Follow the Money - Part 4 (The Liquor License)

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We’ve been looking at the influence of money on city council members’ voting patterns. We’ve looked at developer money, money from businesses seeking contracts with the city, and shopping center money. But all of this has involved businesses. Time to look at individuals. This next example concerns Scott Voigts and Adam Nick.

Some Background

Voigts is on the City Council and Nick is seeking a council seat. Privately Voigts will tell you that he supports Nick, but publically he doesn’t want to endorse him because he doesn’t want to upset Marcia Rudolph, a sitting council member who is running for re-election, and Nick is one of six people running against her (full disclosure – as am I).

Voigts already endorsed his BFF, Dwight Robinson, so if he endorsed Nick it would be clear he opposes Marcia Rudolph, something he doesn’t want to do.

Follow The Money

Voigts, it turns out, not only privately endorses Nick but he signed his Candidacy statement. But the relationship doesn’t end there. It seems that Nick gave thousands of dollars to Voigts in Voigts’ 2010 run for election. In fact according to public records filed by Voigts, Nick was one of the biggest contributors to his election campaign, right behind Robinson whom Voigts publically supports for his run for city council.

FWIW – Robinson and Nicks are having a joint fund raiser on October 11, supported, of course, by Voigts. Just to close the circle, Nick is also a major financial supporter of Robinson’s campaign.

So far, so good. No foul. Robinson and Nick are entitled to give money to Voigts and Voigts is entitled to endorse them, privately or publically. But now let’s Follow the Money.

The Council Decision

In March 1, 2011 Nick came before the City Council appealing the Planning Commission’s decision to issue a liquor license to a 711 store. It seems the 711 store is very close to Nick’s own gas station and store, and Nick didn’t want them to have a liquor license and compete with his own business.

During the meeting, then Mayor Peter Herzog specifically “asked if any Council Member had contact with the applicant or the appellant outside of the confines of the chambers…” This would have been the appropriate time for Voigts to say that yes, he knew Nick (the “appellant”) and in fact Nick was one of his biggest financial supporters and gave him thousands of dollars just a few months earlier.

According to the Council minutes, Voigts did no such thing, and the minutes say “Council Member Voigts reported speaking with the appellant after a Council meeting and receiving no other information outside of what had already been provided to the Council within the confines of the Council meeting or by staff.”

Apparently Herzog was suspicious so he asked again. The minutes say –

“Mayor Herzog again asked if any Council Member had contact with the applicant or the appellant that should be stated. There was no further response.”

Voigts remained silent on his relationship with Nick.

Now comes the vote. Four city council members have not received any money from Nick and they vote against him. The only city council member’s election committee that received money from Nick, and it was a lot of money, Scott Voigts, doesn’t disclose the contribution, remains silent when asked, and then votes in favor of Nick.

So here we see, once money, the relationship between money and city council member’s voting patterns.

Did Nick give Voigts thousands of dollars and insist that Voigts vote in favor of an issue that Nick had before the Planning Commission, just in case he didn’t prevail? Who knows? We have no way of knowing what went on when Nick wrote his checks and what the two men said to each other, so we need to give them the benefit of the doubt.

OTOH, isn’t it suspicious that Voigts is the only person getting money from Nick and he’s the only person voting in Nick’s favor? It’s pretty rare for the council to vote 4-1 so when they do you have to wonder “what’s up?”

And isn’t it suspicious that when asked if he had any communication with Nick, Voigts was silent. Surely this was the time to say – “Adam is a friend of mine and he‘s one of my biggest supporters. I’m going to vote in his favor but it has nothing to do with the thousands of dollars he gave me just a few months ago.”

So here we have, once again, an example of how money looks to be part of the city council agenda. Even worse, we have another example of how the money flows are completely ignored, even disguised, when council members vote. In virtually every vote I examined over the years there has never been a single case in which a city council member acknowledged receiving money from a person or a business whose issue came before the council. In this particular case, Voigts had two chances to declare the financial relationship with Nick and was silent both times.

As is the case in our other examples, there is nothing illegal about what happened. Even Voigts’ silence in response to two direct questions from then Mayor Herzog is not illegal. There is no statute that requires either Voigts or Nick to admit the financial relationship during council meetings.

Is there a chance that the money that passed between Nick and Voigts bears no relationship to Voigts’ vote, and Voigts would have voted this way even if Nick hadn’t given him thousands of dollars a few months earlier? Sure, there’s a chance. But if that’s true, why did both parties hide the relationship?

Anyhow, this isn’t an expose about either Voigts or Nick, but rather an example of how following the money can explain city council member votes when the issue comes from an individual rather than from a business.

In our next blog we’ll take a look at what happens when the money flows conflict. IOW, if one interested parties gives money to one council member, and an opposing interested party gives money to a different council member, which way will they vote? Got any ideas? Stay tuned.