Senate ethics bill falls short on reform
THE STATE Senate's ethics reform package is short on reform in important ways. But it has revenge covered.
"The whole point of this is to make ethics enforcement tougher. This is a step backward," said Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause/Massachusetts.
The long-awaited Senate bill does little to address issues raised by the high-profile bribery case involving former state senator Dianne Wilkerson. She accepted tens of thousands of dollars from donors. Current law prohibits gifts only if they were given to influence an official act, and gives wiggle room to accept gifts from friends and family.
Currently, breaking the law is only a civil violation. The Senate leaves it that way. The governor's proposal would change it to a criminal violation, with jail time as a possible penalty.
The Senate bill also fails to empower the attorney general to go to court for permission to record conversations that back up bribery prosecutions; it leaves such cases up to federal prosecutors.
But the worst aspect of the proposal, ethics specialists say, is the attempt to shift enforcement authority away from the state Ethics Commission. The initial determination of probable cause stays with that agency, but any trial would be shifted to the Division of Administrative Law Appeals. This adjudicatory agency has no ethics law expertise and already suffers from a backlog of cases.
Scott Harshbarger, the former attorney general and ex-president of Common Cause, calls it a "bald effort to remove the Ethics Commission of fulfilling its primary function as adjudicator of the ethics law - the finder of fact and credibility."
The Senate bill also requires the commission to freeze its own investigation if the attorney general begins one. Under the Senate proposal, a person called before the commission could simply refuse to appear - as did ex-speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi. It keeps the burden on the Ethics Commission to file a lawsuit to compel such an appearance. It also allows the accused to obtain whistleblower information at a preliminary stage in the inquiry - a move that stands to chill whistleblowers.
The effect of the Senate bill on someone like Dick Vitale, DiMasi's accountant friend, is unclear. The bill does not specifically expand the definition of lobbying to "strategizing, planning, research and background work," as the governor and the House did in their ethics reform proposals. But it calls for employers of such people to report all expenditures.
The bill is strong when it comes to campaign finance reform - and from a political perspective, that also makes it strong on revenge. It seeks to close a loophole that allowed Governor Deval Patrick to raise a large sum of money in one check - $500 for himself and $5,000 for the state Democratic Party. Patrick has taken full advantage of it, raising $1.2 million in his first two years in office.
Patrick said he is fine with that change. But the overall ethics reform fight opens a new front in the war between Patrick and Beacon Hill lawmakers. It's another sign that Together We Can is turning into Forget About It.
Hostilities broke out after Patrick vowed, via e-mail and webcast, to veto a sales tax increase unless lawmakers first enacted meaningful reform. Revenge is best served cold. But when it comes to getting back at Patrick, lawmakers wasted no time. House lawmakers quickly approved a sales tax hike by a veto-proof margin
Then, House leaders proposed pension reform legislation that protects benefits for current state legislators and state employees. For that reason, it falls short of what Patrick wants - and what the public should want.
Also falling short of what both Patrick and the public want is the Senate ethics proposal. Beacon Hill interprets Patrick's decision to take it on as an obvious political ploy aimed at reviving sinking poll numbers. To some degree, it is.
But the governor is right about one thing. The public does want change. It helps him if lawmakers look less interested in reform and more interested in protecting their peers and settling political scores.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at vennochi@globe.com. 