How Developers And Their Lawyers Deliver Campaign Cash ‘Bundles Of Joy’ To NCC Elected Officials: Part 1

First, to all council members and those who bribe them:  If you object to the use of the word ‘bribery’, you are free to come on here and explain why the word doesn’t apply.

With that out of the way, let’s, for the third time, share with you the invitation to tomorrow’s Bundling Party for Valerie George and Brandon Toole, hosted by a developers’ go-to firm:

George.Toole Invitation

Let’s now look at how said go-to firm, that of Tarabicos, Grosso & Hoffman LLP, goes about buying the votes of council members.  Here are contributions from the law firm/family members alone in recent years:

Tarabicos Group Contributor	Number of Contributions
Larry Tarabicos	23
Geoffery Grosso	15
Michael Hoffman	14
Tarabicos, Grosso & Hoffman, LLP	10
SophiaTarabicos	8
Scott Matthews	4
Gail Tarabicos	1
Maria Tarabicos	1
Total	76

In other words, this Tarabicos Bundling Group provided 76 campaign contributions totaling $28,250 to members of the County Council, ranging in size from $100-$600, with an average Contribution Amount of 378 dollars per donation.  Now that is not your everyday $600 maximum allowable political contribution.  It’s a perfectly-legal way of getting around any legal limitations on how much they can donate to their peeps.  Also keep in mind that these contributions don’t even begin to reflect the money that clients of the law firm are funneling to the council members on their own.

While the Tarabicos law firm is (barely) the most prolific bundler, they are hardly alone.  Let me first define a ‘bundler group’, at least as I see it:

A group of contributors from key development interests in the County.  These groups include the developer, employees, family members, engineering firms, attorneys from the same firm, and others.  They typically all make individual donations as a group, often at bundling events sponsored by one or more of the bundling groups.

Here are the top bundler groups in NCC, meaning those who have made more than 10 contributions:

Bundling Group Name	Number of Contributions
Tarabicos Attorneys	76
DSM Commercial	72
Tucker Attorneys	70
Carpenter Family	67
Julian/Eastern States	63
DelleDonne Associates	28
Bross/Duffield Engineering	27
Onix Group	25
Blenheim Homes	23
Fusco Management	23
Pettinaro Construction	21
Cantera	18
Drinker Biddle & Reath Attorneys	18
Young/Conaway Attorneys	18
Karins & Assoc. Engineers	17
EDIS Development	16
Saul Ewing Attorneys	15

BTW, in case you’re wondering about the Carpenter family, they’re looking to develop a whole bunch of their Montchanin holdings, they’ve filed at least four plans with the County, and now they’re buying favorable county consideration and, ultimately, the votes of council members.

Coming soon: What happens at a Bundling Party. (Personal to John Atkins–don’t get your hopes up.  We’re not talking softcore lingerie–at least, I don’t think so.)

To Be Continued.