From the Tribune: 
 
Fawell testifies Ryan relied on staff's advice 
Aides guided boss on tech contracts 
 
By Matt O'Connor and Rudolph Bush 
Tribune staff reporters 
Published October 18, 2005 
 
 Former Gov. George Ryan's longtime closest aide testified Monday that he never knew his boss to accept money or gifts in return for awarding leases and contracts. 
 
 Scott Fawell said the contracts--to install a mainframe computer, produce license-plate stickers and change over to digital driver's licenses--were awarded on the recommendation of professionals in the secretary of state's office. 
 
 Under questioning for a third day by Dan Webb, Ryan's lead lawyer, Fawell said Ryan played little if any role in reviewing the contracts or the lease for a secretary of state facility at 17 N. State St. 
 
 Fawell has been the lone witness so far in the first six days of testimony in Ryan's trial on charges he took cash, gifts and vacations for himself and relatives in return for steering state contracts and leases to friends. 
 
 Also on trial is Ryan's friend Lawrence Warner, who is charged with pocketing about $3million in the deals through his clout with Ryan. 
 
 Fawell struggled to provide details about the office's bidding on those contracts because of the passage of time and his scant involvement. 
 
 But he bolstered the portrayal of Ryan by his lawyers in opening statements that the former governor was a hands-off boss who relied on professionals in the secretary of state's office for direction on which vendors should receive contracts and leases. 
 
 Questioned about several of the deals, Fawell stated in each case that he didn't know of Ryan being improperly influenced to accept one proposal over another. 
 
 Typically, Ryan, and even Fawell, would never see a final lease or contract, Fawell said. Once the agency's legal and technical staff signed off on a contract or lease, a machine would stamp it with Ryan's signature. 
 
 With the office's mainframe computer system near collapse in 1996, Ryan awarded a five-year, $26 million contract to IBM after his top computer expert, a technical review committee and an outside consultant all recommended the company, Fawell said. 
 
 In a letter to Ryan, Frank Cavallaro, the office's director of data processing, said IBM's rival, Honeywell, was comparable on price but couldn't deliver its system for at least a year. 
 
 Fawell testified "from what I was hearing" the mainframe computer was in danger of running out of spare parts and the office couldn't wait that long for a replacement. Besides, on such a complex technical issue, Fawell said he and Ryan had to rely on experts for advice. 
 
 "We weren't high-tech guys," he said. 
 
 Prosecutors contended in their opening statement that Warner and another Ryan friend, Donald Udstuen, demanded $250,000 from Honeywell for the mainframe contract. 
 
 The company balked and complained to Ryan, prosecutors have said. 
 
 Fawell testified previously that he was unaware of Honeywell's complaint. 
 
 On another major contract, Fawell said Monday that he and Ryan backed the recommendations of key employees that Massachusetts-based Viisage Technology convert driver's licenses to digital technology in 1997. 
 
 Fawell testified that Viisage's unique, facial-recognition technology, which enabled computers to recognize drivers' photographs, gave the company an advantage over competitors because law enforcement saw it as a way to prevent counterfeiting. 
 
 One of Fawell's closest friends, lobbyist Al Ronan, was connected to rival bidder Unisys, Fawell acknowledged, but he said he still supported Viisage because of the recommendation from the office's technical professionals. 
 
 Earlier in the trial, under questioning by prosecutors, Fawell testified that he and Ryan were aware Warner represented Viisage. 
  
 Fawell said then that he had sought unsuccessfully to forge a "marriage" between Unisys and Viisage so "everybody was happy." 
 
 Fawell also testified Monday that he had little contact involving another major contract producing license-plate stickers other than being called into a meeting by Ryan on the subject. 
 
 Fawell recalled little about the meeting in 1995. But Webb suggested through his questioning that secretary of state staffers had failed to consult with law enforcement about whether it wanted the contract to remain with American Decal & Manufacturing because of its unique metallic security feature that made counterfeiting more difficult. 
 
 "Certainly, we wouldn't want to do anything law enforcement wouldn't support," Fawell said. 
 
 Webb also hinted that Ryan was concerned about American Decal, a Chicago firm, losing jobs if the contract went to 3M, based in Minnesota. 
 
 Fawell said he was aware that Warner was a lobbyist for American Decal, but he said he didn't know of any undue influence Warner placed on Ryan to win his support for the contract. 
 
 Under earlier questioning by prosecutors, Fawell said Ryan had become angry at the meeting with subordinates who removed the metallic security feature from the contract. If that had happened, Warner's client, American Decal, risked losing the lucrative contract. 
 
 Following the meeting, Ryan told Fawell to return the one-of-a-kind specification to the contract, ensuring American Decal would hold onto the business, prosecutors maintain. 
 
 Fawell also testified that the lease at 17 N. State St. had won the approval of the office's technical and legal experts. 
 
 Fawell said he was aware that Warner played some role in representing the owner of the property. 
 
 "Larry helped secure the property and knew the guy who owned it, and Larry acted as an agent," he said. 
 
 Prosecutors allege that Warner publicly hid his role in the deal and pocketed a 6 percent commission worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars.