Rhode Island Ethics Commission Chair Lauren E. Jones corrected a fellow commissioner’s use of the old adage ‘Don’t fix what ain’t broke,’ on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Government watchdogs will have to wait and see whether the Rhode Island Ethics Commission pursues proposed changes to state rules regulating who can give public officials gifts.
After an hourlong discussion, the commission voted Tuesday morning to delay a vote until all nine of its members have had a chance to review the proposal’s origins, which were prompted by a less-than-pristine education consulting contract forged in the early days of Gov. Dan McKee’s administration.
Common Cause Rhode Island filed a three-part petition with the commission in December seeking stronger controls on lobbyists’ gifts to public officials, more public disclosure of those gifts, and oversight by the ethics commission on state procurement. The most hotly discussed part of the petition at Tuesday’s meeting involved clarifying the commission’s authority over gifts given by lobbyists to state officials.
The Rhode Island ethics code bans gifts over $25 to state employees from people who could stand to benefit from a relationship with them, but lobbyists are not included in that category by definition.
“We are okay with the Commission’s decision to postpone this decision until February while it receives more information about the ILO Group controversy,” said John Marion, executive director of the Rhode Island branch of advocacy group Common Cause, in an email.
But, added Marion, “We will be disappointed if they ultimately vote to reject our petition for rulemaking. It is very clear that the current gift law is not working as intended and we need to make it stronger.”
Six commissioners voted to postpone discussion on the topic until Feb. 11. Three commissioners were absent from the meeting, and even one who was present acknowledged that she didn’t know the details about the ILO probe, the genesis of the petition.
“There’s lots of news going on,” Commissioner Emma L. Peterson said, before motioning to delay the conversation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The petition activated the state’s rulemaking procedure for public agencies, commission Executive Director Jason Grammit explained as he introduced Marion. The commission can deny the petition, or it can affirm the rulemaking process and incorporate it into subsequent meetings.
The Common Cause petition came several weeks after an October press briefing by Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, concluding that McKee and his allies had swayed, in a “ham-handed” way, the awarding of a school reopening contract to the ILO Group in 2021. But the governor, his former adviser Mike Magee and ILO’s Julia Rafal-Baer were basically invulnerable as far as legal consequences went, Neronha conceded.
Former McKee adviser faces new scrutiny for role in controversial 2021 state education contract
While rooted in the ILO investigation, the petition is a call for more systemic reform, Marion told the commission.
“Ultimately, we came to the conclusion not to file a complaint with you against any of the people involved,” Marion said. “But we did come to some conclusions that there are some areas with code ethics we think can be tightened.”
Marion said the gift rule should “categorically bar gifts greater than $25 in value, or $75 in aggregate, from all registered lobbyists.”
“We believe that the current rule is insufficiently protective of the public interest and can also be difficult to comply with,” Marion said. Common Cause is not seeking specific changes to language, “because we recognize that the code of ethics is a complex set of laws that interact with one another,” he added.
The commission would suss out the best possible wording, Marion suggested. But when it was time for the commission to ponder alternatives, Commissioner Frank J. Cenerini did not appear very interested: The commission regulates public officials, he said, not third parties.
“We already effectively regulate third parties in the same way that Common Cause is proposing,” Commission Chair Lauren E. Jones replied “People who are giving the gift — lobbyists, or interested persons — are third parties. Who we’re regulating are the public officials who are receiving the gift.”
Gifts imbued with mutual benefit would still be “precluded” under existing statute, thought Cenerini, and the proposed changes would be impractical for elected officials.
“The proposal is that [the public official] would disclose it every year,” said Commissioner Peterson.
“But then the government official is going to constantly go check the computer to see if someone’s a registered lobbyist,” he said.
“Mm hmm. Maybe,” Peterson said.
Given a chance to respond, Marion said he is also a registered lobbyist — and in 16 years, over hundreds of meetings with public officials, exchanges as small as coffees or cheap lunches can raise ethical concerns over officials’ interactions with lobbyists. Cenerini pushed onward, citing the case of the Capital Grille as a defense of the status quo. The commission resolved that case last January, when it dismissed McKee’s possible wrongdoing for eating a lunch paid for by a lobbyist.
“Our existing system worked well,” Cenerini said. “Sometimes when things work, why try to fix a working process?”
“I believe the vernacular on that is, ‘Don’t fix what ain’t broke,’” Jones offered.
“The events that have come before this commission originated with a person who was not a registered lobbyist,” Cenerini continued. “Now we’re being asked to investigate registered lobbyists.”
Peterson then admitted she wasn’t clear what those “events” were.
Avoiding too lengthy a recap of the ILO story, Grammitt said, “It’s a lot.” He agreed that a delayed hearing could give the commissioners a more well-rounded understanding of why Common Cause made its petition in the first place.
While the commission decides to possibly catch up on its reading, Marion offered that Common Cause will be shoring up its own arguments.
“I’m not confident the Commission agrees with our assessment,” Marion said of the petition, “but we’ll make sure our case is even stronger at their February meeting.”
Commissioners Matthew Strauss, Jill Harrison and Hugo Ricci Jr. were absent at the meeting.
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