Bernero's account behind 'Lansing Booster Club'

October 15, 2009 • From Lansing State Journal

By Derek Melot

Mayor Virg Bernero's "City Administrative Account" will not be $5,000 smaller, despite what a contributor may want.

IBEW Local 665 Business Manager Scott Clark says the union wants its money back - money obtained, he says, in a deceptive fashion.

But mayoral spokesman Randy Hannan said Wednesday that the answer to a refund is "no" and added, "Their request is electioneering nonsense. They have endorsed our opponent. They are her biggest financial contributor. Their motives speak for themselves."

Perhaps they do. But once again, this account has created a situation the mayor - and citizens - could really do without.

Earlier this week, Clark shared a letter that solicited money from his union. Dated June 12,2006, the letter carries a big logo for the "Lansing Booster Club." It tells the reader, "It is my pleasure to invite you to become a member of a distinguished group of individuals dedicated to growing the Lansing area's economy and quality of life."

Clark says he backed a donation because his union had supported Bernero in 2005 and also because he thought this was something on the lines of the Mayor's Council of Economic Advisers panel Clark had been invited to join in the spring of 2006.

"I thought this was an opportunity to help build Lansing," Clark explained.

That would turn, I guess, on the definition of helping Lansing.

The solicitation letter, in tiny type, does state "City Administrative Account." This is the account the mayor created in late 2005. It can raise unlimited sums from businesses, individuals and unions.

The mayor says the account is for city business and that its use saves the taxpayers money. But most of the expenditures reported to the IRS in recent years appear to involve meals, travel and entertainment.

Any person coming at the letter fresh would be hard pressed to conclude from its contents that a contribution might help finance the mayor's travel to Colorado or Washington, D.C. Since it does include the account name and since unions can contribute directly to such federal 527 accounts (unlike regular campaign accounts), there doesn't appear to be any legal impropriety.

This is politics - but politics played on appearance's edge.

Clark and his union have clearly soured on the mayor. The attitude he projected this week was that Bernero has shifted his allegiance away from labor groups that once helped him. Alliances crumble in the political world routinely.

But by continuing to operate the account, Bernero invites problems - such as when a Board of Water and Light check meant for a community event ended up instead in the mayor's account. Bernero said BWL would get that $2,500 back.

The nature of 527 accounts allows businesses, unions, anyone to contribute any sum they like to a political official. That gives the official an advantage, but one Bernero doesn't need. He can run the city of Lansing effectively without the account. On Wednesday, he got to announce the transfer of 250 jobs into downtown from Delta Township.

Clark says he plans to follow up on the written refund request by talking to the mayor. That will be an interesting conversation.