A Policy of Over-Spending: Are Civil Engineers’ Donations Dictating Policy?
By Brad Linzy
Over the last couple days, partly spurred by curiosity, partly by a suspicion that there is more going on with the Roberts Stadium demolition deal than meets the eye, I sat about the task of pouring over then-candidate for Mayor Lloyd Winneke’s donor reports. In the course of this research one thing has become apparent – by far the most generous donors to now-Mayor Winnecke’s campaign tended to be from people who sit at the helms of civil engineering firms.
I want to say up front and in all fairness, I see no problem with individuals donating to a cause or campaign for honest reasons and without any expectation of quid pro quo, but it seems to me the sheer number and sizes of the donations given to this Mayor by people in the field of civil engineering – i.e. people who work at firms that deal directly with municipalities building bridges, roads, levees, managing waste water, building parks, bike trails, etc. – is telling of at least a hope these engineering executives have of ingratiating themselves to someone in a position to direct civic policy.
Of course, the Mayor is not in a position to hand out a contract directly to a crony, but he is certainly in a position to set policy that will lead to opportunities for contracts where they otherwise might not exist, e.g. Robert’s Stadium, its demolition, and the creation of a park and pedestrian bridge. In this policy decision alone there exists the opportunity to take bids on multiple contracts for different stages of the project.
First, as we have seen, the contents needed to be auctioned off, so a contract was needed for that. Next, the demolition of the building will require a contract and bids have already ballooned to 4x their initial estimates for that. Next, the parking lot will need to be demolished, and it’s possible that could get done under a separate contract. Then the park will need to be built…another contract. And let’s not forget that pedestrian bridge; that should be a nice, juicy contract for some lucky firm.
So we see that in this one policy decision alone, there could be at least FIVE different contracts with potentially FIVE different firms who may or may not have contributed to the campaign of this Mayor. We know already that Andrew Wilson of Wilson’s Auction, which got the contract for 10% of the auctioned contents, was a donor. Let’s take a look at some of the civil engineering firms that gave large sums to this Mayor’s campaign and guess at who might end up in the cat bird’s seat to receive some of these remaining contracts. Keep in mind, a donation does not necessarily equate to impropriety.
I will be using information from the following link for my data, which I don’t believe is comprehensive: https://city-countyobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Winnecke-Campaign-Pre-Election-Report-Oct-14-2011.pdf
Phil Kuntz is Executive Vice President at Janssen & Spaans Engineering, Inc. Based in Indianapolis, this firm specializes in bridges, but also does everything from sewers to subdivision designs. Kuntz gave $2500 to the Winnecke campaign. http://www.jsengr.com/
Keith Lochmueller is a partner at Bernardin, Lochmueller & Associates, Inc. (BLA). Based in Evansville, this is the firm that built the Evansville Riverfront Plaza and designed the Aztar Hotel complex. They seem to specialize in wastewater management and sewer systems, but they do about everything else too. Lochmueller gave $10,500 cumulative to the Winnecke campaign. http://www.blainc.com/index.html
Ed Jolliffe is the President of Hannum, Wagle and Cline Engineering. They too specialize in wastewater and stormwater drainage, but they do other things as well like a new Aquatic Center in Newcastle and the city center of French Lick. They have four offices, two of which are in Terre Haute and Indianapolis. Jolliffe gave $2500 to Winnecke. His partner David Hannum of the same firm gave $1000. http://www.hwcengineering.com/index.html
Willis (Rick) Conner is President, COO and Co-owner American Structurepoint Inc. This firm is based in Indianapolis with an office in Evansville and they build everything from Interstate exchanges to IMAX theatres. They also do sewers, site planning for parks, you name it. Conner gave a cumulative $8000 to Winnecke. http://www.structurepoint.com/
Martin Wessler is Chairman and CEO of Wessler Engineering. They are based in Indianapolis, but also have an office on Vogel Rd. in Evansville. They do everything pertaining to water, electrical, bridge construction and urban planning. Wessler and his firm gave $2500 to Winnecke. http://www.wesslerengineering.com/
John Brand is an Executive at Butler, Fairman, & Seufert. Here is yet another Indy-based company that does it all, including bridges, parks and sewer. Brand gave $2350 to Winnecke. http://www.bfsengr.com/
David Hynes is an engineer at Commonwealth Engineers. This company seems to specialize in sewers and recently put in a bid for an Evansville Westside community project. Hynes gave $1600 to Winnecke. http://www.commonwealth-engineers.com/
Jorge Lanz is President of Jacobi, Toombs & Lanz, Inc. (JTL) out of Louisville. They have their hands in many pies as well, including completion of a softball complex in Clarksville. Lanz gave $1000 to Winnecke. http://www.jtleng.com/staff.htm
Powers Engineering is an Evansville firm. They seem to specialize in water and sewer. They gave $1000 to Winnecke. http://www.powersengineeringinc.com/
Adam Westermann is an engineer at Black & Veatch, who has an office in Indy. They do everything from water to energy to telecom. Westermann gave $1500 to Winnecke. http://bv.com/
Steven Fehribach works for A&F Engineering out of Indy. They specialize in traffic control and road building. Fehribach gave $2000 to Winnecke. http://www.af-eng.com/
All told in the records I’ve seen, Winnecke received nearly $40,000 from individuals whose occupation was in civil engineering. As I said before, a political donation does not necessarily equate to impropriety or quid pro quo. It is possible that some of these people are just honest businessmen trying to put their company on equal footing with other firms. They could just really like Lloyd Winnecke. However, when a President or CEO of an Indianapolis-based firm takes such a keen interest in the politics of a town in which he does not reside, it is clear his gift is a calculated business decision, and when a local civil engineering executive gives in excess of $10,000 to a Mayoral campaign, a reasonable man can only conclude he believes his money will come back to him in kind.
The question is what effect, if any, have all these gifts had on Mayor Winnecke’s policy decisions? The question should be asked, if the Mayor had received none of these large gifts from civil engineering firms, would he have advocated a sale of the Roberts Stadium property? Such a move would have still resulted in an auctioneer contract, but no others.
Is it possible that what we are seeing here is the normal modus operandi for politicians and their donors? Do donors support politicians only insofar as their support is rewarded with a slice of some future pie? And do politicians avoid making policy decisions that would save the taxpayers he represents money in favor of policies which spend the maximum amount he can get away with politically? In the case of Lloyd Winnecke, the answer to these questions appears to be a resounding “yesâ€.
The University of Southern Indiana is hosting a free lecture at 7:30 p.m., September 25, in USI’s Carter Hall. The fall lecture will feature Iranian-born author Firoozeh Dumas speaking on the Marjane Satrapi memoir Persepolis, about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
