Governor’s Conference Draws Connecticut Protestors
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19–Two-hundred-twenty million smackers.
That’s how much Connecticut state money vanished into thin Texas air when Enron went belly-up. And Southington’s Lisa McKinnon is angry.
“All that money, just gone, because our governor is corrupt and has people that abuse taxpayer money,” McKinnon said quietly between hearty shouts of “Gov. Rowland, Kenny Lay, how much did you steal today!?”
McKinnon is one of 50 Connecticut state workers and activists bussed here Thursday on the “Enron Express” to shout their frustrations around a street corner at groups of distinguished looking men and women partaking that evening in $500-a-plate dinners to raise money for the Republican Governors Association, which Connecticut Gov. John Rowland chairs.
The protestors are frustrated over a lot of things Rowland has done while in office, but Thursday their protests centered on a botched $220 million loan made to Enron in 1999 with public funds from, of all places, a quasi-public garbage company run by a member of Rowland’s staff.
Rowland’s administration was not impressed by the protest, regarding it as nothing more than a political stunt by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry.
“I believe their goal is not to get the [loan] money back, but just to get in the news,” said Nuala Ford, Rowland’s press secretary. “It’s disappointing they’ve taken this negative campaigning on a road trip.”
The lost $220 million itself is less an issue for McKinnon than are the allegations, backed by the state Attorney General’s office, that former Rowland aides, placed into their positions by the governor, acted illegally in providing the loan, all the while trying to mask the loan’s existence from the public. This was happening while Enron sprinkled funds throughout the GOP, including the $60,000 it gave to the governors association 11 days after Rowland became the organization’s chairman.
McKinnon and her compatriots said they hoped to belt out a message to a state administration accused of a list of financial indiscretions longer than St. Peter’s Atlantic City sin list: We won’t take it any more; we want massive campaign finance reform.
“It’s about time we get some serious changes,” said Tom Swan, coordinator of the protest and executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group. “It’s absolutely ridiculous that something like this can happen.”
“Something like this” began in 1999, when Michael Martone, Rowland’s long-time political director, took a job with law-and-lobby firm Murtha Cullina, which worked on behalf of Enron.
Soon after, Rowland named Peter Ellef, his co-chief of staff, to be chairman of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA), which specializes in trash pickup. Ellef served as CRRA chairman, an unpaid position, while retaining his $125,000-per-year job with the governor.
Murtha Cullina, working on behalf of both CRRA and Enron, brokered a deal that loaned $220 million in state public funds to Enron.
Rowland and Ellef met with Enron executives and consultants four days before the loan became official. Enron then gave $60,000 to the governors association 11 days after Rowland was named its chairman.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, concluded in February that Ellef was improperly named chair of CRRA, that the garbage-collecting organization lied when it depicted the loan as an energy transaction and that the loan exceeded CRRA’s legal authority. It was an illegal loan made by a man who should not have been in charge, the attorney general found.
“CRRA sought to do indirectly what it could not do directly,” Blumenthal said in his February report. “It employed ‘energy’ as a euphemism to circumvent the statute’s ban on loans of this kind to private companies. An unsecured transfer of $220 million to a private company – especially one in the volatile energy industry – was simply inappropriate for a public agency like CRRA.”
Swan stated it more bluntly.
“Martone and his CRRA cronies hid this from the public,” he said. “They knew this was a really risky deal.”
Things have changed in Rowland’s office since Enron’s collapse. Ellef resigned both his jobs in March, and Rowland has turned over all litigation strategy to the Attorney General’s office while pledging to further clean up his administration.
Blumenthal said he will not comment on whether his office will pursue action against Rowland or his administration, but he said his office is investigating all individuals and organizations related to Connecticut’s piece of the Enron scandal.
Blumenthal’s office is also suing Andersen, Enron and Murtha Cullina to recover the $220 million, but the office said it does not comment on pending litigation and thus could not offer any predictions.
Swan offered a grim prediction.
“Only a fraction of that money might come back,” Swan said, “and I think everyone in Connecticut is affected by this.”
Most affected will be the 70 towns that have contracts with CRRA for trash pickup. Because of the loss, the state legislature has increased the fee for trash pickup by $4 per ton. That figure will probably increase soon, either during the next state legislative session or by CRRA itself.
But again, that is not the issue for the 50 protestors and the labor organizations they represent.
“The governor had his chance, and we don’t like what he’s done,” McKinnon said. “It’s time for a change.”
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
