Officials: Florida Firm Sponsored Fundraisers, Didn't Pay Contributions

Bob Dunn, Sep 16, 2006

A mystery over campaign contributions that an engineering firm says it made – but Fort Bend County Commissioners Court members say they didn’t receive – deepened on Friday.

County Judge Bob Hebert’s campaign treasurer – his wife, Pat Hebert – said her records show Florida engineering consultant PBS&J asked to sponsor a table at an Hebert fundraiser early this year – a $2,500 commitment – but never paid for the table.

Yet, in campaign contribution reports it filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, the company’s political action committee, PBS&J PAC, reported making a $2,500 contribution to Hebert’s campaign on March 6, 2006.

Pat Hebert said campaign records show no such contribution ever was received.

Meanwhile, an attorney for the huge Miami government contractor was unable to cite specific information about the March 6 contribution on Friday but said if PBS&J reported a contribution from its PAC, then they would have paid it.

“Why would we report something we wouldn’t do?” asked Mark Schnapp of Miami. “There would be absolutely no reason for us to record a PAC contribution” that wasn’t made. “There’s no up side to it.”

A check of TEC reports from PBS&J, which is under investigation for alleged campaign contribution irregularities, show the giant engineering consultant gave money to political campaigns of Fort Bend County Commissioners Court members 11 times since 2003.

Six of those contributions – which PBS&J reported that it made to Hebert and county commissioners Grady Prestage, Tom Stavinoha and Andy Meyers – don’t show up on the local officials’ campaign contribution reports.

The Florida company, with 3,900 employees in 75 offices nationally, including four in the Houston area, is the subject of a federal grand jury probe into whether it reimbursed employees for numerous campaign contributions, in violation of state and federal law.

On Thursday, Stavinoha said his records show that Glenn Graham “made a commitment” to give Stavinoha an $800 contribution, at a February 2006 fundraiser, “but we never got paid.”

On Friday, Pat Hebert said she found something similar, in campaign records that show PBS&J never paid for a table it asked to sponsor. She found a copy of an email from Donna Adams of PBS&J, “asking to gold sponsor” an Hebert table at the fundraiser. A gold sponsorship costs $2,500, Pat Hebert said.

The Heberts believe PBS&J officials attended the fundraiser and sat at the table – but “I couldn’t find a deposit slip” or a check or any other records of payment from the PAC, or any PBS&J officials, Pat Hebert said, adding “I’m pretty fanatic about it. I’m pretty thorough.”

Meyers also was listed in one of PBS&J PAC’s TEC reports as having received a contribution – for $2,000 – on March 6, 2006. He said on Thursday he didn’t recall receiving it, but he was on vacation in South Texas and unable to check his records.

Like Hebert and Stavinoha, Meyers’ campaign finance reports do not reflect a March 6, 2006 contribution from PBS&J.

PBS&J’s state reports also include a $1,000 contribution it says it made to Prestage’s campaign in April of 2003, and another $1,000 in August of 2005, however, Prestage’s campaign finance reports for those periods don’t reflect receiving the money. Prestage could not be reached for comment.

Hebert and Meyers both said last week their campaign reports would reflect any payment made.

“Every dollar we receive is reported,” Hebert said. “If it comes from a PAC, it’s reported. The checkbook always balances.”

“If I got a check from them, they’re on my report,” Meyers said. “If it’s not on my report, I didn’t get a check from them.”

PBS&J’s Schnapp attempted to get information on the contributions in question on Friday, but later said he was unable to. He said he strongly doubted the company over-reported its contributions, adding “it strikes me as more of an administrative issue.”

On Wednesday, the Miami Herald reported that PBS&J has given more than $500,000 in political contributions since 2003, including both Republicans and Democrats holding offices that could influence the kind of government contracts the company often competes for.

The investigation into PBS&J’s campaign contributions came as a result of an earlier investigation – into a $36 million embezzlement scheme allegedly hatched by the company’s chief financial officer, Scott DeLoach, and two subordinates.

According to a report in the Engineering News-Record, the company spent much of the past few months repaying 12 to 15 state departments of transportation for reimbursed overhead expenses from 2000 to 2005 that were inflated, as part of the embezzlement scheme.

One of those state departments was the Texas Department of Transportation, which suspended PBS&J from bidding for Texas contracts in May. PBS&J, which did $43 million in business in Texas in 2005, agreed to a settlement by which it paid TxDOT $5.3 million. In return, TxDOT dropped all claims against it and, in July, allowed the company to begin competing for contracts again.

Hebert said on Thursday if it turns out local officials indeed did not receive money PBS&J says it contributed, “I’d probably go to John Healey,” the county district attorney, with the information, adding “it leads me to wonder what happened to the money?”