Only Frankel and City Commissioner Jim Exline said for sure that they'd heard about the gift - Exline described it as "rumors" - before a second set of votes in August.

But Frankel, who said she learned of it in "early summer," said she figured all the commissioners, except newly appointed Jeri Muoio, knew about it, too. And her fiercest critic on the commission, Kimberly Mitchell, must have known, she said, because Mitchell wrote a memo to the city administrator mentioning the gift three days after the last vote on Icon.

Mitchell said she thinks she learned about it after the August votes, but that whenever she learned about it, she was alarmed and immediately sought guidance from City Administrator Ed Mitchell, who asked her to write the memo.

In any event, nobody disclosed the gift - not elected officials, residents or the developer - before any Icon votes.

Disclosure has become a hot topic in the city since revelations that former city commissioner Ray Liberti was on the payroll of a company run by the project manager of a planned city hall and library complex, and didn't disclose that as he cast votes on the project. Liberti is now serving a prison term for other transgressions.

An ethics panel and city attorneys are reviewing the possibility of a requirement that such payments to residents and neighborhood groups be disclosed.

Related's money pledge is being reviewed by state investigators. The new Northend Coalition leaders, who weren't in charge when the money was pledged, have been trying to track down how more than $34,000 was spent by previous leaders Steve Allred and Iangelic Batista, who won't share receipts.

Frankel said she never discussed the money because she thought the commissioners knew. And she said she was told by the city attorney that the gift wasn't illegal.

"All I know is the rumors were going around," Frankel said. "It was just a buzz on the street."

In her Aug. 17 memo to Ed Mitchell, Commissioner Mitchell wrote, "As a follow up to our discussion, the $250,000 given by Related for the Northend Coalition of Neighborhoods (NCON) efforts should go to the city to be set up in an account so there is a record and anyone can find out what the balance is, and what has been paid." That was three days after a vote giving final approval to Icon's two extra stories.

Ed Mitchell said he's "pretty sure" Commissioner Mitchell discussed the money with him after a workshop on Aug. 10, four days before the last Icon vote.

"I remember she asked me to stay after agenda review to talk to her about this," Ed Mitchell said.

Commissioner Mitchell, who has close ties to north-end residents now investigating the gift, said she approached Ed Mitchell immediately when she found out about the gift from a resident.

"It wasn't like I was holding onto that information until after the vote," she said. "That's hilarious. I don't operate that way." Mitchell said she thought she approached Ed Mitchell the day she wrote the memo, but the administrator said his calendar shows he was out of town that day.

Kimberly Mitchell said she wouldn't have brought it up at a public meeting because "it's a separate issue from the project."

Other commissioners, in a workshop in November, wouldn't confirm Frankel's assertions that they all knew before the August votes, though individually they said they couldn't be sure when they knew.

Frankel has asked city commissioners twice whether they want to revisit the Icon project. Twice, they've responded no, saying the approval was based on the specifics of the project. Knowledge of gifts to residents, who spoke in favor of the condo, wouldn't change their minds, they said.

Frankel said she now wishes she had raised the issue earlier with commissioners at a public meeting.

"I just assumed that they were hearing the same thing I was hearing," Frankel said. "It was a misjudgment on all of us."

City Attorney Claudia McKenna said there are no legal obstacles to requiring a developer to disclose gifts to residents when they're seeking project approvals. But she said whether the city could ban such gifts outright is a question requiring more research because it would be a more "intrusive" law.

Keith James, who chairs a panel charged with tightening the city's code of ethics, said the panel was still reviewing, at Frankel's suggestion, whether to make disclosures about cash gifts a final recommendation in a report to the city commissioners.

But he left little doubt how he feels about such gifts.

"It seems kind of sleazy," he said. "But it's a game that developers feel they have to play. You want to encourage neighbors to go and speak for the developers. I guess the decision-makers are entitled to know how tangible the benefits are that have been given. It goes to the credibility of the people coming to speak before you."