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SALT LAKE CITY — Republican Salt Lake County mayoral candidate Dave Robinson accused Democratic incumbent Ben McAdams of "pay-to-play" politics Wednesday, allegations the mayor dismissed as unfounded and "absurd."
It's Robinson's second attack on McAdams this week after the GOP candidate took several verbal jabs at the first-term mayor during a public forum Monday, less than a month away from the general election.
Joined by Utah GOP Chairman James Evans and Salt Lake County GOP Vice Chairman Scott Miller, Robinson held a news conference at the Salt Lake County Government Center, where he distributed thumb drives containing McAdams' campaign finance statements and documents related to Mountain Accord consultant contracts.
Robinson said McAdams, who is chairman of Mountain Accord's executive committee, awarded more than $300,000 in contracts over the past two years to the public affairs firm Exoro Group, whose consultants have made multiple financial and in-kind contributions to the mayor's campaign.
"There have been hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out in no-bid contracts," Robinson said. "That is not acceptable to the residents of Salt Lake County, and it is not acceptable to me."
Campaign finance reports show Exoro principal Dan Hartman has donated $5,000 to McAdams' campaign this year, while also earning $300 per hour for Mountain Accord consulting, according to the group's financial statements.
While Robinson says it can't be "pure coincidence" that the same consulting firm that has been McAdams' "political arm" in past campaigns has won expensive Mountain Accord contracts, McAdams said Robinson has "a long history of making absurd allegations with no factual basis."
"My opponent is ignoring the truth in order to attempt to gain for himself what his lawsuits have failed to achieve in the canyons," McAdams said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
McAdams added that Robinson has been involved in several "frivolous" lawsuits to get zoning and water rights to develop land in the Wasatch Mountains.
Mountain Accord program manager Laynee Jones said McAdams has had nothing to do with selecting consulting firms for the group. She said despite what Robinson claims, all Mountain Accord contracts are awarded through a competitive bid process and a selection team.
The selection team, Jones said, included the state, Sandy, Utah Transit Authority, Park City, Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front Regional Council, not Salt Lake County.
Robinson's claims are similar to those from former state lawmaker Justin Miller last year after McAdams accused Miller, who worked as the mayor's campaign manager in 2012, of embezzling more than 20,000 from his campaign accounts. Miller eventually pleaded guilty in the fraud case.
A FBI probe into those allegations cleared McAdams of making corrupt government contracts with the campaign firm Exoro Group late last year.
Miller, a Democrat, is "volunteering" for Robinson's campaign, the GOP candidate said Wednesday, but he added that the information regarding McAdams and Exoro has come from open records requests submitted by GOP members, not Miller.
