WSB's Veronica Waters reports former Atlanta deputy chief operating officer Joe Reid testified that he was a prolific fundraiser for Mayor Campbell in 1997. Reid says with the help of COO Larry Wallace, he gave a telecommunications contractor a list of the names of several Campbell relatives so company executive Vertis McManus could use their names to make campaign contributions without their knowledge.

Reid says his boss, Wallace—a close friend of Campbell's--encouraged him to document his fundraising and give contributions directly to the Mayor so he would "get credit" for what he'd raised. Reid testified that sometimes Campbell would keep the donations, sometimes he'd tell Reid to give them to an office employee.

Reid says he gave the checks bearing Campbell's relatives' names to the Mayor in an envelope, but doesn't know if he ever looked at them. He also testified that when he raised cash contributions, he handed those to the Mayor directly. The cash, he said, the Mayor never asked him to give anyone else.

Under cross-examination, Reid said Campbell never asked him to raise campaign funds illegally.

"I don't think Mayor Bill Campbell would've requested any illegal contributions, per se," Reid responded.

"As far as the Mayor knew, you were not involved in any illegal campaign contributions?" asked defense attorney Fred Orr.

"No," Reid replied. "I didn't know either."

Reid has served 18 months for accepting corrupt payments from McManus while he worked at City Hall. Earlier, McManus testified about his part in raising the illegal contributions for Campbell's campaign. His company, Spectronics, also contributed to the campaign by encouraging employees to donate, and then reimbursing them. McManus has served time for giving thousands of dollars in bribes to Reid and Wallace.

McManus said, however, Mayor Campbell had never asked him to give him a bribe or break the law.

"While you're 'cooperating' with the Government...you really have nothing to tell this jury about illegal activities regarding Mayor Bill Campbell?" Orr asked. "That's true," McManus said.

The last witness of the day was Howard Sole, who worked for an engineering firm which had an office in Atlanta. The firm wanted to do business on a sewer overflow project which was costing Atlanta EPA fines.

Sole says he had been having trouble landing a meeting at City Hall until talking with Campbell's friend, Ricky Rowe, another city contractor, who was able to get them on the schedule the very next morning. At the meeting, he testified, Campbell seemed enthused about his firm's approach to the job, and that "it sounded like something we could do," Sole testified.

Sole says Rowe hung back inside the office when he and another colleague stepped out into the hallway. Five or 10 minutes later, he said, Rowe came outside and he asked Rowe what they needed to do to move forward.

Outside, he says Rowe told him, "A hundred thousand dollars by the end of the month to the Mayor's campaign and the job is yours. "I'm not saying that the Mayor said this, but $100,000 and it's yours whether he's reelected or not."

Sole says he didn't feel good about the conversation and decided to tell some of the officials at his company about it but decided they would not get involved in any such efforts. They were never contacted by Atlanta about the job.

On cross, Sole acknowledged that his meeting with Campbell had been legitimate and above-board, and that the Mayor had not indicated he had to contribute to his campaign to be considered for the contract.

He said he had told a grand jury that he thought Rowe could've been posturing with his comments.

Among the witnesses expected Thursday is Angela Gittens, the former general manager for Hartsfield Airport. Gittens has criticized the contracting process at the airport, saying City Hall would interfere to steer business to certain firms. Mayor Campbell declined to renew her contract in 1998. The Government hopes to show that Campbell manipulated the system to make sure his friends' firms got city contracts.

Thursday, 16 February 2006