Two days before standing at City Hall to endorse Councilman Alan Warrick in the District 2 runoff, former Councilman Keith Toney met with Warrick’s opponent, Cruz Shaw, and sought financial favors in exchange for Toney’s endorsement in the race, according to two members of Shaw’s campaign team who were present at the meeting.

Charles Williams and Aubrey Lewis both said that Toney, who was eliminated from the race with about 23 percent of the vote, requested $15,000 to retire his “campaign debt,” as well as an assurance that the city would help fund LaborFest, a troubled music festival organized by Toney’s campaign consultant, Larry Williams.

LaborFest ended last year in embarrassment; Larry Williams still owes the city tens of thousands of dollars, according to city officials.

Shaw said he refused the deal. Shortly afterward, Toney chose to endorse Warrick.

On Wednesday, moments before declaring his support for Warrick at City Hall, Toney denied asking Shaw or the councilman for anything in exchange for his endorsement.

“No, no,” Toney said. “I told Cruz that, of course, we all have campaign debt. Everybody does. I didn’t request anything of Cruz, and Alan hasn’t promised me anything. But maybe he’ll throw me a fundraiser or something. That’d be great.”

Toney said he wasn’t sure how much debt his campaign had accrued.

“I don’t know at this point,” he said. “I’m not sure. But we have some, of course. Who doesn’t?”

Toney reported zero outstanding loans on his most recent campaign finance disclosure. He failed to submit a final report that was required three days before the election.

Toney added that LaborFest is “a great thing,”

“I’d love to see it,” he said. “I think it’s great for the community. But no, we didn’t ask for anything.”

LaborFest ended in ignominy last year after Larry Williams canceled all headliner acts, including the O’Jays and Chaka Khan, during the festival. On Wednesday, Convention and Sports Facilities Director Michael Sawaya said the organizer still owed the city $52,000 for charges related to renting the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center for the event.

“We did a lot of things to try to help him,” Sawaya said. “We’re not holding space for them (next year).”

At City Hall, Larry Williams declined to comment about LaborFest. Shortly afterward, the campaign consultant was involved in a shouting match with Brian Dillard, a volunteer for Shaw’s campaign, who rolled up to the press conference on a bicycle.

“I said, ‘Why’d you sell out?’” Dillard recalled later. “And it just pissed him off.”

Announcing his support for Warrick at City Hall, Toney told the assembled media that he made his decision after having “long conversations” with the councilman.

“I had one conversation with Mr. Shaw,” Toney told the crowd, “and it did not go well.”

A longtime East Side small business owner, Charles Williams said Toney made the requests for financial favors on Monday at Shaw’s campaign headquarters.

“It took me by surprise,” said Charles Williams, vice chair of Shaw’s campaign. “We reached out to him to endorse Cruz, and the situation was that he needed $15,000 to pay off campaign debt and be assured that the festival that Larry Williams (organized) is over, that that would continue.”

In a separate interview, Lewis shared a similar description of events.

“That’s the way it came across to me because (Toney) indicated that to endorse Cruz he would need the LaborFest to stay intact,” said Lewis, president of the Denver Heights Neighborhood Association. “Keith Toney said he would also need to retire his debt. $15,000.”

Shaw, a local lawyer, concurred.

“That’s what was presented to us,” Shaw told me. “We declined. Next thing you know, he’s endorsing Alan. … I’m running this campaign on integrity. Transparency. I’m not trying to do anything under the table. I’m not going down that path.”

At City Hall, Warrick denied offering anything of value to Toney in exchange for the former councilman’s endorsement.

“There’s definitely no quid pro quo,” Warrick told me. “But I did think about it, and if there’s any campaign debt afterwards, I’d love to help former Councilman Toney after.”

bchasnoff@express-news.net