If you've been following The Spectrum lately, you know that last week, I reported on an apparent illegal $2,560 political contribution from the UB Foundation (UBF) to Erie County Executive Chris Collins' re-election campaign. UB officials described the donation as an "honest mistake," and the day after our initial story was published, a Collins official said the money was returned.
The payment was made by The Center for Industrial Effectiveness (TCIE, the "business arm of UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences"), which uses the UB Foundation as its accountant (hence the UB Foundation's name on the check), according to TCIE Executive Director Tim Leyh.
Leyh said that when he bought tickets for his staff to attend breakfast and dinner events honoring Chris Collins, he didn't realize it would be viewed as a political contribution. He also said the TCIE raises its own revenue by providing business services to local organizations, and to "develop clients," the TCIE staff engages in networking activities at local community events – the Collins events being examples.
(Both Leyh and university spokesman John Della Contrada refused to provide the names and dates of the Collins events and declined to say exactly who attended them. Personally, I'd also like to know how you'd pay $2,560 for breakfast and dinner at a Chris Collins event without realizing you're making a political contribution.)
That is one set of facts. There is another set of facts that I didn't feel comfortable including in Friday's story. That's why I'm writing this column; I think you should know the additional information, even though I'm not quite sure if it's 100 percent relevant. Here it is:
That $2,560 payment, "honest mistake" or not, is not the only connection between the TCIE, the UB Foundation, and Collins.
In 2008, TCIE sold a business management strategy called Lean Six Sigma to the Collins administration. Artvoice reported on Thursday that from 2008 to 2010, the county paid $449,250.10 to TCIE (via the UB Foundation) for its services, and listed the UB Foundation as a vendor.
Used to help Collins fulfill his campaign promise – to "run county government like a business" – Lean Six Sigma was implemented into the county government by TCIE, according to a November 2009 TCIE report entitled "Efficient Government Through Lean Six Sigma: A White Paper," a document that reads in some places like an advertisement for Collins and his political platform.
While TCIE was working with Erie County, current Interim Provost Harvey Stenger, then the dean of the TCIE-overseeing School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, served on the county's "Lean Six Sigma Advisory Committee." And TCIE's Al Hammonds directed the county's Six Sigma program after Collins recruited him to leave UB in 2008 and become deputy county executive. Now, Hammonds is back at TCIE as assistant director of outreach.
Additionally, Paul Harder, a member of the UB Foundation's board of directors, is Collins's 2011 finance chairman. The Collins campaign's official website (CollinsForOurFuture.com) reads, "Under Paul's leadership, Collins For Our Future has already amassed over $1.6 million for this re-election campaign."
These are all incontrovertible facts. I did not include them in Friday's story because I lacked a clear, tangible connection between those facts and the facts surrounding the $2,560 donation. To me, though, the two sets of facts seem to have a lot to do with each other. And I'm not alone.
"The problem of the Collins campaign donation raises larger questions about how to avoid conflicts of interest or confusion in mission when a public university, or a UBF entity, takes on the role of a "business service" provider, especially when that ‘business' might appear tied to electoral politics," said UB Professor of Law Martha McCluskey in an email. "Collins' central campaign message has been that he is ‘running county government like a business,' and Collins promotes his leadership in implementing TCIE's Lean Six Sigma product as major evidence of his success in achieving that goal.
"TCIE's newsletter and website include what arguably looks like Collins' promotional material on the cost-savings resulting from Lean Six Sigma apparently without noting contrary views questioning these results," McCluskey continued. "This context could seem to run a risk of blurring the lines between promoting TCIE's ‘product' and promoting the politician."
In my own mind, the lines are very blurry, indeed. I cannot tell you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that TCIE's and the UB Foundation's prior involvement with Collins had anything to do with the $2,560 donation – err, "honest mistake." But I also cannot tell you that it didn't.
Leyh and Della Contrada have refused to comment on the matter any further than the statements with which I've already been provided. Stenger was unavailable for comment on Thursday. Hammonds did not return a phone call.
Maybe the donation was just an honest mistake. Maybe I am making a big deal out of nothing, and maybe I shouldn't be connecting the dots so liberally.
But TCIE and the UB Foundation seem to have long, friendly histories with the Chris Collins administration, and nobody at UB wants to say much about it now that the "mistake" has been uncovered.
My phone number at The Spectrum is 716-645-8565, and my email address is below. I'd love to get the story straight, if anybody can help me out.
Email: luke.hammill@ubspectrum.com
