In early January, 2006, Jim Hartung sent a mass e-mail to members of the Northwest Ohio Legislative Consortium, telling the group its voice in Washington would continue to be Kathy Teigland, a politically connected lobbyist living in West Toledo.
What Mr. Hartung, president of the port authority who at the time led the consortium as its administrator, didn t tell the area s top officials was that he had had an extramartial affair with Ms. Teigland.
Hundreds of e-mails exchanged between the two since mid-2005 reveal a love-hate tryst that mixed the public s business with a personal relationship. The majority of their communications were professional, but the two spent hours exchanging sometimes cordial, sometimes vicious letters.
Mr. Hartung, who headed the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority for 14 years, was fired Aug. 1 by a unanimous vote of his board because of his inappropriate relationship and the apparent love triangle between him, Ms. Teigland, and the public s business.
He was paid $178,165 a year to lead the port an agency funded by a county property tax levy that manages Toledo Express Airport, the Port of Toledo, and is the lead public economic development agency in the region.
The e-mails between Mr. Hartung and Ms. Teigland were released by the port authority on Friday after The Blade filed a public records request with the agency. Most of the e-mails between the two were sent and received during business hours from Mr. Hartung s port authority computer.
Back and forth
The mix of business and pleasure between Ms. Teigland, 56, and Mr. Hartung, 65, is most graphically shown in a series of more than a dozen e-mails between the two on Jan. 5, 2006, that flew back and forth over the course of five hours.
The exchange began at 11:23 a.m. on a workday when Mr. Hartung forwarded Ms. Teigland an e-mail he had sent to consortium members. She responded four minutes later, questioning if her $8,000 monthly salary for 2005 would remain constant in 2006. His reply was yes, it would.
Two minutes later, Ms. Teigland reminded Mr. Hartung that she had asked for a $1,000-a-month raise.
If I continue that is what I would invoice, she wrote.
Over the next several hours, the communication devolves into a salacious set of e-mails filled with vulgarity, insults, claims of love, and expression of hatred.
I m sorry but ... I m being ripped apart and insulted, Mr. Hartung wrote to her. I m sick of this.
She replied: Ripped apart and insulted? I know all of your stated intentions and feelings to me were a lie. I know you did nothing but lie to me for 7 years.
Mistating [sic], lying, omitting and attempting to prove honor and sincerity where there was none for seven [expletive] years was my issue period.
He replied: Loving you is hard very hard and without satisfaction. Hating you is not fulfilling.
Ms. Teigland wrote back: You wanted to be viewed a good man and you wanted to protect yourself, and in doing so lied about your true intentions. I could have saved myself seven years of struggle by realizing after that January evening in 1999 had I simply admitted the obvious.
An ominous tone
The tone of her e-mails turned ominous four days later, on Jan. 9, 2006.
You counted on the love we had for you to protect your dishonest behavior. I certainly hope [your wife] comes to the same realization I have come to know and understand.
Perhaps she ll get a bit of a nudge in that direction.
Within weeks Ms. Teigland was pressing Mr. Hartung for more money.
What is the status of your direct calls as it relates to the increase in the monthly retainer? she asked the port authority president on Jan. 24.
On Jan. 26, Mr. Hartung had good news for her: Been out ill most of the week, but [Lucas County Administrator Mike] Beazley and I did manage to connect. He is O.K. with increase. [Mayor] Carty [Finkbeiner] is a bit more problematic at this point but I m not going to discuss your compensation with him. .... With Beazley on board, I now have sufficient comfort to move on signing a new agreement.
A personal matter
Mr. Hartung yesterday refused to answer questions about the personal relationship he had with Ms. Teigland. That s an area that I am not going to discuss. That s personal, he said.
He did say Ms. Teigland s accomplishments working for the consortium translated into millions of dollars in federal grant money for Toledo and the area.
Regarding her requests for pay increases, Mr. Hartung said: I thought the consortium felt we were getting value from her services. I believe they sat at the table and there was no issue.
Ms. Teigland, reached by telephone yesterday, declined to be interviewed by The Blade but released a statement, via e-mail:
On matters of a personal nature, I see no reason why this is being exploited. It is unfortunate that the Port Authority Board will not release the results of the investigation. I know there is nothing to support that there was anything inappropriate in the management of the Legislative Consortium contract, she wrote. The achievements of the
Legislative Consortium are documented and were the result of collaboration of 5-7 members, not a single participant that the media has previously portrayed.
Ms. Teigland s statement also pointed out that she was not employed by the port authority or solely under contract with the port.
She said e-mail snippets of frustration should not be used to create a scenario that is untrue or misleading.
She has been involved in local politics for years and previously worked as an aide to U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine (R., Ohio), to whom she has contributed campaign money.
In 2001, Ms. Teigland was project coordinator for the Friends of the Marina District and campaigned for a measure allowing the city of Toledo to financially back a $175 million riverfront development.
Seeking more pay
By the end of 2006, it appears from the e-mails between Ms. Teigland and Mr. Hartung that the consortium was falling apart, and yet, at the same time, Ms. Teigland was demanding a pay increase to $120,000 annually.
Mr. Hartung complied.
To make sure that your $10,000 monthly fee is not interrupted, I ve signed the authorization for the Port Authority s $25,000 to be placed into the account to assure that it is covered, he wrote to her on Jan. 18, 2007.
Port Authority Chairman William Carroll earlier this month said Mr. Hartung was fired for an inappropriate relationship with a vendor, but he refused to release a report detailing the dismissal, which prompted The Blade to file suit against the agency in the Ohio Supreme Court asking that the state s top court order the release of the investigative report.
While pursing the relationship, the president assumed responsibility for administration of the vendor s contract, approved her contract extensions, approved her compensation increases, and approved her expense reports, some of which lacked appropriate backup documentation, Mr. Carroll said on Aug. 8, a week after Mr. Hartung was fired.
Port board perspective
Mr. Carroll refused to comment yesterday about the e-mails or Mr. Hartung s relationship with the port authority s lobbyist, as did port board members Margarita De Leon and Bailey Stanbery.
Port board Vice Chairman G. Opie Rollison said last night that he had no prior knowledge of the affair.
I think the community will support the port authority and they understand how important it is for economic development and jobs, Mr. Rollison said.
The other 10 members of the board did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Until his firing, Mr. Hartung received almost universal support and praise from port board members. Year after year, no matter what controversies the agency faced, the board backed its president, giving him generous annual rasies and periodic cash bonuses.
That is a conflict
The board s investigation was initiated after Mayor Carty Finkbeiner asked the port authority to investigate Mr. Hartung.
Mayor Finkbeiner yesterday said the relationship between Mr. Hartung and Ms. Teigland was completely wrong, given their positions.
I knew with absolute certainty, if you are the primary sponsor of a person, who is a lobbyist, you are helping secure a contract from governmental agencies, and we were one, that is a conflict, Mr. Finkbeiner said.
The city paid Ms. Teigland nothing in 2004 and 2006.
At the end of 2006, I didn t feel there was much evidence she was bringing home much money, he said.
The consortium became defunct at the end of 2007.
An April 18, 2007, memo to the mayor from Dave Moebius, then Mr. Finkbeiner s assistant chief of staff, detailed the port authority s request that the city pay Ms. Teigland $25,000 for work that year.
Per Jim Hartung, Kathy Teigland is paid $125,000, which includes costs for wages, travel, and related expenses, the letter to the mayor stated. The port authority has covered the costs for 2006 and has asked the city of Toledo to contribute $25,000 for 2006.
The mayor made an executive decision about the lobbyist s value in October that year.
Last year we paid 0, Mr. Finkbeiner wrote to his senior staff on Oct. 16, 2007. This year we have a $10 million budget deficit, Kathy delivered nothing. I don t believe we owe Kathy a penny.
The city gave Ms. Teigland $5,000 in January.
Wasteful use of funds
Soon after Lucas County Commissioner Ben Konop was elected in 2006, he attended a meeting of the consortium with Ms. Teigland.
The meeting came on the heels of Democrats taking over Congress, and members of the consortium were interested in knowing how the shake-up would impact their lobbying efforts in Washington.
I remember the meeting pretty vividly, said Mr. Konop, who recalled Ms. Teigland handing out copies of updates from Congressional Quarterly, a Washington-based publication.
I remember walking out of there thinking, what are we paying all of this money for? said Mr. Konop, who yesterday called the money spent a wasteful use of funds.
She seemed like a nice lady and well-intentioned, but it didn t seem there was a lot of tangible benefit we were getting out of this, Mr. Konop said.
Mr. Konop said he didn t know about the personal relationship between Mr. Hartung and Ms. Teigland.
During business meetings with Mr. Hartung and Ms. Teigland, Lucas County Commissioner Peter Gerken said he never sensed that they had anything beyond a professional relationship.
Mr. Gerken, a former Toledo city councilman, said Mr. Hartung never pressured other members of the consortium.
There was never a sense to me both as a city councilman and as a county commissioner that he was trying to lead us [toward Ms. Teigland], Mr. Gerken said.
Still, Mr. Gerken said the relationship was inappropriate.
It would have been inappropriate to retain her service if there was a relationship with the port authority director, Mr. Gerken said. I wouldn t have hired my wife as a vendor.
Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak concurred that the relationship was inappropriate.
Clearly, there looks like there is a conflict of interest and there was no disclosure, Ms. Wozniak said.
U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo), could not be reached for comment yesterday but had previously supported Ms. Teigland s work
When she got involved, the group that came was much more focused, set priorities, met with members of Congress, would visit the agencies. It was a very organized effort.
I think they worked the House and Senate very hard, Miss Kaptur said on July 11. She also said Ms. Teigland s pay was appropriate.
Calling it quits
By June, 2006, Ms. Teigland s e-mails to Mr. Hartung indicated she did not want to continue working with him.
At this point I am ready to walk away from all/anything associated with you. It will be best at this stage, she wrote.
He replied later that day: You have now cast in concrete the belief that I am some evil, satanic destroyer of all that is good and pure. Your casting me that way doesn t make it so, he wrote.
How do you wish for this to end? My destruction, your destruction? he ended the e-mail.
Contact Ignazio Messina at:imessina@theblade.comor 419-724-6171.
First Published August 17, 2008, 1:02 p.m.
