A retired Wall Street executive who has made government accountability a personal cause is calling on the Vermont Legislature to adopt financial disclosure requirements for lawmakers and statewide office holders.
Bruce Lisman, a former global equities investor for JP Morgan, held a press conference on Thursday to announce that his 501c4 advocacy organization, Campaign for Vermont, will hire a lobbyist to press for changes to state ethics rules this legislative session. So far, Lisman, who grew up in Burlington, has sunk more than $1 million in Campaign for Vermont.
At the media event Monday in Montpelier, Lisman was flanked by Bill Schubart and David Coates — respected business leaders — and Allen Gilbert, the director of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU, who support the Campaign for Vermont’s push for more disclosure.
National good government groups have panned Vermont’s executive and legislative accountability practices. The Center for Public Integrity and the Better Government Association have both given the state low marks for government transparency.
Vermont is one of three states that does not require lawmakers and statewide office holders to disclose personal financial information. In most states, it’s common practice for politicians to release tax forms and lists of assets and investments.
Gilbert described Vermont as an outlier. “We don’t realize how exceptional Vermont has become in not requiring even basic disclosure of statewide candidates,” Gilbert said. “We’re really far off in not requiring that.”
The Campaign for Vermont initiative proposes that the state adopt financial disclosure requirements for politicians, conflict of interest declaration statements, revolving door regulations and a prohibition on nepotism. In addition, Lisman says Vermont should create a quasi-judicial, independent ethics commission that would review breaches of ethical behavior and potential conflicts.
“We’re a big fan of transparency,” Lisman said. “It’s not that sunlight is a natural cure of all problems, but the ability for the citizens of our state to know all without having to jump through hoops themselves or for the media to be able to report on things or for the other members of government to be aware creates transparency. I think it will create a better more efficient government by far, but also make people accountable for their actions, or if you will, inaction.”
Requiring politicians to declare a list of personal interests in companies, nonprofits and boards would help them understand, in Lisman’s view, “the corrosive nature” of conflicts of interest.
Lisman produced a 17-page report expounding on why politicians should support financial disclosure rules, but he apparently didn’t do his homework with regard to lobbying protocols at the Statehouse.
House Speaker Shap Smith says the first he heard about the proposal was a few hours before the press conference. Smith said Lisman hadn’t yet talked with Rep. Donna Sweaney, chair of Government Operations.
Going to the press first was a big no-no in Smith’s book. “There are probably better ways to move to try the issue than holding a press conference,” the Speaker said. “Usually if I want to get something passed in Donna’s committee, even as Speaker of the House I tell her about it before I announce it.”
Still, Smith said, “It’s a matter worth reviewing,” and he has created an informal panel including Sweaney and three other members of the Legislature “to find out what the concerns of national organizations are.”
“Once we figure out what those concerns are and whether they are real then we can go forward and think about solutions to it,” Smith said.
The Speaker said he believes there should be some kind of reporting on conflicts of interest, including employment, for lawmakers. As for financial disclosure requirements, what might be OK for statewide officeholders (release of tax forms and lists of investments) could be a real problem for legislators, in his view.
“I’m not a big fan of disclosing of financial information for individual lawmakers,” Smith said. “It would create more of a barrier than we already have to get people to run for office.”
Gov. Peter Shumlin has released his tax forms in election years, but he refused to make his financial information available last year, in the off-cycle. In 2012, he chose not to disclose his assets (he is a major property owner in Windham County and holds a large number of stocks). In 2010, he reported an annual income of $1 million and $10.6 million in assets.
“In the last election, our governor chose not to disclose some information because he said it hasn’t changed a lot since the last time,” Lisman said. “We would think in future in all of those campaigns it would be the normal course of business to disclose.”
DISCLOSURE: Bill Schubart is the president of Vermont Journalism Trust, the 501(c)(3) organization that oversees VTDigger. Bruce Lisman donated $10,000 to VTDigger in 2011. Allen Gilbert is a former board member of the Vermont Journalism Trust.
