by Erin Mansfield vtdigger.org Governor Peter Shumlin now believes Vermont should create an independent commission to handle ethics complaints, his spokesperson said. Scott Coriell, said Wednesday was the first time, to his knowledge, that the governor had been asked whether he supports such a commission. The governor’s call for a commission was first reported by The Associated Press.
Wednesday was also the day that three news organizations published articles that raised questions about possible conflicts of interest within Shumlin’s administration. Coriell said recent events, including news about a state regulator who moved to work on a project he was overseeing, had nothing to do with the announcement.
Speaker of the House Shap Smith, Gov. Peter Shumlin and Senate President Pro Tem John Campbell. File photo by John Herrick/VTDigger
“That is great news,” Secretary of State Jim Condos, a Democrat, said of Shumlin’s announcement. Condos is already drafting legislation that would create an independent ethics commission to oversee the executive and legislative branches.
“This is not about any individual person,” Condos said. “This was always a bigger picture item about how we could improve the trust that Vermonters deserve to have about their government.”
Condos wants to create a commission of three to five people, using other states’ commissions as guidance. The members would be appointed in such a way that no one person or no one party has control over the commission.
“The independent ethics commission should receive those complaints, should investigate those complaints and then should enforce,” Condos said. “You would have an executive director, and you would have three to five staff.”
More than 500 Vermonters have signed a petition from Campaign for Vermont, a nonprofit advocacy organization, in support of creating an independent ethics commission. Many of the signatories are lawmakers.
Vermont is one of three states that doesn’t require public officials to disclose financial relationships and that doesn’t have a policy against regulators leaving public office to work for companies they once regulated, according to the Campaign for Vermont.
Shumlin signed an executive order in 2011 establishing rules for how executive branch employees handle conflicts of interest and perceived conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest generally include ways that executive branch employees or their spouses could make a financial gain from a state dealing, according to the executive order.
State employees must wait one year after leaving the administration before going to work as lobbyists for companies they used to regulate. The policy does not prohibit a state employee from leaving the administration and immediately going to work for the company they regulated.
The governor’s call for an ethics commission comes less than two months after he declared his intention to retire when his third term expires in January 2017.
In 2013, Shumlin’s broadband czar, Karen Marshall, did just that. Marshall was the sole employee in the administration working to establish universal broadband coverage in Vermont, but she left the job to go run the Vermont Telephone Co., or VTel. She has since been absent from public life.
Increasing pressure from the public
That year, Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, almost immediately went to work on legislation that would establish an independent ethics commission. Scheuermann drafted the bill with the Legislature’s in-house lawyers in 2013, and introduced versions in 2014 and 2015 that never became law.
Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe. Photo by Roger Crowley/for VTDigger
“The idea was really to ensure that the people of the state of Vermont know that our appointed and elected officials aren’t benefiting from the revolving door, anything along those lines,” she said Wednesday.
“It wasn’t about that particular person, but it’s about the precedent that that sets,” she said. “If a person on the agriculture committee had been hired by Monsanto as a lobbyist, there would be absolute outrage in the state of Vermont.”
Recent events have revived the issue. On the day Shumlin responded to the idea of an ethics commission, three news organizations — VTDigger, Seven Days and Watchdog.org — all reported on potential ethical issues in his administration.
VTDigger detailed Brent Raymond’s decision to quit his job regulating immigrant investor projects to work for Mount Snow’s immigrant investment project. Shumlin’s office said in a statement they were worried about the move’s ethical perception and bought out his 30-days notice.
Pat Moulton, secretary of the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, called Raymond’s departure “nothing out of the ordinary.” Moulton and Coriell both said the administration can’t control state employees’ job decisions.
Seven Days has also investigated Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell, D-Windsor, who received a job as an assistant prosecutor after he had pushed legislation creating the position through the Senate. The paper has also investigated allegations over campaign donations to Attorney General Bill Sorrell.
Watchdog.org wrote another story about how a $100,000 grant the Agency of Commerce and Community Development might have been a back-room deal to give money to the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Cyrus Patten, executive director of Campaign for Vermont, applauded the governor’s endorsement of an ethics commission.
“It’s nice that he’s come around, and now it will be nice, or interesting, to watch the legislators start to fall in line with that as well,” Patten said.
“Because we don’t have standards, we really have no capacity to evaluate any potential conflicts, potential fraud,” Patten said. “We don’t have a bunch of fraudulent legislators, but we’re not protected from people who might take advantage of the public trust.”