Editor’s note: This commentary is by Rep. Heidi E. Scheuermann, a Republican who represents Stowe in the Vermont House of Representatives.
[I]n June 2012, the Vermont House majority leader, a Democrat, left office and took a position with Green Mountain Power. Interestingly, during her final spring in the Legislature, she led the effort to defeat a proposal to return $21 million in ratepayer funds to Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) ratepayers as Green Mountain Power merged with CVPS.
In July 2013, the telecom czar appointed by Gov. Peter Shumlin resigned to take a senior position with VTel, a company that had received $8.5 million in state funds in the two years this person was a voting member of the state board that authorized the funds.
In February 2014, a sitting Democratic legislator was hired as the director of a special interest group having just led the passage of the organization’s legislation the prior year. Her responsibilities as a new employee (as she was also a legislator) were to work with lobbyists to prepare for any future legislative action.
And, in March 2014, the Vermont House majority whip, a Democrat, resigned mid-term to become executive director of a single-payer health care advocacy organization.
Aside from the ethical questions raised and perceptions of conflicts of interest, what do these examples have in common? Not one word of concern was raised by Shumlin, Democratic leaders in the Legislature, or Shumlin’s protégé, Sue Minter.
What would the reaction be in Vermont if a legislator who led the charge for a significant corporate tax loophole – and won – shortly thereafter went to work for a corporation that had benefited from it?
While I welcome the conversation in this campaign, the statements made by Minter and her party are incredibly disingenuous and ring hollow.
What would the reaction be if a sitting legislator on the House Agriculture Committee was hired by Monsanto to keep an eye on the debate regarding genetically modified organisms and help organize lobbying efforts if needed?
I am absolutely confident that in both of these situations the reaction would, rightly, be outrage.
We hear over and over again the distrust the public has for politics and politicians. While politics should be regarded as a noble profession, as it is a critical way to ensure government works for the people, it has been reduced, with good reason in many cases, to the butt of late-night talk show jokes.
While ours is a small state, and our public officials are very accessible, that does not mean that transparency and accountability are always present. And, it certainly doesn’t mean that conflicts of interest don’t arise.
Instead of Vermont leading the way in this regard though, we are one of three states without conflict of interest laws, one of three states without financial disclosure laws, and one of seven states without an ethics commission.
For all of these reasons, I began efforts in 2013 to create an independent ethics commission, and establish a code of conduct for all statewide elected officials, appointed officials in the executive branch, and all state lawmakers. I introduced legislation, testified in front of committees, and wrote op-ed after op-ed. Yet, almost four years later, because of strong opposition from the Democratic majority in the Legislature, and no support from Shumlin or his staff, we have no laws in place.
So, to now see Democrats waving the flag of ethics reform – after years of opposition – smacks of political opportunism. After all, when they had the opportunity to speak up, and act, they refused.
Take the most egregious of examples, when in May 2013, Shumlin himself took advantage of his mentally challenged neighbor to take his home from him for less than a quarter of its assessed value. Did an ethics policy apply? Was there any type of review? Was there an entity to which somebody could go to file an inquiry or complaint? Did Minter speak up then, or at any other time? No. Nothing.
While I welcome the conversation in this campaign, the statements made by Minter and her party are incredibly disingenuous and ring hollow. They are really only designed to distract Vermonters from the real issues in the campaign.
