Last night we posted about how it was weird that ECC Technologies was being offered the job of marketing the sale of electricity generated at the county run Mill Seat landfill in Riga. And a little fishy that they were also big contributors to Maggie Brooks’ campaign fund.
Well, today’s D&C reports on another aspect of this story: apparently ECC hearts Maggie Brooks so much that they contributed too much to her campaign coffers:

ECC Technologies Inc. of Fairport gave $4,000 on Feb. 28, 2005, to Friends of Maggie Brooks and $2,000 on Aug. 11, 2005, according to records of the Monroe County Board of Elections.

State law prohibits a corporation from giving more than $5,000 to a candidate in a calendar year.

Whoops. And it’s not just Maggie they heart.

Democratic Legislator Paul Haney of Rochester, who voted against the contract in the Environment and Public Works Committee, said his check of the records showed that ECC Technologies has given extensively to local Republican committees since 2004.

“It appears to us that the company is getting this contract simply because it has been contributors to local Republican committees and the Friends of Maggie Brooks,” Haney said.

State records show that ECC Technologies gave $10,000 in February 2006 to the Monroe County Republican housekeeping account. There is no limit on what corporations can give to housekeeping accounts, which are to pay for activities unrelated to individual campaigns.

Who gives to “housekeeping” accounts, anyway? Who even knows about them, for crying out loud? That’s like Inside Baseball to the nth degree. Spidey sense is telling me that only politically connected folks know about and contribute to them.

Oh, and the justification for why ECC’s getting the job?

because of the company’s expertise in data entry, which would allow the electricity generated to be sold on a day-to-day basis instead of on a long-term basis for a lower price.

I’d have to hear more, but as a software geek, this strikes me as weak, weak, weak.

I mean, data entry expertise? Come on. Data entry is not rocket science. And this is Rochester, with a goodly number of tech companies. You mean to tell me that a tech company with no expertise in energy management is the one and only choice for this work?

Pay to play.