2 face investigation for Pa. film-lobbying role

HARRISBURG - A legislative panel is expected today to hire a suburban Philadelphia private detective agency to investigate whether a onetime news anchor and a former lawmaker broke lobbying rules in pushing a multi-million-dollar state tax credit for the film industry.

"Pennsylvania is under a very dark cloud when it comes to lobbying, ethics, and campaign-finance disclosure laws," said Sen. Jeffrey Piccola (R., Dauphin), who as chairman of the Senate State Government Committee led the effort to hire the detectives. "People who influence the law should not be above it."

Under a three-month contract expected to be completed today with the committee, the West Chester firm of Cloud Feehery & Richter will be paid $120 an hour to investigate whether loopholes in the state's lobbying and ethics laws were exploited.

At issue is the effort behind a $75 million tax credit - backed by the Rendell administration and others - for companies that agree to produce TV shows and movies in the state. The credit was a last-minute addition to the state budget this summer.

The private eyes will focus on lobbyists Leslie Merrill McCombs, a former Fox TV reporter in Pittsburgh, and former Rep. Mike Veon, a Beaver County Democrat. Both had lobbied for the credit on behalf of Lionsgate, a leading independent film and TV production company based in Santa Monica, Calif.

McCombs was representing Lionsgate earlier this year, but had not registered with the state as the company's lobbyist - something Pennsylvania's lobbying disclosure law enacted in 2006 requires.

Last week, McCombs, 47, called her failure to declare Lionsgate as a client a "technical and brief noncompliance" that was later corrected.

She also lashed out at Piccola for, in her view, suggesting that she had an inappropriate relationship with the governor and abused that relationship as a lobbyist on behalf of Lionsgate.

Piccola said detectives would also look into allegations he has received that Veon violated ethics laws by lobbying former House colleagues.

Under state law, Veon is barred from lobbying the House for a year after he left office. He was defeated in November amid a furor over the 2005 legislative pay raise. At the time, he was the second-ranking House Democrat. Veon registered as a Lionsgate lobbyist in May.

In an e-mail, Veon said he welcomed the inquiry, and "I am confident that any review of the facts and the record will find that at no time . . . have I lobbied anyone in the House of Representatives."

Cloud, Feehery & Richter is led by former FBI agents and state police investigators. The firm was used in 2004 by the Philadelphia Parking Authority to probe whether employees there were pressured to contribute to the Republican Party.

The contract lasts through Dec. 31. The detectives will mainly be conducting research and interviews and will not be employing surveillance techniques, said Piccola, who plans to hold hearings on the matter when the investigation is completed.

"Should the investigation uncover statutory weaknesses and loopholes, the committee will work to address them," he said.

Although rare, it is not unprecedented for Harrisburg to hire detectives.

They were used in the 1994 impeachment of State Supreme Court Justice Rolf Larsen. More recently, Piccola, as head of a select committee in 2002, used a private eye to investigate allegations of voter fraud.

Last week, Gov. Rendell criticized the move. He said it was a waste of tax dollars and quipped that it led to legal woes for the last lawmaker to do so.

"The last person who hired a private detective to look at something in the state Senate got indicted," said Rendell.

The governor was referring to Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.), who was indicted in February on federal counts of fraud and obstruction of justice. Fumo had paid a private eye, according to the case against him, with state funds to spy on his ex-wife and political foes, including Rendell.

Rendell said last week that he did not know McCombs was working for Lionsgate when she lobbied for the company and that, under the state law, he probably should have. Even so, he said he has supported the idea of a film tax credit way back in his days as Philadelphia's mayor.

While he opposes the hiring of detectives, Rendell did say that he supports efforts to tighten the lobbying rules.

The registration and disclosure rules are designed to give the public details about how much special interests are spending to influence policymakers in Harrisburg. The rules, established in 2006 after the state had no lobbying law on the books for four years, are widely viewed as among the weakest in the nation.

Eric Epstein, founder of the government watchdog group RockTheCapital.org, also chided the decision to employ private detectives.

"You don't need to hire a gumshoe to figure out that the lobby law has no bite," Epstein said.