University of Colorado's in-house lobbyists hire out for other firms

WASHINGTON???Three top University of Colorado public administrators responsible for lobbying on the school's behalf are making hundreds of thousands in additional dollars a year working on the side lobbying for other, sometimes competing, organizations, federal and state records show.

CU's vice president for government relations, Tanya Kelly-Bowry, collects more than $170,000 in state-supported salary and benefits heading a nine-person government-relations team at the university.

While that is defined as a full-time position, Kelly-Bowry also collected more than $180,000 in extra income for her side business last year as president of Policy Matters LLC, according to state and federal records.

In earning that money, Kelly-Bowry represented the interests of a couple of school districts, the Colorado Historical Society and the Jefferson Center for Mental Health. She is registered as a lobbyist both at the state level and in Washington.

"I feel very fortunate that I work for CU, and I have other clients," Kelly-Bowry said. "The way lobbying works and advocacy works is you work and you work until the job is completed. Sometimes it takes more time, and sometimes it takes less time."

CU president Bruce Benson said he was aware of the arrangement and agreed to it, mostly because he believes Kelly-Bowry brings a high value to the school, both in lobbying and as one of his executive advisers. The practice breaks no laws or ethics requirements.

"I need team people, and she is a team person, and that is very important," Benson said. "I went into this with eyes wide open. Don't ever think I didn't know what was going on."

The arrangement comes at a time when CU has increased in-state tuition rates every year for the past four years. Benson and other top CU officials say increased rates come because the school receives fewer state dollars now than ever before.

Last year, just less than 6 percent of CU's overall budget came from the state. The state's contribution to CU's Boulder campus has dropped from $80 million in 2002 to a proposed $55 million for 2012.

This makes lobbyists ? who act as ambassadors for whatever cause they are paid to represent ? increasingly important.

They help tell good stories to individual lawmakers, both in Congress and at the state house. And they also increasingly seek out federal grants and other streams of money to keep money for research flowing.

CU has restructured some of its Washington team to match federal priorities to research projects in Colorado.

That push has paid off: In 2008, CU received $476.3 million in federal research dollars. In 2012, that figure jumped to $682.9 million.

CU spends to get that money, though.

According to federal disclosures, the university spent $860,872 in 2011 on federal lobbying costs and has spent $293,956 for the first half of 2012. School officials say last year's expenditures are artificially high because of some overreporting and that this year's numbers are more accurate.

That compares with $200,000 spent by Colorado State University in 2011 and $420,000 by Penn State University in the same year.

None of this troubles Rep. Cheri Gerou, Republican vice chairwoman of the state Joint Budget Committee, who has worked with Kelly-Bowry.

"If her supervising entity is pleased with her performance, then I'm not going to tell someone they are making too much money," she said. "Anything I've ever seen has shown that she has integrity."

Kelly-Bowry isn't the only one with this arrangement within CU's government-relations team. Through her firm, Policy Matters, she employs David Sprenger, CU's senior director of federal relations, and, until recently, Todd Saliman, who was the university's senior adviser for government relations.

Saliman is now CU's chief financial officer.

Before his promotion, Saliman last year brought in $120,000 in private lobbying contracts for Kelly-Bowry's business. He also collected a $96,000 salary from the university in fiscal years 2011 and 2012.

Over the past two years, Sprenger, who lives in Washington, D.C., had a handful of other clients for whom he lobbied in the nation's capital, including the Jefferson Center for Mental Health, the Colorado Hospital Association and HealthGrades Inc.

He collected a $115,000 salary from CU in fiscal 2011 and $118,013 in fiscal 2012. From his side lobbying, he collected roughly another $100,000 in 2012 and more than $200,000 the year before.

Kelly-Bowry said she balances her time by playing different roles for different organizations she represents.

"The roles are different; we're hired to do a job; we monitor the budget; it's a much different role than we have at CU," she said.

She said on weeks she represents multiple clients, there "are different times for different hearings. You may have a budget hearing that is specifically scheduled for legislation, a county issue, an education issue, you balance your time."

Allison Sherry: 202-662-8907, asherry@denverpost.com or twitter.com/allisonsherry

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/nationalpolitics/ci_21243418/university-colorados-house-lobbyists-hire-out-other-firms?source=rss

aipac vanessa minnillo super tuesday epidemiology total eclipse of the heart jionni lavalle earthquake san francisco