Bob Kraft's Footbridge

Emails show pressure for Pats footbridge

BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - E-mails show state employees felt pressured by the governor's office and the owners of the New England Patriots to act quickly on a plan to use federal stimulus money to build a pedestrian footbridge near the team's stadium in Foxboro.

The Obama administration later nixed the $9 million project, feeling it was an inappropriate use of the taxpayer money. The decision followed news reports about maximum political donations made by Robert and Myra Kraft, who own the team, to Gov. Deval Patrick, Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray and the state Democratic Party.

Both Patrick and the Krafts denied any quid pro quo.

On Friday, Patrick's office released thousands of e-mails after a public records request filed by The Associated Press. The request was made in December, but it was fulfilled over six months later.

It also was delivered on a Friday afternoon - a common practice for the administration when it is trying to minimize coverage of negative news.

One e-mail shows Brendan Ryan, Patrick's former campaign driver and a top gubernatorial aide, personally inquiring about the status of the project.

"I want to make sure I understood what you were saying about the Foxborough project at yesterday's meeting," Ryan wrote on Nov. 13.

Two hours later, Christine Mizioch, the transportation department's design-build project manager, wrote to the state highway commissioner and others: "They are very concerned about this project being feasible."

She added: "We may have to be more flexible with (our) process to allow this project to meet the deadlines."

In another e-mail two days later, Mizioch again said she would have to alter standard operating procedures for the project to meet a January deadline for stimulus funding.

"Basically, we could make it for Foxborough, but we would have to shortcut some of our preferred practices, which I have heard loud and clear no one likes," she wrote.

Mizioch, who met with Kraft representatives about the project, says in a third e-mail 10 days later, "The Krafts want this bridge open prior to next season, so we are looking at a completion of 12/31/2010."

State campaign finance records show the Krafts made $500 maximum political contributions to Patrick and Murray, as well as maximum $5,000 donations to the state Democratic Party, as the project was being reviewed last fall.

Both Patrick and the Krafts have said there was no connection between the political contributions and the administration's official actions. Patrick said the bridge was a vital link between the stadium and industrial property the Krafts own on the opposite side of Route 1.

The governor also said it would have been an appropriate use of stimulus money because it would have leveraged the job-creating construction of an office park by the Krafts.

Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan said Friday the pressures Mizioch mentioned stemmed from the accelerated schedule for spending stimulus dollars, and were not unique to the Patriots project. At one point last year, House Transportation Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-Minn., complained Massachusetts was not spending its stimulus money quickly enough.

"What we were going through at the time is that Oberstar was putting the pressure on us to spend the money more quickly," said Mullan. "We were pushing it on a lot of projects, just trying to deal with the staggering number of projects we have."

Mullan also denied any effort to minimize publicity about the project pressure.

"It was a big request," the secretary said. "We have lots of public records requests that we're trying to address, but there is no coordinated campaign to give it out on particular days."