January 3, 2008
Contact: Arthur C. Barton 323-1148
On January 3, the Rhode Island Ethics Commission reduced the number of charges pending against State Senator Frank Ciccone. Operation Clean Government had filed the complaint last May. The complaint alleged: 1) that Senator Ciccone sponsored and voted for legislation (07-S-506) that directly benefited his employer, the Rhode Island Laborers' District Council; 2) that he failed to file appropriate conflict of interest forms when he voted on the legislation he was sponsoring; 3) that he participated in hearings of the Government Oversight Committee that had a direct bearing on the prospect for outsourcing jobs and affecting the number of public employees represented by his union; and 4) that he filed incomplete and inaccurate financial disclosure forms with the Ethics Commission for 2005 and 2006.
Senator Ciccone sponsored and voted on legislation that would have had the state taxpayers bear up to $15,000 of the cost of mediation between municipal and state government employers and public employee unions, replacing the current system where the cost of the mediation is shared equally by the unions and the government employer. The Ethics Commission voted not to pursue this charge further because of the so-called class exception rule. The class exception rule allows votes that benefit an individual and his/her business associates as long as enough other people or organizations benefit equally. OCG believes that a vote benefiting one's employer should be a conflict of interest under the Ethics Code and not subject to the class exception rule. In this case, OCG believes the Laborers' Union was part of a class of public employee unions too small to have the class exception apply. However, the Commission determined that the class was large enough and Ciccone's employer small enough to apply the class exception to actions which otherwise would be a conflict of interest. Because of the class exception ruling in this part of the decision, the Commission also decided that there was no reason to pursue Senator Ciccone's failure to file the conflict of interest forms.
"Operation Clean Government is disappointed in this decision," said OCG President Arthur ("Chuck") Barton. "In 2002 Senator Ciccone received an advisory opinion that told him to avoid voting on any matters affecting his employer, the Laborers' Union. Today the Commission qualified that advisory opinion in two ways. First, it amended the advisory opinion to allow votes covered by class exception. Second, it allowed the senator to unilaterally decide what votes are covered by class exception. The Commission and the investigators agreed that the legislation did benefit Senator Ciccone's employer, so the vote did represent a conflict of interest. Not to require the filing of the conflict of interest form after issuing an explicit advisory opinion urging caution seems to negate both the importance of advisory opinions and the importance of the conflict of interest forms."
The Commission also ruled against the complaint regarding Senator Ciccone's participation in the Government Oversight hearings. "Operation Clean Government recognized that this complaint was tenuous given the level of proof required to show benefit, particularly from a hearing. OCG thought it was important to raise the issue of legislators participating in hearings when they and their employers have a stake, both direct and indirect, in the outcome of the hearings. Clearly a public employee union has a stake in the use of outside employment services to fill positions in state government and when a union employee is on an oversight committee questions will arise about conflicts of interest."
The Ethics Commission did vote to find probable cause of a violation of the Ethics Code by Senator Ciccone in failing to report any sources of income for 2005 and 2006. In an interesting twist, the Commission voted to ignore Senator Ciccone's failure to report his income as a state senator despite explicit instructions on the form to include that income. "I am glad the commission has not accepted Senator Ciccone's argument that his sources of income are generally known, therefore he does not need to file complete financial statements with the Ethics Commission. To allow officials to omit information they believe is generally known would be folly for the Ethics Commission. The financial disclosure forms should be the standard for information about possible conflicts of interest, not an afterthought to other potential sources of information," said Barton. "However, I am surprised that failing to report income as a state senator is acceptable to the Commission when that information is explicitly required. Obviously the Commission needs to change the form."
