How state Comp funds end up in campaigns - NewsOK.com

Sun August 3, 2008

How state comp funds end up in campaigns

By Nolan Clay and Randy EllisThe Oklahoman© Copyright 2008, The Oklahoman

A secretive organization has raised close to $1 million throughout the last decade for political purposes, mostly from injured Oklahoma workers who sometimes don't even know they've donated.
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Many of the donations to Working Oklahomans Alliance may be illegal, an investigation by The Oklahoman found. The organization could be penalized $1,000 or more for each violation.
The lawyers who control Working Oklahomans Alliance specialize in workers' compensation cases.

These lawyers raise money for a political fund by withholding a portion of their clients' workers' compensation awards. The lawyers then distribute the money to various political causes and candidates, mostly Democrats.

Several injured workers listed as political donors to the Working Oklahomans Alliance PAC said they were not aware they had given at all. Many were represented by Norman attorney Richard Bell, a key figure in a campaign corruption scandal in the 1990s involving then- Gov. David Walters.

"They didn't tell me,” said Elsa Tewolde, who is listed as giving $80 to Working Oklahomans Alliance's political action committee in November. Tewolde, 49, of Norman was injured helping a patient at a Norman mental hospital. She was represented by Bell's law firm. "It makes me mad,” she said of the donation she didn't know about. "It makes me very upset because it's deceptive.”

The alliance has an address in an office building north of downtown Oklahoma City. A piece of paper taped to a locked door says: "Working Oklahomans Alliance WOKA 80,000 Members Strong.” The door appears to lead to the offices of Lawyers for Working Oklahomans. The executive director of Lawyers for Working Oklahomans would not let reporters inside the offices. She also refused to identify the Lawyers for Working Oklahomans president. Former Executive Director Mannix Barnes said he hasn't worked there for about two years, so he didn't feel comfortable commenting about the organization. Barnes is now chief of staff for state Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields.

Bell and other attorneys who raised donations from clients would not comment. Employees in Bell's office, however, insist clients authorized the donations in writing from their workers' comp settlements even if the clients can't remember it now. Clients are given a list of amounts withheld from checks, said a longtime friend of Bell's. Employees of Bell's office circle one item, "WOKA contribution,” from the lists and ask clients to place their initials by it. Clients also are asked to sign separate contributor's statements.

A few times, Bell's employees realized they forgot to get contributor's statements and tore up the checks to WOKA and sent the money to the clients instead, said the friend, who did not want to be identified.

Workers' compensation attorney Gary Prochaska always gets written authorization from his clients to make the donations, said attorney Jerry Foshee, who works with him. Investigation's findings The Oklahoman reviewed hundreds of pages of contribution reports and found hundreds of possible violations of ethics rules. The review found:
•Attorneys repeatedly fail to turn in donations from injured workers on time. Attorneys are required by law to get donations to the political fund's treasurer or deputy treasurer within five days of receiving them from injured workers. Instead, many donations apparently were not turned in for weeks or months.
•Injured workers are supposed to sign contributor's statements confirming their donations. Several workers interviewed by The Oklahoman didn't recall signing any such statements.
•The occupation of several donors is listed as unknown.
•Addresses of a few donors are listed as that of Working Oklahomans Alliance's post office box. In other cases, a donor's address is actually the address of his attorney.
•Ken Hartin was identified in January as the chairman and treasurer of Working Oklahomans Alliance. This year, he supposedly certified as true and correct contribution reports dated Jan. 30, April 30, July 18 and July 21. Hartin, a state Department of Human Services employee, said he got involved with the organization after he was injured but resigned over a year ago for personal reasons. He said his name should not be on recent reports.

The executive director of the state Ethics Commission would not comment on whether the agency has investigated Working Oklahomans Alliance. However, Executive Director Marilyn Hughes agreed some of the information on the contributions reports raised questions.
"It's questionable that an attorney representing a client in a workers' comp case would not know their occupation or employer,” Hughes said.

The Ethics Commission can seek civil penalties in court for violations. Unintentional violations start at $1,000 per violation. Penalties go into the state's general fund.
In 1993, Bell pleaded guilty to giving excessive donations to Walters' campaign by using the names of a son and aunt. Investigators then also looked at whether Bell was behind donations from other relatives, friends and his employees.