid K Street lobbyists more than $400,000 combined so far this year, and more than half a million dollars in 2011.
Hamilton will likely spend up to $60,000 this year to the professional lobbying firm LNE Group. The city’s main lobbyist is Scott Owens, former executive director of the Butler County GOP.
Deputy City Manager Hillary Stevenson said the lobbyist helped clear permitting and other hurdles for the Meldahl Hydroelectric Plant and is now working on the South Hamilton Crossing — a planned road bridge over the CSX rail lines at Central Avenue.
“They will help us schedule meetings, they will give us advice on grants that are out there because they have their finger on the pulse,” she said. “They’re most useful in helping us get people that we need to talk to in the legislature, whether it’s state, federal or even county.”
In the recent past this has included setting up meetings for city officials with U.S. Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., and Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Monroe city officials have for a year now paid a pair of lobbyists — including former Beavercreeck-area state lawmaker Bob Doyle — $2,500 a month to help secure support in Columbus for a racino that is planned for just outside of the city in Warren County along Interstate 75.
“We wanted to make sure we were aware of everything that was going on with that and make sure our interests were covered,” Monroe City Manager William Brock said.
The lobbying firm’s contract was renegotiated to $1,500 a month starting in December and calls for the lobbying group, Public Sector Advisors, to advise the city on potential grant funding and economic development opportunities.
Area governments spend big
Many local governments including Huber Heights, Mason, Monroe and Trotwood also have registered lobbyists in Columbus. And cities, counties and townships pay dues into organizations that lobby on their behalf. The National Association of Towns and Townships has spent $180,000 on lobbying this year.
The biggest spender in the region is the city of Dayton, which paid lobbyist Mark Dedrick — a former staffer for Congressman Tony Hall — $120,000 this year for his services in Washington. The city also paid another $60,000 for a state lobbyist. Cincinnati paid its federal lobbying firm $90,000 this year.
Publicly funded colleges and universities are equally big spenders. Miami University has spent $120,000 on lobbyists this year, Wright State University $60,000 and Sinclair Community College $30,000.
Government subdivisions also hire pros. The Miami Conservancy District, for example, pays more than $30,000 a year for a lobbyist to represent them, most recently trying to change drafted flood insurance laws to keep area residents from having to buy flood insurance if their home is protected by a dam.
“(The lobbyist) has helped us understand the legislative process, make introductions … so when issues do come up we have the opportunity to talk to the right people at the right time,” MCD General Manager Janet Bly said.
MCD’s lobbyist is Rick Carne, whose firm has made $49,000 this year from clients including Montgomery County and the Dayton Development Coalition. The development coalition also employs its own lobbyist, Michael Gessel, and paid him $180,000 this year.
“That’s the way the system works,” said Viveca Novak, spokeswoman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “State and local officials, sure they’re going to be acquainted with some of the legislators on the Hill, perhaps, but that’s not quite the same as knowing the system.”
Nationwide, public agencies paid a total of $54.3 million for lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This makes the public sector the 15th-highest paying industry in terms of lobbying expense. The top five industries shell out more than $100 million each, led by pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.
The amount governments spend on lobbying has declined steadily in recent years from more than $600,000 in 2010 for southwest Ohio. This matches the overall trend of lobbying expenses going down. Novak attributes that to economic woes simply leaving everyone with less money to spend.
Mason hands out tennis tickets
On the state level, lobbyists have to report any time they buy something for someone while lobbying them. The most generous area city is Mason, which this year gave 11 state lawmakers a pair of tickets valued at $150 to the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament along with a meal valued at $18.95, according to state records.
Mason officials said the city helps plan the legislator event but the tickets are donated by the tournament.
“There’s a suite that’s made available that the tournament has and we use that to hold the legislators,” City Manager Eric Hansen said.
Hansen said he thinks of it not as lobbying but as “raising our profile” with state officials. “It helps us with economic development, it helps us with quality of life,” he said.
The city doesn’t pay a lobbying firm, but is paying former council clerk Teresa Schulte $25,000 this year for duties including monitoring and lobbying on state legislation.
Former lawmaker: Lobbyists valuable
Former U.S. Rep. David Hobson is now a professional lobbyist after serving as a state senator from 1982-1990 and representing the Springfield area in Congress from 1991-2009.
He said cities that didn’t hire lobbyists found that if they weren’t at the table when decisions affecting their residents were made.
“Lobbying has gotten a bad name by some people doing it inappropriately,” Hobson said. “But I think there are firms or people who have a better grasp of the system at the state, federal level and even some places at the local level … who understand the bills and the legislation better and the staffs better (than local officials).”
Novak said lobbyists have personal relationships with key decision-makers, know who to contact to get an agency to act and can massage and advocate legislation moving through the halls of Washington.
Lobbyists use ‘revolving door’
Many lobbyists are former lawmakers, such as Hobson who is an advisor for Clark County governments and lobbies for the Dayton Development Coalition, or Doyle who lobbies for Monroe and Trotwood.
Others worked as staffers, such as the lobbyists for Dayton and Montgomery County who worked for Hall.
The Center for Responsive Politics calls this a “revolving door.”
“It could be seen as somebody cashing in on government service if they go into lobbying,” Novak said. “These are people who are going to know the system better than many, but there certainly are critics of the practice of going into government and using the knowledge of government workings to go out and make a lot of money by helping others get in the door.”
Some rose from local ranks, such as Owens. His other clients include White Castle and chemical and technology companies. He was a paid $10,000 as a lobbyist for West Chester in 2006.
Owens was in the news when he testified in the Dynus fiber optics scandal that rocked Butler County several years ago. Owens was paid $50,000 by Dynus — whose CEO is in prison on federal charges including bank fraud — to lobby Butler County and West Chester Twp. for business in 2004. Owens was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Carne was chief of staff for Tony Hall, who represented the Dayton area in Congress for 24 years until 2003. He is one of at least five Hall staffers who are lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The others are former Hall legislative director Gail Amidzich, who now lobbies on behalf of public employee unions; former spokesman Michael Gessel; former aide John Walk, who lobbies primarily on issues involving electric utilities; and Dedrick, a former aide who lobbies for Dayton as well as the state of Oregon and other government agencies.
Doyle served 10 years in the Ohio House of Representatives.
“(My legislative experience) was never an advantage for me. Never,” Doyle said. “All you do as a government consultant is have relationships and it opens up a door. They don’t do anything for me just because I’m a former state representative; it goes on its own strength whether it should be passed or defeated or whatever.”
Doyle said his job is to get to know decision-makers and talk to them about issues facing his clients, and sometimes to talk to business owners about what his clients have to offer.
“The value for the city is the dollars that will be coming in that they would not be able to get without help,” he said.
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