PROVIDENCE – High-profile State House lobbyist Jeff Britt and Gov. Dan McKee have different memories of what happened at a $228 lunch at The Capital Grille on budget rollout day last January.
They do not dispute that Britt paid the lunch tab, or that two top officials at the urban design firm Scout Ltd. who also lunched with the governor and Britt contributed $500 each to McKee's political account that same day.
But their accounts differ on how it all came about, and what McKee knew heading into the meal arranged by his lead fundraiser, Jerry Sahagian, with Britt and his new clients from Scout, the Philadelphia design firm that has since become a household name after news broke of a visit by two high-ranked Rhode Island state officials in March that became a national scandal.
McKee says he didn't know lunch was with Scout; meal was only $25 or $30
Talking off-the-cuff to reporters on Wednesday about the latest revelations in the ongoing saga, McKee said he wasn't aware ahead of time that he would be lunching with people from Scout, a firm his administration hired last June to produce the latest in a yearslong series of unfunded reuse plans for the Cranston Street Armory.
The overarching issue: what happens to the armory on McKee's watch.
The governor told reporters: "We're not going to agree to a project that's not in the best interest of the taxpayers. And what I've seen right now in the condition of that project, it's not in the best interest of the taxpayers.
"We're more than open to continue ... discussion of how to use, have that property be used in a way that's a benefit to the community, and we'll continue to have those conversations."
As for who paid for the Capital Grille lunch, McKee said: "My schedule was so jammed that day, I left early on the lunch and turned to Jerry to take care of the lunch," according to a WPRI-TV account of his comments.
“My lunch – I don’t think it even totaled up to 25 bucks – maybe 30 bucks – whatever the number was,” McKee said. “If Jeff wants the money back, I’ll give him the money back.” (Later Wednesday, his political spokesman, Mike Trainor, said the McKee campaign organization would overnight a check to Britt for the full amount.)
Asked whether McKee violated the state's $25 gift limit, Common Cause's John Marion said: "It depends on whether the governor ordered the the $24 Cobb salad or the $39 steak for lunch."
Britt says McKee knew Scout executives would be there, left without paying the bill
In a statement to the media on Thursday, Britt gave this account:
"My clients and I were invited to a fundraising lunch by the [governor's] campaign to be held at the capital grill [sic]. When lunch was over the governor left without paying the bill."
Sahagian, he said, "explained that he did not have the 'campaign credit card' ... [and] asked if I would pay the bill and the campaign would take care of covering it. I agreed and I am [now] assured that the check for that lunch has been sent."
"The clients had a very in-depth discussion of their project and the governor was clearly familiar with the project," Britt continued. "I had cleared with the campaign weeks ahead of time who I was bringing to the lunch and the projects and subjects they would be interested in discussing with the governor."
"With the exception of the mishap of not having the [campaign] credit card at the end of lunch, I believed the [lunch] was a huge success, as it was the first time my clients had been able to interact with the governor," Britt said.
There was no immediate response from the governor's office.
McKee's campaign spokesman: Britt forgot to submit an invoice, governor did not know about Scout at lunch
In his first account of what happened, McKee's political spokesman, Mike Trainor, said Wednesday: "This lunch was a campaign event organized by the campaign’s chief fundraiser Jerry Sahagian ... The governor left the lunch before it concluded.
"When the check for lunch was presented, Jerry was in the restroom and Jeff Britt paid the $228 tab. When Jerry returned, he instructed Britt to send the campaign an invoice to reimburse him for the lunch. Britt neglected to do so and the campaign failed to remind him … a simple lapse of memory on Jerry Sahagian’s part."
When contacted again on Thursday, Trainor said again that to the best of his knowledge McKee had no idea that anyone from Scout would be at the lunch.
"This occurred post-election. We no longer had a campaign manager who would have been the person to do a full brief of the governor [ahead] of a meeting like this. It is not Jerry Sahagian's role to be doing comprehensive briefings of the governor," he said.
"To me, it is entirely possible the governor just knew he was meeting with Jerry Sahagian about fundraising and was surprised, as he said yesterday, that the Scout people were there," Trainor continued.
"To me, knowing how the governor works, if the governor knew Scout was going to be there, he would have brought a policy person along with him," Trainor said.
What did he know? Relaying what Sahagian told him, Trainor said: "When Britt asked for this lunch with the governor, all he said was that there were two individuals from Philadelphia who were interested in doing business in Rhode Island who would like to meet the governor. Period. End."
"So the governor [was] absolutely accurate when he said yesterday that he had no idea it was Scout," Trainor said. "That's the position of the campaign."
But Britt said that's not what happened. "Just to be clear, I was offered a lunch with the governor by the governor's campaign chairman. It was a campaign fundraising event, and I was offered to have any and all of my clients come and meet with the governor. The purpose was to raise money.
"It was not my idea."
Earlier Thursday, Britt filed amended copies of his lobbyist disclosure reports with the secretary of state's office. He did not initially mention the lunch tab for which he expects reimbursement. He later opted to include it as a campaign contribution in January, which he expects to report as a refund in June.
The Journal report led the chairman of the state GOP to call for an Ethics Commission investigation of McKee for accepting a "free lunch" at the high-end Capital Grille, that likely exceeded the $25 limit on gifts to public officials. The GOP also asked Secretary of State Gregg Amore to investigate, but his office opted to ask Britt to amend his reports instead.
With reports from Patrick Anderson
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