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Politics

Senator says stealth lobby backs agency

Victor Crist accuses lobbyists of fighting his Expressway Authority proposal behind the scenes.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO and MIKE BRASSFIELD
Published April 5, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - State Sen. Victor Crist, who's seeking to replace the board of the troubled Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority, complains that companies that do business with the authority are lobbying behind the scenes to stop him.

Officials at the Expressway Authority flatly deny they've asked any companies to lobby for them. They also say they're reforming the agency, and that legislators don't need to meddle with it.

Crist, R-Tampa, is pushing a bill to kick out most of the governing board of Hillsborough's toll road agency, which went through a series of controversies and state investigations late last year.

Crist said he thinks at least four lobbying firms representing businesses that hold contracts with the authority have tried to kill his bill. That's not illegal, but Crist says it raises questions.

"That's too close a relationship for me," he said, declining to disclose the lobbyists' names. "To me, it smells like they have a friend on the board and they don't want to lose their contracts."

The chairman of the authority's board, James Hargrett, and its interim executive director, Stephen L. Reich, have repeatedly gone to Tallahassee to warn lawmakers that disrupting the board would hurt the agency's bond rating. That, they say, could lead to higher tolls on roads such as the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.

Hargrett and Reich said Wednesday they know of no lobbyists working behind the scenes on behalf of the authority.

"I don't know what he's talking about," Reich said of Crist. "It's not true."

In a separate interview, board member Bob Clark said the same thing.

However, a lobbyist representing Clark's steel fabrication company acknowledges talking to lawmakers about the bill before a recent Senate Transportation Committee meeting where it was up for debate.

"We talked to most of the committee members, just questioning whether or not they had discussed any implications on the bond rating," said Frank Tsamoutales, a lobbyist based in Tallahassee for Clark's company, Tampa Steel Erecting Co.

When asked why he was interested in Crist's bill, Tsamoutales said, "We do a lot of transportation-related work and one of our clients is a member of the authority ... Bob Clark."

Clark's reaction: "As far as I'm concerned, he wasn't lobbying. It only sounded like he was interested in what was going on."

Clark said his company hadn't done business with the authority since winning a contract in January 2003 to supply steel girders for the Crosstown's reversible lanes. That was a month before he joined the board.

Crist's focus isn't on Clark but on lobbyists for companies doing business with the Expressway Authority.

The agency has multimillion-dollar contracts with several engineering and construction companies.

When Crist walked into the Transportation Committee meeting last week, he said he quickly learned that no legislators would be voting for his bill. He was troubled to learn someone besides Hargrett and Reich had been lobbying committee members.

Crist told the senators as he stood before them, "Our delegation ... had a real issue with the Expressway Authority spending millions of dollars over the last few years for lawyers, consultants, lobbyists and communications companies ... They assured us that they would not be engaging in lobbying activities up here.

"So if there is someone professionally lobbying you, they're doing it under a cloak - they are not doing it openly - and I personally would like to know how they are being paid to do it. Because it's not showing up in any records or statements."

Lawmakers on the committee unanimously voted for a revised bill giving the governor the authority to replace four of the seven board members in July if he deems necessary.

It remains to be seen whether the bill and a similar one in the House, sponsored by Rep. Ed Homan, R-Tampa, will become law. They'd each have to get through another committee before heading to a floor vote.

Hargrett, the authority's chairman, insists the bills are misguided because the agency has turned a corner.

"We're putting in some far-reaching reforms that will endure after we're gone," he said. "In my opinion, if you want fresh faces and turnover, I think it's unnecessary."

Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at rcatalanello@sptimes.com or 813 610-6372. Mike Brassfield can be reached at (813) 226-3435 or brassfield@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 5, 2007, 06:46:45]