State Ethics Commission chief to step down
Panel denied director a vote of confidence
The executive director of the State Ethics Commission, which has been criticized as being mired in red tape, has announced he will step down at the end of the month after the five-member panel that oversees the agency declined to give him a vote of confidence.
Peter Sturges, who has run the agency that oversees the conduct of public employees for more than six years, asked for assurance that he would be able to remain in the $108,000-a-year post for another two years, but was rebuffed by the board at a June 21 meeting, according to two sources with knowledge of what happened during the closed meeting.
The request was made during the board's performance evaluation of key managers, the sources said. An outside consultant hired three years ago to review operations of the commission issued a report in October 2005 calling for major changes in the way complaints are reviewed and investigated.
The consultant, Francis S. Moran Jr., said the agency was "bogged down" by managers who conducted too many meetings in an effort to reach consensus.
It sometimes takes two years, wrote Moran, for staff members to decide whether cases should be heard by the commission. Meetings were held to decide whether to hold meetings, he wrote.
Performance evaluations of the commission's chief financial officer and the leaders of the communications and public education division, the enforcement division, and the legal division are expected to continue July 10.
The agency has at times been criticized as being soft on politicians, particularly legislators, who set the commission's budget. The Republican Party accused the agency of going easy on Governor Deval Patrick by dropping an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his telephone call to a
"The same week they pursued an investigation of a City Hall staffer for a similar infraction," Brian Dodge, executive director of the Republican Party, said yesterday. "There is an imbalance. Low-level staffers watch out."
In his report, however, Moran did not conclude that the commission has pulled its punches.
"I have not found any instances of favoritism being given to anyone, particularly because of his or her position in government," wrote Moran, who now serves as general counsel to the Supreme Judicial Court.
"The citizens of the Commonwealth can be assured that the Ethics Commission is fulfilling its primary mandate of dealing with allegations of ethical misconduct in a fair and even-handed manner in all cases."
Sturges, 59, submitted his resignation letter to the commissioners on Friday and sent copies to the staff. He was on vacation yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
During his tenure, he wrote in the two-page letter, the agency provided "guidance, advice, and education to over 60,000 public officials, audited about 30,000 financial disclosure forms, and reviewed, investigated, or prosecuted approximately 6,000 enforcement matters."
In addition, he said, the agency has eliminated a backlog and made technological improvements "to modernize its operations."
"I trust that my tenure as executive director will be viewed by the commission and the public as one that upheld and strengthened the commission's reputation for access, integrity and fairness," he wrote.
According to commission spokeswoman Carol Carson, Sturges had been thinking about leaving "for quite a while."
"The staff was surprised and saddened," she said.
According to several sources at the agency, Sturges had run afoul of Judge E. George Daher, chairman of the commission and former head of the Boston Housing Court.
Since taking over as chairman in 2003, Daher has pushed to make the agency's enforcement more rigorous.
Daher would not discuss the circumstances of Sturges's resignation.
"The commission would like to thank him for his dedicated service and wish him good fortune," Daher said.
Common Cause of Massachusetts executive director Pamela Wilmot, who has worked closely with Sturges at the Ethics Commission and during his previous job as general counsel for the state's Office of Campaign and Political Finance, called him "very professional" and "committed to the highest ethical standards."
"But he also has an understanding of the political realities and how to sell something to the Legislature," Wilmot said.
She pointed to a number of bills, many of which are pending before the Legislature, which Sturges has been pushing, including measures that would increase the penalties for violations of the ethics law and close a loophole that allows former state workers to lobby officials in the executive branch, but not the Legislature, during the year after they leave.
Andrea Estes can be reached at estes@globe.com. 