County computer consultant set up re-election Web site for Bill Mason

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A company owned by one of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's former employees has collected $1.1 million through a no-bid contract to oversee computer operations in Mason's office.

Szignature Systems, owned by Peter Szigeti, got the contract in 2003, a few weeks after he quit his job working for the prosecutor as a computer systems expert.

Then, a few weeks after he got the contract, Szigeti privately set up a Web site for Mason's re-election campaign, a site the prosecutor still uses to raise money.

Szigeti's ties to Mason and how he got the 2003 contract have become significant because Szigeti also has ties to a company at the center of a showdown between Mason and Common Pleas Court judges.