PHOENIX — An Arizona congressman said it is a coincidence that he steered more than $1 million in federal grants to a college scholarship program just months after his daughter was hired as one of its directors.
Democrat Ed Pastor got a similar grant years earlier for a Maricopa Community Colleges scholarship program that gives at-risk high school students a chance to get a college degree. But the yearly amount increased substantially after his daughter got the job in 2005.
College officials credit Pastor with delivering enough federal funds over the past several years to put the program in all 10 of the community colleges.
The program focuses on average students with B or C grades whose parents did not attend college.
"I have been working with that program for many years," Pastor said. "I knew if that program doesn't get money, then it is going to go to heck."
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Pastor said he was impressed by the program, and when he saw a chance in the late 1990s to get a Department of Housing and Urban Development grant, he lobbied for it and delivered.
The grant gave the college program $998,000 over five years, or about $200,000 a year, beginning in 2001.
Pastor, whose district includes south and central Phoenix and parts of Glendale, serves on the House Appropriations Committee and on three subcommittees, including Energy and Water Development.
In 2005, Pastor said he had another chance to help the Achieving a College Education program and lobbied for a $1 million grant through the annual Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The grant provides $1 million over three years, or $333,000 a year.
Pastor said he was working on the grant when he learned his daughter had interviewed for the program director's job. He is seeking an additional $300,000 Energy Department grant for the program.
"I can tell you with all sincerity that her job was not connected," Pastor said, pointing out that he had no say in whether she was hired. "The decision was not mine. I did not get involved in the process."
Pastor's daughter, Laura Pastor, is touting her leadership of the scholarship program as part of her campaign for a Phoenix City Council seat.
Pastor, 37, insisted that her father had no influence in her employment.
"I get criticized for any job that I attain," said Pastor, a former middle-school teacher with a master's degree in public administration. "You need to look at my credentials and qualifications."
The college district also says its hiring of Pastor had nothing to do with her father's role in the funding.
Three complaints over Laura Pastor's hiring in 2005 alleged that her selection was based on "bias, inappropriate influence and unfair employment practices," reported a college investigator, who found no violations.
Two other leading candidates for the District 7 City Council seat criticized the circumstances of Pastor's hiring.
Ruth Ann Marston and Michael Nowakowski said they were unaware of her job and its relationship with her father, and both said she should not have taken the $67,000 a year job. They also said she should have disclosed the relationship in campaign material.
Ed Pastor said his daughter's job had no bearing on whether he went after the grant.
"I never talked to anybody," he said. "Not the board members, not the chancellor, not the college president."
Laura Pastor said she has lived with questions about her father's influence all her life. As with other jobs where someone accused her of using him to get ahead, this is without merit, she said.
"I don't think it's fair, and I don't think it is right," she said. "To have my name is a double-edged sword."
