Oversized checks loom large in race

It was a happy moment last week in Revere City Council chambers, when Boston City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy stood at the lectern and presented an oversized check, stamped with the seal of the City of Boston, for $329,480.45.

"This is a huge assistance for the city of Revere," said Murphy, as he turned over the check, which he had signed.

The councilors gushed with thanks. "I'm at a loss for words," said one. "I want to offer my deepest thanks to Councilor Murphy," said another.

Similar scenes played out last week in Winthrop and Chelsea, two of the other communities in Suffolk County, where Murphy is in a heated battle with Sheriff Andrea J. Cabral. The election will be decided in a primary Tuesday.

It turns out the checks are meaningless.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars in homeland-security money Murphy was purporting to dole out last week, in jumbo-sized checks bearing his signature, will never be presented directly to those communities. If they were, Murphy wouldn't be the one to do it, Boston officials said.

According to Boston's director of homeland security, no Boston city councilor has authority to distribute funds from grants. In fact, the Boston City Council plays a minor role in allocating grants: The body authorizes the mayor to spend the money; the council's votes are a formality. Last month, the Public Safety Committee, which Murphy chairs, pushed through such a spending authorization for the homeland-security grants.

"Whatever check he has didn't come from the city," said Carlo Boccia, Boston's director of homeland security. "I don't know where it comes from."

Cabral, who saw photos in local papers of Murphy as benefactor handing out checks, called it "one of the worst examples of political grandstanding that I've ever seen.

"This is purported to be homeland-security money," she said. "It's a shameless exploitation of 9/11 from someone who has nothing whatsoever to do with obtaining that money or dispersing that money. To take credit for that is a disgrace."

Murphy defended the check presentation, saying that without his committee's approval, the mayor could not spend the grant, and the communities would lose out.

"My understanding is we were disbursing the amounts placed in front of me as chair of public safety," he said. "Being a signator on the appropriating order, based on his [Boccia's] testimony and the documents presented to me, it was my belief that this money was going from Boston to these cities and towns, and there was a full reimbursement."

Murphy, who had blasted Cabral for launching an antiviolence ad campaign two weeks before the election, brushed off the criticism.

"Here I am presenting funds to taxpayers in the form of a picture in the newspapers that the taxpayers didn't pay for. On the flip side, you have the blatant misuse of taxpayer money to fund a failing and failed sheriff's campaign," he said, referring to the ads, which were paid for by the Sheriff's Department. Comcast, the local cable provider, last week pulled her TV spots, and the MBTA removed the ads from subway cars.

"I didn't spend any public money," Murphy added. "All I'm doing is my job as chair of public safety."

Appearing in the photos published this week in newspapers in Revere, Chelsea, and Winthrop were grateful local politicians, but apparently only those supporting Murphy's candidacy. In Chelsea, other local leaders were not invited to the photo opportunity, they said.

"I thought it was very questionable they would take a picture without notifying any of the other councilors," said Leo Robinson, Chelsea councilor at large, a Cabral supporter. "It was a situation where they utilized the check to take a picture in front of City Hall. It seemed like just a campaign ploy to try to sway of some of the people in Chelsea to side with Murphy."

Daniel Rizzo, a Revere councilor who has endorsed Cabral, said the council president called a special public safety meeting last week without giving the body the 48-hour notice required by state law. The notice didn't mention that Murphy would be present to deliver a check, and councilors who weren't backing Murphy did not attend.

"There is an inference that he was somehow responsible for our receiving these homeland-security grants," Rizzo said. "It's unfortunate that these types of games need to be played."

When he and another councilor tried several months ago to award Cabral a certificate of appreciation, Rizzo said, they were voted down by colleagues, who called the move political.

Some of the local politicians who posed with Murphy were unaware that he had virtually nothing to do with grants from which their communities will eventually benefit.

"I understand the check is from the homeland-security agency sent to the city of Boston, and Steve Murphy has the responsibility to distribute that money. We're very grateful for that," said George V. Colella, Revere councilor at large.

"In all my political life, which spans approximately 50 years, I've never seen a Boston-based candidate spend as much time in Revere seeking help and support and votes than Stephen Murphy," Colella said. "I don't know where the check came from. But we're very grateful for the opportunity to expend $329,000 for public safety measures in the City of Revere."

Said Paul R. Nowicki, Chelsea councilor at large, a Murphy supporter: "As not only a Murphy backer but chairman of the public safety committee, I'm very appreciative. We've developed a good working relationship with Boston. This money is very much needed."

According to Boccia, the communities in the region will benefit from the grants but will not receive a check for the amounts Murphy said they are getting.

Under the Urban Area Security Initiative program that Murphy cited, Boccia said, nine communities in Greater Boston applied for a fiscal 2003 grant totaling $16.6 million. That amount represents the maximum the region can be reimbursed for spending on equipment and training.

Boston, not the local communities, has expended money for the equipment, which has been ordered but not yet received, Boccia said. Boston will submit invoices to the federal government and be reimbursed for the outlays, he said.

He said the City Council would not be involved.

"The City Council's participation is procedural," Boccia said. "They have some oversight. We let them know what we're spending it on. There is no check that is handed out by the City Council."

A Murphy colleague on the council said he's hoping for an enlarged check of his own.

"Maybe Steve will show up at my house with a Publishers Clearing House check," quipped Councilor John M. Tobin Jr., who has endorsed neither candidate. "I could already be a winner."