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	Catholic Conference Hires Lobbyist on Abuse Bills By Mark P. Couch mcouch@denverpost.com and Eric Gorski Denver Post [Colorado] March 8, 2006 http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3579383 The Colorado Catholic Conference has hired a high-powered lobbying firm with ties to Gov. Bill Owens in an effort to defeat bills that would give victims of childhood sex abuse more time to file lawsuits. Phase Line Strategies - created in 2002 by Owens' former campaign manager and recipient of a $480,000 contract to do political work for the governor - has been retained to fight the legislation. Sean Tonner, founder and president of Phase Line, said the contracts are not connected and will not influence his firm's work on the issue. He said his firm has been hired to lobby lawmakers and help church officials handle media relations. Tim Dore, executive director of the Catholic Conference, which lobbies for the state's three Catholic dioceses, said he needed outside help to cope with the many bills of Catholic concern, including emergency contraception, rights for gay couples and immigration. "We got to the point where we could not concentrate on those as well as do justice to (the sex abuse bills)," Dore said. The conference has two lobbyists and has never hired an outside lobbyist until now. Terms of its contract with Phase Line were not disclosed. Bill sponsors and supporters say the church's strategy is further evidence that the church is most worried about money. "I think it's distressing that they are willing to write checks to PR people and to high-powered attorneys but victims remain uncompensated," said Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, sponsor of Senate Bill 143, which would open a two-year window for child sexual abuse lawsuits no matter how old the claim. Said David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests: "When you bring in partisan political hired guns, you're going to get the bare-knuckled tactics we've seen." Dan Hopkins, Owens' spokesman, said Phase Line's political connections will not affect the governor's decision on the bills. He noted that Phase Line lobbies for Envirotest, an auto emissions firm with a state contract that Owens wants to end. "If that doesn't speak volumes about how the governor makes his own decisions, I don't know what else will," Hopkins said. Tonner said his firm's work for Owens was related to polling and other efforts to contact voters that were mostly completed in 2003. The Phase Line contract with the Citizens for Bill Owens committeeruns through Jan. 1, 2007. Dore said Phase Line was a natural choice because of the Catholic conference's relationship with Sergio Gutierrez, who, before he went to work for the consulting firm, served as the Denver archdiocese's spokesman. Dore said that while the conference has no problem talking about whom it hired, Fitz-Gerald was not as forthcoming about her involvement with victims' lawyers in crafting her bill. In a hearing last month, Fitz-Gerald said there was no collusion or anything unseemly about her efforts. She said she had not communicated with attorneys with active lawsuits. But Fitz-Gerald later released documents that showed she had communicated with a nationally known victims' lawyer and the local counsel for a dozen clients suing the Denver archdiocese. "We're being asked, 'What are you doing?' and we're doing something perfectly fine," Dore said. "When the Senate president was asked, 'What are you doing?' she said for at least the first few weeks of the session she didn't do any of what we are now seeing she did. There's an issue of credibility here." Fitz-Gerald said she did nothing inappropriate and didn't know the lawyers represented victims suing the church. She said she came in contact with the Colorado lawyer after asking the state trial lawyers association for advice in making it tougher to bring lawsuits. According to an open- records request, the governor has received nine letters against the sex-abuse bills and two in favor. On Jan. 31, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote Owens: "The real motive behind these bills is not justice for victims. If it were, the proposing legislators would include all perpetrators and their sponsoring institutions - public as well as private. They do not. The real motive here is damaging the Catholic community." Fitz-Gerald said she intends for her bill to cover both private and public institutions.
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