Thursday, 4:30 PM
House majority leader changes course, refuses to turn over records
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
Reversing his previous position, House majority leader John H. Rogers is refusing to turn over records explaining what services his campaign committee received for the $196,000 it paid over two years to a consulting firm that was created and operated by his former law partner.
Following a Globe story earlier this month that raised questions about the expenditures, Rogers also hired Boston lawyer Thomas R. Kiley, a well-known ethics specialist for the Beacon Hill political establishment, to handle potential legal issues.
In the June 4 article, Rogers and his former law partner, Philip F. Filosa, said they would open up the consulting company’s books the following week.
Neither Rogers nor his staff responded to repeated requests for a statement explaining why he has decided to keep the campaign expense records from public view. An aide to Rogers, who did not wanted to be quoted by name, said they promised to show the Globe the records in an effort to persuade the newspaper that there was no reason for writing a story.
At issue is two years of payments Rogers’s political committee made to Bay State Consulting, which lists its address as the old law office Rogers shared for many years with Filosa in Wrentham. The monthly payments for political consulting services, which were often as high as $10,000, were far more generous than those other state lawmakers paid. Rogers said he had no fee schedule or written contract with Bay State Consulting, which had no other clients.
Last week, through his office, Rogers, a Norwood Democrat and one of two major contenders to become the next House speaker, referred inquiries to Kiley, who declined to comment when asked why the records would not be available for inspection. Filosa, a former Democratic legislator, did not respond to calls for comment.
