Contractors help fund a gala for Big Dig brass
Contractors on the Big Dig are chipping in at least $190,000 toward a gala dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston next week to honor Matthew J. Amorello and Michael P. Lewis, the two top state officials responsible for supervising the firms' work on the trouble-plagued project.
The sponsors include Bechtel Corp. and Parsons, Brinckerhoff Inc., the two engineering behemoths that formed a joint venture to design and manage the Big Dig. They are locked in a legal battle with the state over a claim for $108 million in refunds.
Amorello and Lewis will be given crystal obelisks inscribed with their names, said Stanley D. Elkerton, a Stoneham-based engineer who is the dinner committee chairman. Amorello, chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversees the Big Dig, will receive the first John Joseph Moakley Public Service Award, while Lewis, state project director, will get the Engineering Center Leadership Award.
The dinner is organized every year by the Engineering Center, a nonprofit association of engineers and land surveyors.
Proceeds from the dinner will go to educational grants and scholarships in fields related to engineering, organizers said. This year's dinner is billed as a gala ''Celebrating the Central Artery/Tunnel Project," according to an invitation that names the top donors and the award recipients.
The $14.6 billion Big Dig project is substantially complete, but state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly is in talks with contractors to demand more money.
The Turnpike Authority also is pressing to close out the contract for the construction of various sections of the project, coming to final financial terms on the work.
''The dinner is not a venture for everybody to be cozy despite the problems that exist," Elkerton said. ''Certainly," he added, ''this [banquet] is not a reward for anything. This is a project that will transform Boston, and we all should be proud of it."
Elkerton added that the top people at the contracting firms on the Big Dig are already well acquainted with Amorello and Lewis. ''This dinner will not change or enhance their relationships with them," he said.
But the award dinner was denounced by Christy Mihos, a former member of the Turnpike Authority who is running for governor as an independent, as well as by Deval Patrick, a candidate for the Democratic nomination.
''The only thing Matt Amorello should accept from Bechtel/Parsons Brinkeroff is a check made out to the Commonwealth for $1 billion," Mihos said.
''These types of cozy relationships, along with Big Dig political donations to those who have oversight responsibility over the project, are what makes people frustrated with state government," added Doug Rubin, who is a senior advisor to Deval Patrick's campaign.
''Instead of accepting awards from Big Dig contractors, the Turnpike Authority should be 100 percent focused on making sure the taxpayers are reimbursed for massive cost overruns and design flaws."
In all, eight contractors are listed on the invitation as ''presenting sponsors," while another seven are listed as ''leaders."
A letter sent by organizers to solicit money for the dinner identifies ''presenting sponsors" as contributing $15,000, and ''leaders" at $10,000.
Among the ''presenting sponsors" are Big Dig contractors Jay Cashman Inc., Fishbach & Moore, JF White Contracting Co., Testa Corp., and
Many other Big Dig contractors are contributing smaller amounts than the ''leaders" for tables at the event, helping to raise substantially more money than last year, Elkerton said.
''There has been a lot of cooperation from firms that did business of this project," he said.
Last year, the leadership award went to Charles M. Vest, the former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Of the $194,740 raised at the dinner, $60,000 went to support a state program to help prepare female and minority students to pursue careers in engineering, science, math and technology, according to the Engineering Center's website and tax records. Receipts in 2004 were $148,821; and for 2003, $250,960.
Other past recipients of the Leadership Award include Gloria Larson, a former state economic affairs secretary, developer Norman Leventhal, and Fred Salvucci, a former state Cabinet secretary who is credited with pushing the Big Dig concept into reality.
In an e-mail message, Mariellen Burns, a spokeswoman for the Turnpike Authority, did not respond to direct questions from The Boston Globe about donations from Big Dig contractors.
Burns emphasized that the award was from the Engineering Center. ''They were contacted by the Engineering Center and informed that the Center had selected them, and they are both honored to accept," she wrote.
Andrew Paven, a spokesman for Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, said ''This is not about currying favor -- it's about supporting a program that encourages and provides opportunities for kids, often women and minority students, to get involved in engineering. We have supported it for years."
Nate Little, a spokesman for Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, a Republican candidate for governor, said, ''It's important to keep pushing for cost recovery and stand up for the taxpayer."
Dan Cence, a spokesman for a Democratic candidate, Chris Gabrieli, said the dinner points out that ''there needs to be more leadership from the executive branch."
A spokesman for Reilly declined to comment yesterday. Reilly took over the efforts to gain a refund from the Turnpike Authority last year, after criticism that a former judge leading the efforts was not making enough headway.
''It is important to note that we have had this for only a year, and that we stepped in because for 10 years people didn't do their jobs in terms of cost recovery," he said. ''So, we're the first ones to step up here, assume responsibility."
Under Amorello's tenure, two consultants he had hired to investigate hundreds of leaks in the tunnels were let go amid their accusations that the turnpike authority had cut off access to documents the consultants said were vital to their work. A former judge, Edward Ginsberg, who was overseeing efforts to determine if funds could be recovered on the project and who first reveled the extent of the leaks to the Globe also did not have his contract renewed.
The Globe reported in 2003 that cost recovery had produced only $35,707 in refunds.
Sean Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com. 
