Top aide's voice mail told staff to do election work

Order in Conyers' office may violate congressional rules

December 3, 2004

BY JOEL THURTELL
Detroit FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A top aide to U.S. Rep. John Conyers ordered other staffers who work for the congressman to leave their office and spend several hours Oct. 19 working to increase Democratic turnout in the November election, possibly violating congressional rules.

The aide said in a message left on voice mail that she was speaking on behalf of Conyers, who already was the target of an informal House Ethics Committee inquiry for allegedly using staff to campaign on government time.

A Conyers staffer who received the orders and later shared them with the Free Press said authorization to access the voice mail was turned over to the ethics committee.

In the voice mail, left at 9:15 a.m. Oct. 19, Marion Brown,

Conyers' Detroit office deputy chief of staff, orders two staffers to their constituent work and work on elections for several hours, and she quotes Conyers ordering that every one of his employees do the same. The voice mail said Conyers' entire Detroit staff would get similar orders.

Reached on her cell phone Thursday, Brown listened as a reporter read a transcript of the Oct. 19 message, then responded, "I don't remember, and ... anything I have done has not been on congressional time and people have comp time, and I didn't hear that I demanded anybody. ... I don't have any comments right now."

Brown then hung up.

Conyers' press secretary, Karen Morgan, said Thursday, "I can't really comment because I don't really have any information on it."

According to Brown in the recorded message, she was warning staffers that another Conyers aide, Carol Patton, would be calling all congressional employees on Conyers' staff to tell them to work on campaign matters rather than government work that day. Patton did not call that day though she had on other days, asking people to do campaign work in calls that were not recorded, said the staffer who got the voice mail and asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

In the voice mail, Brown said, "I have a message from the congressman, and I thought I'd give you a heads up to, see, Carol Patton, he has her calling everybody to get the message, so I thought she might not have called you, so I did, I am.

"The congressman ... what he wants is for all his staff to work on the campaign at least several hours today so he has asked ... to open the Dearborn campaign office and the Detroit office, and so you're to go over to the campaign office in Dearborn and we're going to get more information, but he just wants to do campaigning, calling people, whatever."

No mention is made on the voice mail that staffers must use compensatory time.

Brown also said on the voice mail, "He wants you to strategize on what is going to be done to kill the voter suppression," continued Brown. This is apparently a reference to reports that Republicans were trying to discourage Detroit Democrats from voting Nov. 2.

The staffer said that in addition to the Oct. 19 call to do campaign work, "There were meetings every week to get out the vote and stop the suppression from happening to the Democratic vote." Those efforts often took place in government offices on government time, the staffer said.

The House Ethics Committee began its inquiry of Conyers, a 20-term Detroit Democrat, last January after the Free Press reported in November 2003 that Conyers staffers had used government telephones, printers, fax machines and mailing lists to solicit campaign contributions, organize fund-raisers and canvass for votes in apparent violation of the law and House rules.

Conyers, 75, is the second most senior member of the House and the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He's also a cofounder of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Patton and a former Conyers aide, Glenn Osowski, were early targets of the House investigation, the Free Press reported in March.

Campaign work in government offices during regular office hours is illegal, and it's contrary to ethics rules for staffers to work on elections during office hours when they're paid government salaries, unless they are on comp time.

Violations of House rules restricting campaigning on the job can lead to censure, fines or in rare cases expulsion. Two other Michigan House members, both Republicans, were cited by the committee earlier this year. Candice Miller of Harrison Township was cited for using undue influence to try to sway the vote of U.S. Rep. Nick Smith of Addison on legislation to change Medicare last year. Smith, in turn, was admonished for exaggerated claims about threats that Republican leaders made if he didn't vote for the bill.

In the earlier reports about Conyers, the Free Press found:

?Osowski working in the Chicago campaign office of presidential hopeful Carol Moseley Braun while he was being paid to work in Conyers' office. Osowski, who answered the telephone at Braun's office on Nov. 13, 2003, said he was on vacation time then. Conyers spokesman Burt Wides said then that Osowski was on his own time part of the time in Chicago and also took vacation time. Recently released congressional pay records show that Osowski collected his full salary in October and November 2003.

?In the April 2003 special election for Detroit City Council, JoAnn Watson, then a Conyers staffer, worked on her own campaign during congressional office hours.

?In a special Wayne County Commission election in June 2003, Judiciary Committee staffers Lillian German and Greg Barnes, who work for Conyers, worked on the campaign of successful commission candidate Keith Williams during office hours.

?In fall 2003, Conyers staffers were asked to transmit from government computers the names of public officials who could be asked for campaign donations for Conyers.