Veon-LaValle group's board gets twice as big

A powerful Beaver County lawmaker says he added two members to the board of a small development agency in order to shield it from criticism that he and another Democratic legislator were controlling the organization that receives millions in taxpayer dollars.

Rep. Mike Veon, of Beaver Falls, the House minority whip, said two people joined him and state Sen. Gerald LaValle, of Rochester, on the board of the Beaver Initiative for Growth, or BIG, in February. The agency has received $10.6 million in state grants since 1999.

His announcement Wednesday followed a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review investigation, published Sunday, that detailed the unusual organizational structure that placed Veon and LaValle in control of BIG, an economic development organization financed exclusively with state grants.

"We don't want the work the Beaver Initiative for Growth does and the good people we work with to be (dragged) through the mud just because it's campaign season," Veon said in a radio interview with KDKA.

A supporter of last year's now-repealed legislative pay raise, Veon faces a tough challenge in the May 16 primary by Democrat Jay Paisley, a retired teacher. Four candidates -- Donald Cripe, Jeff Harris, Jim Marshall and Charles Patete -- are seeking the Republican nomination.

Veon said Rochester Borough Manager Ed Piroli and Dennis Rousseau, representative for the Western Pennsylvania Regional District Council of Carpenters, are the new board members. Piroli and Rousseau did not return calls seeking comment.

When asked Feb. 2 by the Trib about board membership, Veon said, "Jerry and I are the directors."

Veon's press secretary, Bob Caton, said his boss would not be available to talk with the Trib yesterday.

On the radio, Veon defended the two-man board that tax attorneys, ethics experts and a representative from the state Attorney General's Office had found questionable.

"It is allowed by law," Veon said, adding that he hopes to expand the board further in coming weeks.

Even so, the appearance it created is "just awful," said Robert M. Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based nonpartisan research institute that studies government ethics and campaign finance issues throughout the nation.

"The serious problem is the appropriation of state money to an agency they control," said Stern, a former general counsel to the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

The new board members might need a scorecard to keep track of the employees in Veon's district office and the BIG office in the same building.

The Trib learned yesterday that BIG Executive Director Tom Woodske, a former Duquesne Light executive who served on the Governor's Action Team under former Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, is employed both by BIG and Veon.

State House records show Woodske, 58, is paid $31,720 a year for a 40-hour week as a "home office assistant" for Veon and receives full state benefits. BIG's 2004 IRS statement, the most recent year for which such records are available, shows Woodske also is paid for a 40-hour week there, at a yearly salary of $44,479.

Woodske did not return the Trib's calls for comment.

Stern said that kind of arrangement raises troubling issues.

"The question is: Who's getting the short end of the stick -- the state or the nonprofit• It seems unlikely anyone is working 80 hours a week."