Ethics test at the State House
ROBERT COUGHLIN brings many strengths to his new position as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, not least the perspective of someone with a strong personal interest in medical innovation - his son has cystic fibrosis. But the State Ethics Commission should still investigate Coughlin's failure in June to notify his boss that he had opened discussions with the council about its top job, since at that time he was the Patrick administration's liaison to the life sciences industry.
The six-week delay between Coughlin's first meeting with council officials and his decision to tell state economic development commissioner Daniel O'Connell of his negotiations for the job deserves the ethics commission's attention because Coughlin was during that time the Patrick administration's point man in talks with the industry, including its use of tax credits. The state's conflict-of-interest law is designed to ensure that no state official transitioning into the private sector finds himself with divided loyalties.
Coughlin's lawyer, Thomas Kiley, describes the first meeting on June 11 between Coughlin and council officials as a "meet and greet" or "networking" session in which his client neither committed to be a candidate for the job nor rejected it out of hand. As such, Kiley says, it did not trigger notification of Coughlin's superiors. But a 2004 advisory opinion by the ethics commission says, "Prospective employment negotiations are synonymous with discussions and are not limited to the final meetings during which the parties review salary and other terms of employment."
Bright lines of separation between government and industry are especially in order at a time when the Patrick administration has embraced biotech as an engine of the state's economic growth. In May, the administration pledged a $1 billion investment in life science initiatives. The public will not long support such a commitment if it is seen as the result of insider dealing.
Governor Patrick wandered into an ethical gray area himself in his first weeks in office by making a phone call on behalf of the parent firm of Ameriquest, a mortgage lender, to a New York-based bank with many state-regulated interests in Massachusetts. Until last year, the governor had earned $360,000 a year as a member of Ameriquest's parent firm's board of directors. Although the ethics commission decided not to reprimand the governor, Patrick has acknowledged the call was a mistake.
In the wake of the Coughlin matter, Patrick should get the word out throughout his administration that he expects state officials to uphold the spirit and not just the letter of the conflict-of-interest law. As for the ethics panel, it should investigate Coughlin's actions and, if nothing else, clarify what a state official's obligations are when an industry he is dealing with starts talking to him about a job.
