SALT LAKE CITY — Republican Salt Lake County mayoral candidate Dave Robinson accused Democratic incumbent Mayor Ben McAdams of "pay-to-play" politics Wednesday — allegations that the mayor dismissed as unfounded and "absurd."
It's Robinson's second attack on McAdams this week after the GOP candidate took several verbal jabs at the first-term mayor during a public forum on Monday, less than a month away from the general election.
Robinson — joined by Utah GOP Chairman James Evans and Salt Lake County GOP Vice Chairman Scott Miller — held a news conference at the Salt Lake County Government Center, where he distributed thumb drives containing McAdams' campaign finance statements and documents related to Mountain Accord consultant contracts.
He accused McAdams, who is chairman of Mountain Accord's executive committee, of awarding more than $300,000 of contracts to the public affairs firm Exoro Group in the last two years, from which several consultants have also given multiple financial and in-kind contributions to McAdams' campaign.
"There have been hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out in no-bid contracts," Robinson said. "That is not acceptable to the residents of Salt Lake County, and it is not acceptable to me."
Campaign finance reports show Exoro principle Dan Hartman has donated $5,000 to McAdams' campaign this year, while also earning $300 per hour for Mountain Accord consulting, according to the group's financial statements.
While Robinson says it can't be "pure coincidence" that the same consulting firm that has been McAdams' "political arm" in past campaigns has won expensive Mountain Accord contracts, McAdams said Robinson has "a long history of making absurd allegations with no factual basis."
"My opponent is ignoring the truth in order to attempt to gain for himself what his lawsuits have failed to achieve in the canyons," McAdams said in a prepared statement Wednesday.
McAdams added that Robinson has been involved in several "frivolous" lawsuits to get zoning and water rights to develop land in the Wasatch Mountains.
Mountain Accord program manager Laynee Jones said McAdams has had nothing to do with selecting consulting firms for Mountain Accord. She said despite what Robinson claims, all Mountain Accord contracts are awarded through a competitive bid process and a selection team.
The selection team, Jones said, included Sandy, Utah Transit Authority, the state of Utah, Park City, Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front Regional Council, not Salt Lake County.
Robinson's claims are also similar to what now former state lawmaker Justin Miller alleged against McAdams last year, after McAdams accused Miller, who worked as the mayor's campaign manager in 2012, of embezzling more than $20,000 from his campaign accounts — for which Miller eventually pleaded guilty.
A FBI probe into those allegations cleared McAdams of making corrupt government contracts with the Exoro Group late last year.
Miller, who was a Democrat, is "volunteering" for Robinson's campaign, the GOP candidate said Wednesday, but he added that the information regarding McAdams and Exoro has come from open records requests submitted by GOP members, not Miller.
Email: kmckellar@deseretnews.com, Twitter: KatieMcKellar1