Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.51) on June 30, 2001 at 14:54:
Pica favors lawmakers with dinners
Lobbyist for Angelos finds a way to keep on paying; Few senators attend; Two committees singled out for repeated invitations
By Michael Dresser. Sun Staff, June 17, 2001
Two years ago, the General Assembly moved to put an end to the cozy tradition of lobbyists wining and dining their pals in the legislature.
But former state Sen. John A. Pica Jr., a lobbyist for lawyer Peter G. Angelos, has found a way around the ban on lobbyist-paid meals that has allowed him to continue socializing with lawmakers on his client's tab.
Exploiting a loophole in the 1999 ethics reform law, Pica ran up more than $7,000 in charges at Annapolis restaurants during this year's legislative session - most of it spent entertaining a handful of senators on two committees.
Specifically, he spent $7,534 of the Angelos law firm's money on nine meals - with tabs of as much as $100 per person.
If Pica had taken individual lawmakers to dinner, it would have been a violation of the ethics law. But because he invited entire committees, the dinners appear to be legal - even if only two or three legislators showed up.
Pica called the dinners social gatherings where no lobbying on issues took place. "I have complied with the law to its letter," he said.
But Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, who headed the commission that proposed the 1999 ethics reform, said the dinners appear to violate the spirit of the legislation.
"I would be very concerned about a private dinner in a restaurant with a small number of legislators and no business being talked about," Cardin said.
The law was designed to address a perception that special-interest lobbyists were using their expense accounts to win legislative victories.
The legislation made it illegal for a lobbyist to buy an individual senator or delegate a meal. But lawmakers decided to continue to allow lobbyists to invite entire committees or delegations out to dine.
The theory behind the exception was that it would give groups with interests in legislation an opportunity to explain sometimes complex issues to the relevant committees in a relaxed setting.
"We didn't want to isolate those who petition their government from having access to legislators," Cardin said.
That intent can be thwarted, however, because the law does not say an entire committee or even a majority has to attend.
A required disclosure report filed by Pica this month shows that he used the loophole aggressively during this year's legislative session - inviting the Senate Finance and Judicial Proceedings committees out four times each.
Lobbyists are not required to disclose which legislators accepted their hospitality, and Pica did not. But in interviews with 20 of the 22 senators on the two committees, 14 lawmakers - seven on each committee - said they never attended Pica's events. Pica did not dispute that.
Of the four senators on each committee who did attend, several said they accepted only one or two dinners - meaning some of the events drew only two or three lawmakers. The charges for the dinners ran as high as $1,275.
Cardin said the intent of the reform law was to end such gatherings.
"If you're inviting them out four times with the same three or four people [showing up], it's difficult to see how that's in compliance with the spirit of the law," the 3rd District Democrat said.
While many - but not all - of the top Annapolis lobbyists hold committee dinners, this is not a case of "everybody does it."
The Sun could find no record of any other lobbyist entertaining the same committees on behalf of the same client as often as Pica during the 2001 session. Most of the committee members interviewed said they could think of no reason a lobbyist would want to ask the same committee out as many as four times.
Cardin said he was "curious to know how the client feels about this." Angelos did not return calls seeking his comment.
A review of Pica's disclosure reports also revealed these details:
· The former Baltimore senator moderated his entertaining this year. During last year's session, he spent $10,646 on 13 committee or delegation events - all at Maria's, his favorite Annapolis hangout.
· Over the four years he has served as Angelos' lobbyist, including two under the old law, Pica has spent more than $46,000 entertaining Assembly committees.
· Even though few senators attended, Pica's tab for entertaining the Finance Committee this year exceeded $1,000 three times. The dinners took place at Maria's and the Governor's Grille, a Main Street steakhouse.
· The size of the gatherings varied and included other members of the law firm and legislative staffers as well as senators. Sen. John C. Astle, an Annapolis Democrat, said seven to 10 people were present at the two Finance Committee dinners that he recalls attending, with only two or three senators present. Pica said as many as 12 people attended the dinners, and he did not recall holding events where only two or three lawmakers showed up.
Pica's committee dinners were far from the most expensive given by a lobbyist during this year's session. Lobbyist Ira C. Cooke spent $3,995 treating the 22-member House Commerce and Government Matters Committee to a crab feast on behalf of the Maryland Association of Mortgage Brokers. That was Cooke's only reported committee dinner of the session.
House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., who pushed strongly for the reform bill, said the intent of the ethics law was not to allow legislators to socialize in private on a lobbyist's tab. "They should be working dinners. That was the original philosophy behind it," he said.
Pica sees the issue differently.
"There is no purpose defined in the law. The law is a disclosure law," he said.
Pica, a lawyer who works for Angelos year-round, said the firm did not have any issues before the two committees this session and that the only reason he filed a lobbying disclosure report was out of an excess of caution. He reported no lobbying compensation from the firm this year except expenses.
"These events were more social in nature. I didn't conduct any lobbying activity at these dinners," Pica said. "It's refreshing to have a dinner and not try to influence someone's vote."
Pica, who served 18 years in the General Assembly, said the value of the dinners to the firm was that it let him "stay in touch with members."
Angelos' reasons for wanting to maintain good relations with the Judicial Proceedings Committee are obvious. He is the most prominent trial attorney in the state and has millions of dollars riding on provisions of Maryland's laws governing liability in personal injury cases - a major part of the panel's jurisdiction. Pica served on the panel from 1983 until 1994.
The firm's reasons for wanting friends on the Finance Committee are less clear. Pica was a member of that committee from 1995 until his surprise resignation from the Senate in 1996.
Pica has friends and detractors on both panels. Some members say they threw their invitations into the trash. To others they were a welcome diversion.
"When he invites the committee, I go," said Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell, the Baltimore County Democrat who chairs the Finance Committee. Bromwell, who recalled attending some of the dinners but not all four, said the events were "all by the rules."
Besides Bromwell and Astle, two Finance Committee members said they attended Pica's events. But Vice Chairman Arthur Dorman, a Prince George's Democrat, and Sen. James E. DeGrange Sr., an Anne Arundel Democrat, each recall going only once.
Unlike Bromwell, the chairman of the Judicial Proceedings Committee passed on Pica's invitations.
"John and I never hit it off that well," said Sen. Walter M. Baker, a Cecil County Democrat.
The Judicial Proceeding Committee members who acknowledged attending some dinners were Sens. Richard F. Colburn, a Dorchester County Republican, and Alex X. Mooney a Frederick Republican. Mooney said he believed he went in the company of Sen. Timothy R. Ferguson, a Carroll County Republican, who could not be reached for comment.
Mooney, who is serving his first term, said he goes to as many lobbyist dinners as he can "because it's new and it's good for me to hear the other point of view on things."
Some members who didn't go said Pica could be reasonably sure in advance that they would not attend.
"He was on the Finance Committee, so I guess he pretty much knows who's going to show up and who isn't," said Sen. John J. Hafer, a Western Maryland Republican who said he didn't attend any of the dinners.
Sen. Larry E. Haines, a Carroll County Republican and member of Judicial Proceedings, also said he has never been to any of Pica's dinners. He expressed surprise at the size of the checks. "That must have included a few expensive wine bottles," Haines said.
Cardin said he does not see any need to revise the ethics law, but suggested the General Assembly's ethics committee look into issues raised by Pica's dinners and issue an advisory opinion. The committee might want to propose an Assembly rule limiting a lobbyist's dinners with a committee to one a session, Cardin said.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said the purpose of the exception was to let lobbyists meet with full committees, not a handful of members. He said he would discuss the matter with House Speaker Taylor and with Pica.
Taylor said he did not know enough to say what should be done. "It's something that I would agree needs to be dealt with and responded to," he said.