By Doug Russell
Did he or didn’t he?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation alleges he did, but he can’t be reached to say one way or another. Or even to decline comment.
The locally listed number for District 17 state Rep. Mike Mass is no longer in service and he can’t be reached at the state Capitol either.
In fact, a Capitol staff member said Monday, “We only hear from him when he calls us. The numbers I have for him don’t work anymore.”
No reply was received to an e-mail sent to Mass’ Capitol address, which representatives can access from anywhere there is e-mail capability.
Calls to other numbers, for people listed in state documents as treasurers for two of Mass’ campaigns, were also unproductive.
Mass and two other state lawmakers, former state Reps. Randall Erwin and Jerry Hefner, are accused of profiting from companies that received special project money from the state; money the lawmakers themselves had funneled to the companies.
Erwin adamently denies allegations made in an affidavit filed by Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Gary Graff, but Mass can’t be reached for comment one way or another.
The affidavit alleges Mass allocated $419,000 in state funds to the Kiamichi Economic Development District of Oklahoma which, in turn, used the money to help fund National Pet Products, a McAlester company primarily owned by Steve Phipps, of Kiowa.
The money allocated through KEDDO to National Pet was from a special Oklahoma Department of Agriculture award given in October 2002. The funding, initially set at $450,00 but later reduced, was earmarked to go to the McAlester Foundation, Chester Dennis, executive director of KEDDO, told the McAlester News-Capital in May.
Foundation President Dick Dudley remembers it differently. “KEDDO asked us to oversee the money,” he said.
Either way, whether the money was designated for use by the Foundation for economic development in McAlester or was specifically designated for the pet food plant, it wound up going to Phipps’ company.
Mass was also allegedly responsible for sending an additional $100,000 to the South Pittsburg County Regional Water Authority, also known as the South Pittsburg County Water Trust Authority, which Phipps allegedly created to supply water to some communities on the south side of Pittsburg County. The affidavit also alleges Mass sent an additonal $971,667 to a group known as the Rural Development Foundation, which was allegedly formed to create jobs in Southeast Oklahoma but which gave the vast majority of funds it processed to companies owned by Phipps.
According to the FBI affidavit, that means Mass sent more than 68 percent of all special project monies he received between fiscal years 2003 and 2005 to Phipps’ business interests.
In addition, the affidavit alleges that Mass received $122,610 in consulting fees from one of Phipps’ companies between September 2002 and June 2004, as well as another $56,790 from another Phipps company between May 2005 and January of this year.
Mass, Hefner and Erwin are also alleged to have each received more than $20,000 from being a partner in Phipps’ gambling machine operation, although “The FBI has not found any evidence of monies invested by Hefner, Mass or Erwin in INE gaming machines other than the state funds mentioned previously” in the affidavit.
