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Copeland vexes local Democrats
Federal inquiry not revealed
 

John Irish, left, chairman of the Lucas County Democratic Party screening committee, is upset Phil Copeland, right, did not disclose an ongoing federal investigation.   Zoom | Photo Reprints

Days before he announced his candidacy for Lucas County commissioner, Phil Copeland braved a cold January night to meet with local Democratic leaders. They asked him a standard question: Was there anything in the Toledo city councilman's background that could embarrass the party?

Mr. Copeland said he had recently settled a delinquent tax bill, recalled John Irish, who chairs the local Democratic candidate screening committee. Mr. Copeland did not mention an ongoing federal investigation of the labor union where he works as secretary-treasurer.

"We should have known," said Mr. Irish, whose committee decided not to endorse any of the three candidates for commissioner. "It's just the kind of thing he knew, and he should have disclosed."

Mr. Copeland has fielded questions about a federal investigation of Laborers' Local 500 for several months. His answers have varied.

He denied it. He wasn't "authorized" to speak about it. He confirmed a routine audit. And finally, earlier this month, he said there is an investigation that spans five years of financial records and includes questions of union spending on personal entertainment - which, if true, could carry felony charges.

Mr. Copeland has consistently declared he never misspent union money and "has nothing to hide." He defended his choice not to tell the party screening committee about the investigation because, he said, members never asked him about it specifically.

"I still don't think it has anything to do with my candidacy," Mr. Copeland said last week.

The U.S. Department of Labor's investigation of Local 500 began in August. Investigators have examined spending by Mr. Copeland and Steven Thomas, the union's business manager and top elected officer, according to their lawyer, Joseph Allotta.

Local 500 adopted a policy in November that barred the use of its credit cards for "personal entertainment expenditures," a move the union insists was separate from the investigation's subject matters.

The Blade detailed the investigation - based on information from Mr. Copeland, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Allotta, along with confirmation from the Laborers' International Union of North America - on March 12. The next day, Mr. Copeland and his allies challenged only one assertion in the story: that Local 500 pays Mr. Thomas and Mr. Copeland more than any other union officials in Toledo.

Although Mr. Thomas and Mr. Copeland were the highest-paid officers of any local Toledo union in 2004, Bill Lichtenwald, who made $91,423 as president of Teamsters 20 that year, also drew an $83,290 salary from the Teamsters' national headquarters, according to federal filings.

A Blade reporter first asked Mr. Copeland if Local 500 was under any type of investigation early last November, shortly before Mr. Copeland finished first in Toledo's at-large City Council race with 39,178 votes.

Mr. Copeland claimed there was no investigation. He called back later that afternoon and said, "I wasn't authorized to give an answer one way or the other."

Mr. Copeland announced his candidacy for county commissioner in February, following the political and professional trail blazed by his late uncle, former commissioner Bill Copeland.

At his kick-off speech, Mr. Copeland's advisers handed reporters a file folder with information about a nearly $63,000 unpaid tax bill, dating to a failed business in the 1980s. They said Mr. Copeland paid the back taxes last fall.

At a Valentine's Day dance/fund-raiser days later, Mr. Copeland's campaign manger, Dan Gilbert, promised to "confirm anything" in the months ahead and talked about Mr. Copeland's accomplishments.

"He will do for Lucas County what he's done for the union," Mr. Gilbert said.

No one at either event mentioned the labor department investigation. An e-mail exchange among Mr. Copeland's advisers, obtained by The Blade and verified by its author, shows Mr. Copeland's campaign team knew about the investigation in December.

Acting on an anonymous tip, reporters in early March again questioned Mr. Copeland about the investigation. Mr. Copeland drew the line at confirming anything.

"The only thing I can tell you is that the union is under an audit," he said, emphasizing that the audit was ordinary and probably triggered by a "disgruntled member."

Later, he added: "This is just a smear, a smear tactic. We're cooperating with officials, and in the end, they're going to let us off."

Mr. Copeland, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Allotta confirmed in later interviews that the investigation involves multiple years and questions of spending by its officers, including a $35,000 deferred salary payment to Mr. Copeland in December and a Tennessee rafting trip that Mr. Copeland says he did not participate in.

The labor department does not confirm or deny an ongoing investigation. Department officials say relatively benign "compliance audits" typically involve only the previous fiscal year. Criminal audits often involve several years.

Local 500 does not know how or when the investigation will end, nor does it have copies of the documents it turned over to federal agents, Mr. Allotta said.

Mr. Copeland and Mr. Thomas have repeatedly told The Blade they cannot discuss further details, citing the ongoing nature of the investigation.

Mr. Thomas was quoted in last week's edition of the weekly Toledo Journal that "higher-ups" from Laborers International chose an "adult lounge" for a meeting with Local 500 officers where union funds only paid for food and beverages.

Mr. Thomas has not returned phone calls from The Blade seeking further comment.

Asked by The Blade earlier this month if Local 500 money paid expenses for union members at area strip clubs, Mr. Thomas said, "I don't know how directly I can answer that question."

Mr. Copeland said last week that he could not confirm whether union officers bought food at an adult lounge. "I've never spent any money at strip clubs," he said.

A survey of the area strip clubs shows that two venues serve food. Alcatraz in Erie, Mich., offers its clientele T-bone steaks and shrimp scampi. Deja Vu in Toledo prepares sloppy joes, hot dogs, and two flavors of soup: chicken noodle and vegetable beef.

Rich Greer, a spokesman for Laborers' International, declined to comment on whether regional and national union officers pressured Local 500 to hold a business meeting at a strip club.

But under federal law and the union's own ethics code, regional and national union leaders cannot force local union officers to do anything that would violate the union's integrity, said Robert Luskin, a Laborers' International attorney.

Laborers International adopted its ethics code in 1995 to help purge the La Cosa Nostra crime family from influencing union leadership nationwide, according to the code.

It states that appointed and elected union officers have "a sacred trust to serve the best interests of the members and their families."

"The membership is entitled to assurance that union funds are not dissipated and are spent for proper purposes," it reads. "The membership is also entitled to be reasonably informed as to how union funds are invested or used."

Before stories in The Blade, Local 500 did not publicly disclose the federal investigation, members said last week. The union will hold a special meeting in the Local 500 hall Wednesday at 6 p.m. to discuss "recent media attention," according to a postcard sent to members.

Local Democrats say it is too early to tell what effect, if any, the investigation will have on Mr. Copeland's chances in the May 2 primary election.
 

Michael Ashford, a city councilman helping Mr. Copeland's campaign, said news stories about the investigation gave Mr. Copeland "a new level of confidence, new determination to prove people wrong."
 

Pete Gerken, a county commissioner and former United Auto Workers leader who backs Mr. Copeland in the primary, said the investigation "certainly kind of tarnishes his image in the community.… If there is an element of unsavouriness in the union, it taints all union leadership."

Mr. Gerken also said the coverage has rallied Mr. Copeland's political base, which could push him to a primary victory. The other Democratic commissioner, Tina Skeldon Wozniak, said Mr. Copeland's chances could hinge on his ability to spread a positive message to voters.

"It's all in the way he explains it to everybody," she said.

Contact Joshua Boak at: jboak@theblade.com or 419-724-6728.