The transcripts were released over the objections of numerous

Some wanted lobster. Some wanted campaign cash. At least one wanted no part of the gifts and dinners and trips that were routinely paid for by contractors doing business with South County schools.

According to thousands of pages of grand jury testimony released Tuesday, Sweetwater schools and Southwestern College operated a brazen pay-to-play contracting practice that saw millions of dollars of work go to contractors willing to pick up the tab for trustees and administrators.

“I know for a fact that, for a fact that they selected contractors that were contributing to their, to their re-election, and doing whatever they wanted them to do,” contractor Hector Romero testified at one point.

At another point, he said some of the dinners were excessive.

“They drank all my liquor,” he testified about one August 2010 gathering.

The transcripts were released over the objections of numerous defense attorneys, who argued that allowing the public to see the witness testimony could undermine their clients’ right to a fair trial.

But the judge hearing the South County corruption case rejected those arguments and ordered the release of the testimony from dozens of trustees, contractors, district employees and others involved in the case.

U-T San Diego scoured hundreds of pages that detailed much of what already has been reported in the bribery scandal that led to indictments of 15 educators and contractors.

The documents, which could only be read in person and not photocopied, portray an interlinking network of elected officials and administrators who made no secret of requesting food, travel and other amenities from people who did business with the district.

“Do you recall who paid for any food and beverages that you may have ordered?” prosecutor Leon Schorr asked contractor Rene Flores at one point.

“We always pay,” Flores responded.

Flores’ company was in charge of managing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction projects approved by the Sweetwater board.

Flores, who was not among the 15 people facing charges in the case, said he pursued the same business practices as most contractors seeking to work with South County school officials.

“To be honest, it’s always done that way in all the agencies,” Flores testified. “They meet outside for dinners. Not just with me, with other consultants.”

Not everyone accepted gifts or campaign donations from contractors.

Former Sweetwater Trustee Jaime Mercado testified that he ran for office in 2004 in an attempt to put a stop to what he heard was a culture of corruption at Sweetwater.

“One of the things I really, really objected to, and I told that to the superintendent at the time, was stop buying board members, stop co-opting their votes, stop getting gifts for them, contributions, donations,” he told the grand jury.

In all, about 3,000 pages of the 4,200 pages of testimony were released Tuesday. Most of the rest will be made available in a week or two, once about 18 pages of redacted materials are blacked out.