Kansas City Star reports FBI has opened license-fee investigation

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Federal authorities have opened an investigation into the state's license fee offices and whether they were improperly awarded to Gov. Matt Blunt's political supporters, a newspaper reported Saturday.

A spokeswoman for Blunt's office denied any knowledge of an investigation into fee-office practices, the Kansas City Star said in its Saturday editions.

"Your question is the first I've ever heard of that," said spokeswoman Jessica Robinson.

The Star reported that two sources familiar with the investigation said the fee-office investigation is being handled out of the federal prosecutor's office in the Eastern District of Arkansas.

"I cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation into any matter that may have come to our attention," said Bud Cummins, the federal prosecutor for that district, which is based in Little Rock.

Contracts to run license fee offices, where residents renew their driver's licenses and obtain license plates, are viewed as patronage plums handed out by new governors to reward political allies. The 182 fee offices in the state collect money from residents who renew driver's licenses and make other fee payments on motor vehicles.

Exactly which fee-office operations might be under examination was unclear Friday.

Whichever party is removed from the governor's office has traditionally complained about fee-office abuses by the winner, and 2005 brought several complaints.

Under normal practice, the Department of Justice would assign an investigation to an out-of-state office if the in-state office recused itself because of a potential conflict of interest. The federal prosecutor in St. Louis, Catherine Hanaway, is a Republican and former speaker of the Missouri House. An attorney in her office refused to comment on any recusal.

A spokesman for the federal prosecutor in Kansas City could not be reached.

Jeff Lanza, a spokesman for Kansas City's FBI office, said: "I wouldn't be able to confirm or deny an investigation."

Calls by the Star to the operators of seven fee offices garnered consistent replies that they had no contacts from federal investigators.