Bruce C. Bereano's long and highly lucrative career as an Annapolis lobbyist could be damaged or destroyed if he knowingly signed an illegal contingency agreement, top Maryland legislators said yesterday.

House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller and other lawmakers expressed dismay after The Sun reported yesterday that Bereano had entered into an apparently illegal agreement with a Baltimore-based social services company.

Lawmakers said the matter should be investigated by the State Ethics Commission, which has the power to impose severe sanctions on a lobbyist who breaks the ethics law - including revocation of the right to do business.

Over the years, Bereano has shown himself to be a political survivor - rebuilding his lobbying practice after a 1994 federal mail-fraud conviction and disbarment in 2000. To some legislators, however, another ethical violation could be the last straw.

"In any arena that you are operating in, you can only push the envelope so far and so many times before destroying yourself," Taylor said.

Asked whether a finding that Bereano had broken the law would destroy his relationship with the General Assembly, Taylor said: "I think you can reach that conclusion."

Miller expressed disbelief that Bereano "would knowingly and so flagrantly violate the law." The Senate president said that if Bereano were found to have broken ethics laws, it would "absolutely, positively, unequivocally" hurt his ability to do business in Annapolis.

"If in fact he knowingly violated the law with regard to legislative ethics, I think it would damage his reputation with every member of the General Assembly - including the presiding officers," Miller said.

A cut of the pay

For the third straight day, Bereano did not return phone calls about his September agreement with Mercer Ventures Inc., also known as Social Work Associates.

The agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Sun, includes a provision under which Bereano would receive 1 percent of the first year's payments for any contract he helped the company secure from the state.

State ethics officials, when read the language of the provision, said it appeared to be an illegal "contingency" contract - a practice that has been banned in legislative lobbying since 1979 and in procurement lobbying since 1994.

The prohibition on contingency fees in procurements stems from a public lobbying battle over a Maryland Lottery computer contract in the early 1990s. One of the leading players in that dispute was Bereano, said former Del. D. Bruce Poole, who was co-chairman of a task force set up after the lottery contract dispute.

Poole said the task force concluded that contingency fees posed a threat of corruption because they create a "winner-take-all" atmosphere in procurements. "You either win big or you get nothing," he said.

The former House majority leader would not comment on the current Bereano matter because he is now a member of the ethics commission.

As a matter of law, the commission will not reveal whether they plan to investigate any individual. But ethics officials were aware of the Bereano allegations yesterday - as a printout of the Sun report could be seen on the desk of commission General Counsel Robert A. Hahn.

Without referring to a specific case, Hahn said yesterday that the commission has the authority to open an investigation without waiting for a complaint to be filed.

If the panel decides to investigate, the Bereano case could be the first test of a sweeping new lobbying ethics law passed last year. The legislation gave the commission broad powers to impose sanctions on errant lobbyists - and to refer serious cases for criminal prosecution.

The process is conducted behind closed doors, with no announcement until the commission takes final action. The panel can subpoena documents and witnesses, Hahn said.

'A too-forgiving culture'

Del. Elizabeth Bobo, a Howard County Democrat, said that if Bereano entered into an illegal agreement, the commission should seriously consider revoking his registration. Otherwise, she said, he could possibly return to business as usual.

"It is a forgiving culture," Bobo said. "I think it is a too-forgiving culture."

Bereano reported that he earned more than $139,000 under the contract between November and April - more than he was paid by any other client.

"It just seems like a lot of money," said Sen. Barbara A. Hoffman, a Baltimore Democrat and chairwoman of the Budget and Taxation Committee. She described the contingency agreement as "unsavory."

Legislative leaders were unfamiliar with Social Work Associates and knew of no bills in which it had an interest.

Michael D. Traina, the company's owner and the person whose name was on the agreement with Bereano, has not returned calls this week.

At the company's three-room office in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood yesterday, an employee was packing boxes, and computers, files and telephones were strewn around.

The employee said Traina was working out of the company's downtown office, but she refused to say where that office is located. She instead insisted on taking a message, which was not returned.

Sun staff writer Tim Craig contributed to this article.