"Massport chief draws ire after dining with contractors; Sponsors have big projects at Logan" by Andrea Estes, Globe Staff | May 16, 2009
Companies with large construction projects at Logan Airport paid thousands of dollars last week to attend a dinner honoring Massport chief Thomas Kinton Jr., who runs the airport, drawing criticism from other officials who viewed it as a possible conflict of interest.
Some 285 engineers, architects, and construction executives attended the event at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston, according to Abbie Goodman, executive director of the Engineering Center, a Beacon Hill nonprofit group that organized the dinner.
Tickets sold for $500 and up and the dinner raised approximately $249,000, Goodman said. She would not release the event's guest list, but the four major sponsors listed on the invitation have won contracts worth millions of dollars from the Massachusetts Port Authority, agency officials said. They could not give total contract amounts, but said that in 2008 the four companies were paid $4.4 million.
The STINK-STENCH of MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS is not only gagging, it's asphyxiating!
Sara Prem, spokeswoman for one of the companies, HNTB, which is helping to build a new taxiway at the airport, said the company has been a sponsor of the event for 11 years and said there was no attempt to influence Kinton. "It's all about charity," she said.
Yes, "charity" = contracts -- and charity begins at home, right?
Kinton, who received a $530 crystal obelisk inscribed with his name, declined a request for an interview. A statement issued by Massport media relations director Matthew Brelis said: "Tom received the award for his four decades as an engineer and his dedication to the profession. Anyone who knows Tom knows how absurd it would be to think a dinner would somehow influence his judgment."
Yeah, okay (sigh).
Besides Kinton, a group of Massport employees also attended the function at the agency's expense.
And who do you think ends up paying for that?
State Senator Mark Montigny, Democrat of New Bedford, long a critic of the state's quasipublic agencies such as Massport and the Turnpike Authority, called the event "highly inappropriate.
I don't like the term. Smells like a rip-off!
Related: Government Takes Over GMAC
You have a budget crisis and unfolding scandals. Anyone who picks up a newspaper knows this is a time when people should be not only careful but very conservative and watchful. This type of stuff is exactly what feeds the very appropriate public anger."
YUP!!
LOOTERS never go over well we SO MANY OF US are SUFFERING!!!!!!!!
The dinner has been described by its organizers as a way to raise money for engineering education and scholarships through their Engineering Center Education Trust. Massport supports the Engineering Center Education Trust with annual donations "because they provide scholarships to engineering students," said Agency spokeswoman Danny Levy.
Keep that in mind.
And what is it with the JEWS in EVERY POSITION of LEADERSHIP in the non-profs and the government?
But a review of public documents filed by the Education Trust shows that a small fraction of the money it raises is spent on educational grants, and none goes directly toward scholarships.
Translation: They are either self-delusional or LOOTING LIARS!!!!
Its 2008 public disclosure filing shows that, of the $184,000 raised at the annual dinner, none was spent on grants. In 2007, according to the disclosure forms, the nonprofit group collected more than $254,000 at its dinner and made a single donation - $20,000 to the St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers. One of the school's trustees was Perini, who was the honoree at its annual dinner that year.
So ONCE AGAIN we see SPECIAL ACCESS and INFLUENCE behind EVERY DAMN THING in GOVERNMENT!!!!!!
In 2006, the organization raised $255,570 at its dinner and gave out $23,980 in grants, records show. Half of the total in that year went to related groups - the American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts, the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, and the Massachusetts Association of Land Surveyors & Civil Engineers. These groups, which are housed in the same building as the Engineering Trust, provide scholarships, Goodman said. The rest, in 2006, went to a preengineering program for minority students that no longer exists.
Goodman said the organization has given out annual grants, despite what the tax returns say. She was unable to explain why the grants were not listed, except to say that small grants and donations don't have to be disclosed publicly.
Who DOES NOT TAKE a TAX BREAK?
C'mon, lady, HOW 'TOO-PID do you tink I is?!!!!!!!
At the May 6 event, the top donor was Donovan Hatem, a law firm that represents many engineering and design companies including Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consortium that oversaw construction of the $15 billion Big Dig tunnel project.
Oh, GREAT!!!
See: The Ultimate Cost of the Big Pit
WTF, readers?
I guess MURDER and a s*** rip-off for a job still doesn't prevent you from winning contracts and toasting inside connections.
The firm was listed on the invitation as a member of the "Golden Circle," where minimum donations are $15,000. David Hatem, founding partner, said yesterday that his firm sponsors the dinner because "it's a good event for a good purpose - scholarships and the advancement of engineers and the engineering community."
Yeah, except it IS NOT!!!! STOP it with the LYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Parsons Brinckerhoff, half of the partnership that managed construction of the Big Dig, was chosen last year for a $30 million contract to design and manage construction of a parking complex at the airport.
I should run a pool on how much will be the looting overruns.
Richard O'Brien, manager of the Boston office of Parsons Brinckerhoff, said the company has sponsored the dinner "at one level or another" for years. "We look at this as a matter of corporate citizenship...."
And up comes my plate of food.
He also wouldn't discuss his firm's business with Massport.
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