Senators moved a step closer Thursday to creating a code of ethics for state officials and lawmakers, but approving that code and giving teeth to an ethics commission created three years ago remain at least a year away.
The Senate Government Operations Committee unanimously approved S.198, a bill that requires the State Ethics Commission to produce a proposed Code of Ethics by Nov. 15, at the latest. That code would then be considered by the Legislature in the next biennium.
The bill also asks the ethics commission to present enforcement options. Larry Novins, a lawyer who serves as the executive director of the ethics commission, said that he worried that including the issue of enforcement — which would inevitably introduce questions of funding — could be used by opponents to derail efforts to get a code passed into law.
“I think discussion of enforcement is premature,” he told the committee. “I understand and I share the desire to have something in place, but where we are right now and where we need to go and the route that we need to go to get there I think requires a step-by-step approach.”
Committee members said taking that approach would only delay a process that has already taken years.
“I think that people outside this room who don’t understand the kind of windy conversations we’ve had about this over the last couple of years think we’re moving too slow,” said Sen. Anthony Pollina, D/P-Washington.
“And I think they’re right, we are moving pretty slow in making this ethics commission as strong as it needs to be,” he added. “And I think if we just do the code of ethics and then start a conversation about how we’re implementing enforcement it’s going to drag this out another session or two.”
The committee also discussed a letter signed by Vermont’s statewide office holders — Auditor Doug Hoffer, Treasurer Beth Pearce, Attorney General TJ Donovan, Secretary of State Jim Condos, Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman and Gov. Phil Scott — calling on legislators to move on the code of ethics.
“In 2017, the Legislature and Governor created the State Ethics Commission,” the letter said. “We ask that you take the next legislative step and work with the Ethics Commission and others to establish a Code of Ethics for Vermont’s public servants in all three branches of government.”
Betsy Ann Wrask, legislative counsel for the committee, said there were constitutional questions about giving the ethics commission oversight of the judicial branch, because the judiciary is explicitly given administrative control over the courts and disciplinary control over judges.
The committee decided to leave out any mention of the judiciary in S.198. Sen. Alison Clarkson, D-Windsor, suggested that the committee send a letter to the statewide officers explaining that decision, to clear up any questions from the public about why the judiciary wasn’t included in the bill.
Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, the committee chair, said she wasn’t sure that was necessary.
“I don’t know that any public out there really cares, but we can do that,” she said, adding that the statewide office holders could take it up with the judiciary on their own. “But we can send a letter,” she added.
The bill does include the legislative branch, but only “for non-core legislative duties,” again out of constitutional concerns. If conflicts of interest arise related to how lawmakers propose or vote on bills, that would be taken up by legislative ethics panels.
VPIRG executive director Paul Burns, who has been a leading advocate for stronger ethics enforcement, was critical of how long it would take for lawmakers to get the Code of Ethics into statute. But he said he was encouraged they were at least moving forward.
“I’m glad our legislators are moving forward to improve our anemic state ethics program, but it’s a very long path ahead with uncertain results,” he said. “We don’t even know who this will apply to or with any certainty how it will be enforced or whether it will be enforced by a truly independent, well-resourced commission.”
Most of the public, Burns said, had assumed the commission would write a Code of Ethics as part of being established in 2017.
“So this is sort of a redo,” he said of Thursday’s vote.
Earlier in the session, Burns ripped the commission as ineffective and said it should be scrapped if it wasn’t made stronger. Keeping it, he said then, was providing lawmakers cover to make it appear they were taking action.
“I would have much preferred to be in a place to actually enact a Code and set up enforcement this year, so this is going to be delayed at least another year. They’re on the right path, but it’s a very, very long and tortuous one.”
Burns took another shot at the ineffectiveness of the Ethics Commission, disclosing Thursday that VPIRG took its claims that Scott was involved in a conflict of interest to the state Department of Human Resources but had been rebuffed. Previously, the state Ethics Commission decided in a controversial advisory opinion that Scott had a conflict, an opinion commissioners later decided went beyond its authority and removed from the commission’s website. VPIRG then took its complaint to Human Resources, whose decision not to investigate, Burns said, was “the final nail in the coffin of there being any value in the way the current program operates.”
Hoffer, the state auditor of accounts, said he drafted the letter signed by all six statewide office holders.
“If I wrote it on my own, not many people would have paid attention,” Hoffer said with a laugh. “If we all found some common ground, the Legislature might say that’s a message we’re hearing and I had hoped it would be persuasive.”
Hoffer said the officials who signed the letter agreed it would be helpful for the Legislature “to know all six of us are on the same page and that what they started in 2017 should continue.”
“Getting the code into statute is foundational,” Hoffer added.
The commission will have to establish enforcement powers, Hoffer said, to be credible. And while he doesn’t believe corruption is rampant, he said the “people in the state deserve a clear system of accountability and transparency.”
