Oct. 12--In the fall of 2003, the city of Erie's Zoning Hearing Board deliberated over one of its most contentious issues in years.

The board had to decide whether to uphold zoning approval for a pre-release center for state inmates at 137 W. Second St., on the northern edge of the campus of Gannon University.

At the height of the dispute, nearby institutions such as Hamot Medical Center and Erie Insurance Group joined Gannon in opposing the location of the pre-release center.

The owner of the West Second Street building, Baldwin/Rubino Associates, had signed a $4.1 million, 10-year lease with the state to operate the pre-release center on the site. Gannon, citing safety concerns, tried to block the operation of the center by appealing the initial zoning approval, from the city's zoning officer, to the Zoning Hearing Board.

The board's hearings on Gannon's appeal were public. One event that occurred around the time of the board's deliberations, however, was not.

Behind the scenes, the chairman of the Zoning Hearing Board, Jeffrey J. Johnson, an Erie real estate broker, received $30,000 from Tecnica Development Corp., a company owned by Greg Rubino, a partner in Baldwin/Rubino Associates.

Johnson got the $30,000 on Nov. 18, 2003, according to recently filed court documents. That was four days after he informally voted, on Nov. 14, to reject Gannon's appeal -- a decision that allowed the pre-release center to meet its deadline and start accepting inmates on Nov. 15, according to court records. An adverse decision would have jeopardized the lease between the state and Baldwin/Rubino Associates.

Three weeks after receiving the $30,000, Johnson again sided with the pre-release center and rejected Gannon's appeal, this time in a formal vote taken Dec. 9.

The votes in both instances were 2-0. A tie also would have defeated Gannon's appeal.

Neither Johnson nor Rubino revealed the $30,000 payment during the course of the hearings on the pre-release center. The payment remained hidden until it was included in court records filed in an unrelated civil suit in Erie County Court in August -- records reviewed by the Erie Times-News.

Johnson declined repeated requests to comment on the $30,000 payment, citing an upcoming deposition he must give in the civil suit in which the records containing the payment surfaced.

Rubino also declined repeated requests to meet with the Erie Times-News. In a statement, he described the payment as an "advance" that he gave Johnson for prospective real estate deals under consideration at the time.

Rubino said the deals never developed, and that Johnson repaid the money. Rubino would not provide a timeline for when the repayment occurred, and the court records offer no clues about the date of the repayment.

"The advance was made in the normal course of business and was not in any way tied to any other matter," Rubino said in the statement.

The records on file in the civil suit list the $30,000 payment to Johnson as a loan, rather than an advance.

Whatever the terms of the transaction, it was never publicly disclosed. According to records and interviews, the $30,000 payment to Johnson -- as well as the underlying prospective business relationship between him and Rubino -- were unknown to the other parties involved in Gannon's appeal of the zoning for the pre-release center.

The other voting member of the Zoning Hearing Board in November 2003 said he never knew of the payment. Gannon's lawyer on the appeal said he was not aware of the payment, and a partner of Rubino on the pre-release project said he had no knowledge of the $30,000.

The public also never knew of the payment. As a member of the Zoning Hearing Board, Johnson was required to file statements of financial interest, also known as ethics forms, with the state Ethics Commission. The forms, which are meant to inform the public of possible conflicts of interest, require public officials to list most debts of more than $6,500.

Johnson never listed the $30,000 payment on the ethics forms he completed for the years 2003 and beyond.

Vote on eastside energy plant Johnson, 58, owner of Jeffrey J. Johnson & Associates, a real estate firm, remains a public official.