|
|
Wiltse said Whelen "on one or more occasions" provided a plane "to the University of Connecticut or the Republican Governors Association for use in transporting the governor to either an official or political-related event.''
Wiltse insisted that Rowland, who served as vice chairman and then chairman of the RGA until last year, never used a Whelen plane for his personal business.
The spokesman, however, said he couldn't find any documents in the governor's office that indicated how many trips Rowland may have accepted on aircraft provided by the company or where the firm may have taken him.
"I don't have any specifics,'' he said.
Company officials could not be reached today for comment.
State ethics laws allow private companies and other outside parties to pay for elected officials' "necessary expenses" in attending conferences and the like, such as travel to and from the events. But the officials accepting such gifts are supposed to disclose them to the state Ethics Commission, and it was not immediately clear today whether Rowland had done so regarding Whelen.
The Stamford Advocate reported last year that Whelen Engineering flew Rowland to Washington, D.C., when he was having trouble booking a commercial flight after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
In July, it was reported that U.S. Rep. Robert R. Simmons, R-2nd District, had arranged for Whelen Engineering to make a two-hour pitch about its products to lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol.
Simmons said at the time he did not see a problem with the event, which attracted staff from about 25 House offices, saying he was trying to promote a company located in his district. He said he was not aware that company executive George "Sonny" Whelen had contributed to his election campaign in 2000 and 2001 when he made the arrangements.
George Whelen, who lives in Old Saybrook, contributed $3,000 to Simmons' election campaign in 2000-01. The company gave $4,000 to the Republican National Committee and $500 to the state Republican party in the last three years.
Whelen Engineering was not among the companies mentioned as having provided planes for the governor's use in documents made available to the Journal Inquirer this year by Rowland's legal counsel, Ross H. Garber.
The documents were provided in partial response to a request the newspaper made under the state's freedom-of-information statute for a record of all trips taken by the governor that had been paid for by outside parties.
The records, which included letters the governor's lawyers wrote to the state Ethics Commission, show the governor's hosts on his trips to various RGA functions included two tobacco companies, UST Inc. of Greenwich and R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., as well as Barr Laboratories Inc. and the Mashantucket Pequots.
The Journal Inquirer had reported on those trips during Rowland's 2002 match-up against Democratic gubernatorial candidate, William E. Curry Jr., who promptly criticized the governor for "flying around the country on tobacco and casino planes."
Wiltse, meanwhile, also said today that Rowland would not respond to eight questions put to him last week by the Journal Inquirer, including whether he or his family had accepted other gifts from state contractors.
Asked whether he had accepted other gifts from contractors Friday, Rowland responded: "None that I know of."
Rowland also refused to tell the JI whether he intends to keep accepting gifts from state contractors and whether he considers it proper -- apart from any law or regulation -- to take them.
The governor also won't say whether it remains his position that he should refuse to answer questions about such gifts on the grounds of "personal privacy" and whether he would grant an interview to answer questions about his acceptance of gifts, as his fellow Republican, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, has suggested.
Rowland, who touched off calls for his resignation this month after he acknowledged lying about the sources of improvements to his private cottage in Litchfield, became embroiled in another controversy last week after the New York Times reported that, after Rowland became governor in 1995, he formed a real-estate partnership that included the owner of a Watertown paving company that got state contracts.
Rowland had listed the partnership on his annual statements of financial interest submitted to the Ethics Commission, but it disappeared from his reports after it was formally dissolved in 2001.
Rowland on those reports subsequently began listing a second private corporation with which he was associated called Spinnaker Hill Family LLC.
The governor described that nature of that business as "real estate holdings."
Wiltse said today that Spinnaker Hill was established by Rowland and members of his family in 2002 to handle matters pertaining to their property on Block Island, Rhode Island.
Nobody other than family members is behind the company, he added, and none are state contractors.
Wiltse said the Waterbury-based company's agent of record, Florence J. Rowland, is Rowland's mother, who goes by the first name of Cerie.
