Time to restore Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction over legislators

By H. Philip West Jr.
Posted 8/18/16

Since colonial times, scandals have made Rhode Island the butt of national jokes. Republicans controlled the General Assembly from the 1850s until the “Bloodless Revolution” of 1935. …

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Time to restore Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction over legislators

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Since colonial times, scandals have made Rhode Island the butt of national jokes. Republicans controlled the General Assembly from the 1850s until the “Bloodless Revolution” of 1935. Since then, Democrats have ruled. During their eras of unchecked control, both parties tolerated extravagant corruption. Insiders enriched themselves, their cronies, and their kin at public expense.

The 1986 Constitutional Convention proposed an “independent non-partisan ethics commission” with authority to “adopt a code of ethics” and prosecute violations by any public officials in Rhode Island. Voters approved the Ethics Amendment.

During eighteen years I led Common Cause, powerful legislators railed against the Ethics Commission, challenged its constitutional authority, mocked its mission, attacked its budget, laid bureaucratic siege against its office, stalled a director’s credentials, and punished a courageous chairperson.

Ironically, a senator who championed reforms in the 1990s inflicted the worst damage. In 2003, the Providence Journal reported that Senate President William V. Irons had not disclosed payments he took from CVS and Blue Cross/Blue Shield during years when he buried “pharmacy freedom-of-choice” bills those firms opposed.

Operation Clean Government filed an ethics complaint. For three years, Irons tried to settle with the Ethics Commission. When negotiations failed, Irons challenged the commission’s authority to prosecute him for his conflicts-of-interest. 

In 2009, three Rhode Island Supreme Court justices ruled that the state Constitution’s “speech-in-debate” clause immunized General Assembly members against prosecution for “proposing, passing, or voting upon” specific legislation. 

Justice Paul A. Suttell dissented. He argued that voters in 1986 approved “plain and unequivocal” language: “All elected and appointed officials.shall be subject to the code of ethics.”

From 2010 to 2015, the legislature failed to pass a simple amendment to let voters close “the Irons loophole.”

Early this March—well before the Gallison scandal broke—House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello launched quiet conversations with ethics advocates. On May 10, Mattiello and Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed introduced identical bills to resolve the problem. On June 16, the House and Senate placed Question 2 on the November ballot.

This constitutional amendment will finally restore the Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction over legislators. It will also reconfirm the commission’s unique authority to write ethics rules.

No other state has better. Last November, the Center for Public Integrity ranked Rhode Island’s Ethics Commission best in the nation. On supplementary mechanisms for deterring corruption, Rhode Island ranked fifth among the states with a score of 68 percent.

The Better Government Association also compared open government and anti-corruption laws. In 2002 and 2008, the Chicago nonprofit ranked Rhode Island second among the states. In 2013, it rated Rhode Island’s laws best in the nation at 69.8 percent—far from perfect but higher than any other state. 

These anti-corruption laws sprang from scandals that engulfed all three branches of state government during the 1990s. Groundswells of public indignation brought passage of laws and constitutional amendments that reshaped government. Changes came when investigative reporters, citizen advocacy groups, political leaders, and voters all did their jobs. 

In 2004, voters approved a cornerstone amendment that Rhode Island had lacked since the American Revolution: Separation of Powers.

Again this year, scandals helped, but only voters can finish the job. Question 2 will restore the Ethics Commission’s jurisdiction over all public officials and spotlight Rhode Island as a national model.

H. Philip West Jr. served from 1988-2006 as executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island and is the author of “SECRETS & SCANDALS: Reforming Rhode Island, 1986-2006.”

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