Local governments spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbyists each year in an effort to get public agencies and elected lawmakers to hear their voices over the clamor of competing interests on Capitol Hill.

A Springfield News-Sun analysis of data maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics found southwest Ohio cities and counties have paid Washington lobbyists more than $400,000 combined so far this year, and more than half a million dollars in 2011.

Springfield has not employed a full-time lobbyist since 2009. But the city and Clark County have for the past four years paid, respectively, $10,000 and $15,000 annually toward a $60,000 contract between the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the lobbying firm owned by former U.S. Rep. David Hobson.

The $5,000 a month buys government officials and community leaders a meeting every other Monday with Hobson’s consulting firm, CBD Advisors. The group, informally dubbed the “Hobson Stakeholder Group,” discusses ways to overcome shared challenges.

Sometimes this involves Hobson calling one of his contacts from nine terms in Congress, but more often Hobson or someone else from his firm will provide guidance to the group.

“We mainly discuss community problems and how we will work together to solve those,” Hobson said.

“This is not a contract I did to make a lot of money at it,” he added. “We do this mainly because it’s my hometown. I try to take care of my hometown. I don’t know anybody would say they get less than their value or else we wouldn’t be doing it anymore.”

CBD Advisors does more than $300,000 in lobbying work for area companies, including Navistar. And Hobson is a registered lobbyist with four other Washington lobbying firms.

But Hobson said the majority of work his company does is advising public and private sector agencies on how to overcome obstacles.

Springfield City Manager Jim Bodenmiller said Hobson’s group has been “extremely helpful” with marketing unmanned drone testing at Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport and “we’ve used them for local issues for the most part, economic development for business contacts, that sort of stuff.”

Bodenmiller said he won’t rule out hiring a lobbyist in the future, as the city did in 2009 to help with intergovernmental issues surrounding building the new Springfield Regional Medical Center.

“We received much more in local aid than we had ever paid out, but when the economy hit as hard as it did we (had to cut it),” he said.

In addition to the city and county, the contract is funded by the Chamber, the Turner Foundation and the Springfield Foundation.

Area governments spend big

Many local governments including Huber Heights, Mason, Monroe and Trotwood also have registered lobbyists in Columbus. And cities, counties and townships pay dues into organizations that lobby on their behalf. The National Association of Towns and Townships has spent $180,000 on lobbying this year.

The biggest spender locally is the city of Dayton, which paid lobbyist Mark Dedrick — a former staffer for Congressman Tony Hall — $120,000 this year for his services in Washington. Dayton also paid $60,000 for a state lobbyist. Cincinnati paid its federal lobbying firm $90,000 this year.

Publicly funded colleges and universities are equally big spenders. Miami University has cut $120,000 worth of checks to lobbyists this year, Wright State University $60,000 and Sinclair Community College $30,000.

Government subdivisions also hire pros. The Miami Conservancy District, for example, pays more than $30,000 a year for a lobbyist to represent them, most recently trying to change drafted flood insurance laws to keep area residents from having to buy flood insurance if their home is protected by a dam.

“(The lobbyist) has helped us understand the legislative process, make introductions … so when issues do come up we have the opportunity to talk to the right people at the right time,” MCD General Manager Janet Bly said.

MCD’s lobbyist is Rick Carne, whose firm has made $49,000 this year from clients including Montgomery County and the Dayton Development Coalition. The development coalition also employs its own lobbyist, Michael Gessel, and paid him $180,000 this year.

“That’s the way the system works,” said Viveca Novak, spokeswoman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “State and local officials, sure they’re going to be acquainted with some of the legislators on the Hill, perhaps, but that’s not quite the same as knowing the system.”

Nationwide, public agencies paid $54.3 million for lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This makes the public sector the 15th-highest paying industry in terms of lobbying expense. The top five industries shell out more than $100 million each, led by pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.

The amount governments spend on lobbying has declined steadily in recent years from more than $600,000 in 2010 for southwest Ohio. This matches the overall trend of lobbying expenses going down. Novak attributes that to economic woes simply leaving everyone with less money to spend.

Hobson: Lobbying a needed service

Hobson is now a professional lobbyist after serving as a state senator from 1982-1990 and representing the Springfield area in Congress from 1991-2009. He said cities that didn’t hire lobbyists found that if they weren’t at the table when decisions were made that affected their residents.

“Lobbying has gotten a bad name by some people doing it inappropriately,” Hobson said. “But I think there are firms or people who have a better grasp of the system at the state, federal level and even some places at the local level … who understand the bills and the legislation better and the staffs better (than local officials).”

Novak said lobbyists have personal relationships with key decision-makers, know who to contact to get an agency to act and can massage and advocate legislation moving through the halls of Washington.

Lobbyists use ‘revolving door’

Many lobbyists are former lawmakers, such as Hobson, who also lobbies for the Dayton Development Coalition. Former Beavercreek-area state representative Bob Doyle now lobbies for Monroe and Trotwood.

Others worked as staffers, such as the lobbyists for Dayton and Montgomery County who worked for Tony Hall.

The Center for Responsive Politics calls this a “revolving door,” saying on its website: “While officials in the executive branch, Congress and senior congressional staffers spin in and out of the private and public sectors, so too does privilege, power, access and, of course, money.”

“It could be seen as somebody cashing in on government service if they go into lobbying,” Novak said. “These are people who are going to know the system better than many, but there certainly are critics of the practice of going into government and using the knowledge of government workings to go out and make a lot of money by helping others get in the door.”

Carne was chief of staff for Tony Hall, who represented the Dayton area in Congress for 24 years until 2003. He is one of at least five Hall staffers who are lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The others are former Hall legislative director Gail Amidzich, who now lobbies on behalf of public employee unions; former spokesman Michael Gessel; former aide John Walk, who lobbies primarily on issues involving electric utilities; and Dedrick, a former aide who lobbies for Dayton as well as the state of Oregon and other government agencies.

Doyle served 10 years in the Ohio House of Representatives. Trotwood and Monroe pay his lobbying firm a combined $72,000 a year now.

“(My legislative experience) was never an advantage for me. Never,” Doyle told the News-Sun. “All you do as a government consultant is have relationships and it opens up a door. They don’t do anything for me just because I’m a former state representative; (a bill) goes on its own strength whether it should be passed or defeated or whatever.”

Doyle said his job is to get to know decision-makers and talk to them about issues facing his clients, and sometimes to talk to business owners about what his clients have to offer.

“The value for the city is the dollars that will be coming in that they would not be able to get without help,” he said.