What they got instead, according to more than a half-dozen people who attended the meeting with Boyce Safford III, was a frank lesson about money and politics and a system that city officials say doesn't exist.

"He was saying, basically, that we have to pay to play," said Shawn Straughter, a member of the Minority & Independent Contractors Alliance who owns a marketing and public-relations business. "Play the game. That's how he labeled it, 'the game.'  "

Eight people who attended the meeting on April 3 said that Safford told contractors they need to contribute to Columbus officials' political campaigns if they expect to win contracts from City Hall.

It wasn't a shakedown, some said; it was more like advice. One business owner who didn't want to be identified said he appreciated Safford's honesty.

But Safford and at least two others said the "play the game" remark was taken out of context after the conversation wandered to the topic of forming a political-action committee and hiring a lobbyist.

"I said, 'Yeah, political contributions are important,'  " Safford said yesterday. "That was the extent of it."

"Play the game" was a poor choice of words, Safford said.

"Obviously, someone probably heard something different. I'm sorry."

The Dispatch attempted to contact 15 of 25 people on the group's list of attendees. Ten commented; some said that they feared losing opportunities for work and spoke only on the condition that they not be named.

"It was very transparent what he was trying to say: In order to play the game, you have to buy the ticket," said one who asked not to be identified.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman, who named Safford development director, has said repeatedly that no one has to contribute to political parties to do business with City Hall.

The mayor is satisfied that Safford didn't say what some thought he said, Coleman's spokesman, Dan Williamson, said yesterday. "The mayor would have no tolerance for that."

Tarrell Mock, who founded the minority-contractors alliance and claims 500 local members, said Safford was invited to talk about the city's requirements for vendors and the types of contracts that might be available as new federal money works its way to Columbus.

Many in the group work in the construction field as carpenters, plumbers, electricians or general contractors. Columbus is in line for $22.8 million to buy, raze or renovate foreclosed, vacant homes as part of a federal program approved in 2008, and the city is seeking millions more in economic-stimulus money for other projects.

But Safford ended up infuriating some of the contractors, who said afterward that he had told them that qualifications matter less than relationships with City Hall decision-makers.

"The way he said it, the way all of us perceived it, it's like a rite of passage," said Mock, who sat recently on a panel appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland to suggest reforms in the state's construction-bidding process.

"These are seasoned, skillful guys," he said of the minority contractors. "He told them no, they didn't play the game."

Two people at the meeting offered a different take on the conversation.

John H. Gregory, who hosted the meeting between Safford and the contractors' group at a job-training center he founded on the Near East Side, said Safford didn't initiate talk about political donations, which started after a suggestion that the group form a political-action committee.

Oyango Snell, a lawyer who attended the meeting because he has worked with trade associations, said he made the PAC suggestion as a way for the group to build its name and spread its message.

He described Safford's use of the phrase "play the game" as "ebonics-style slang." Safford is black, as are most of those who were at the gathering.

Safford said he often uses basketball analogies and was being casual as he tried to share information, such as the importance of networking, with an audience that "looked like me."

rvitale@dispatch.com