DiMasi's fete has tie to Big Dig overseer

A firm that lobbies for Big Dig contractor Bechtel/Parsons-Brinckerhoff is preparing a fund-raiser for newly installed House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi next week, as the company weathers the political fallout from the discovery of leaks in the tunnel project.

On Monday morning, Thomas P. O'Neill III, head of lobbying powerhouse O'Neill and Associates, will host a fund-raising breakfast at the firm's Beacon Street offices for DiMasi. Named on the invitation is Andrew Paven, the O'Neill employee who is Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff's lobbyist and spokesman. The invitation suggests contributions of $100, $250, and $500.

Companies associated with the beleaguered Central Artery project have become political hot potatoes recently. US Representative Michael E. Capuano recently returned $2,000 he had received from Bechtel donors. Also, Governor Mitt Romney last week canceled a fund-raiser that was to be hosted by construction magnate Jay Cashman, who recently began an association with Big Dig contractor Modern Continental Construction.

But the speaker sees no problem with the O'Neill fund-raiser, his spokeswoman said yesterday.

''I am informed by the speaker's campaign that it is strictly an O'Neill and Associates event," said Kim Haberlin. ''Tom O'Neill, who is a longtime friend of the speaker, is the lead sponsor, and Bechtel has no part in this event. O'Neill has over 60 clients. I think this is a bit of a stretch. Is every event Andy Paven sponsors a Bechtel event?"

According to records from the secretary of state's office, O'Neill and Associates and Paven are registered as lobbyists for Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff. O'Neill and Associates also has many other clients with business on Beacon Hill.

Paven said he lobbies for Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff in Washington, but is merely a spokesman for the partnership in Massachusetts.

''I don't lobby the State House for Bechtel/Parsons-Brinckerhoff," he said.

And there will be no officials of the group at Monday's fund-raiser, Paven said.

''I have not even sent Bechtel people invitations," he said. He cited the return of the Capuano contributions as an indication of the wariness with which the Big Dig overseer is being treated lately.

Paven attended yesterday's hearing into Big Dig tunnels convened by the Legislature's Joint Transportation Committee. There, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff officials testified and sometimes endured harsh criticism from legislators.

''Bechtel has outsmarted us, outgunned us, and . . . ripped us off," said Senator Mark Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat on the committee.

The committee's cochairman -- Joseph Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat -- said the project has been ''one big black mark on the Commonwealth." Another legislator called it ''a black hole."

Many on the committee repeatedly asked the Turnpike Authority chairman, Matthew J. Amorello, why he had not done more to publicly hold Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff to account for what they saw as mismanagement and cost overruns on the megaproject, whose cost has ballooned to $14.625 billion. Officials of the management group, along with lawyers and lobbyists seated in four short rows at yesterday's hearing, were mostly stony-faced.

DiMasi has been publicly silent about the Big Dig contractor.