An Ethics Police Station

It has not been a good year for ethics in the state of Connecticut. Or has it? There was the case of House Speaker Jim Amann, finally stopped from using his office to solicit funds for his day job with the Multiple Sclerosis Society; the case of former Senate Minority Leader Lou DeLuca and the muscle providing trash hauler; and even the head of the new state ethics commission got himself in hot water for his management style and his decision to avoid taxes by keeping his car registered in Vermont.

The interesting thing is, all these ethical lapses occurred at the leadership level. Which leads us to question what it takes to rise to the top in state government and politics and what message does the behavior of leadership send to those working their way up?

Standard Setting

You can look at this two ways: Either no one in Connecticut government has learned from the mistakes of Rowland, Silvester, Ganim, et al, or in a new era of clean and open government, ethical lapses that were once considered trivial are now considered to be what they are — ethical lapses that must be dealt with.

I prefer to think there is a new standard and the more it is applied the more we will uncover unethical behavior. This is just the start of something big, but when it’s all over, Connecticut government will be one clean house.

Many still have not gotten the message about the new focus on ethics. There are still members of the Legislature, from both parties, who make their living in ways that are in direct conflict with their role as lawmakers.

There are still partisans, on both sides, who skirt campaign laws all day long, by using cell phones, lunch breaks, coffee breaks and comp time to campaign for the re-election of their boss and other candidates — virtually on state time. We have had public financing of campaigns in Connecticut far longer than most in government will ever admit.

There are still the end of session booze parties at our Capitol, where the government class celebrates it ability to waste our money, or in the case of this session, fail to get its primary job done on time. When will the news media, or the You Tubers, get around to videotaping this practice and ending it once and for all?

Like speeders on a highway, they all take a secret personal gamble that they won’t get caught.

As the new ethics agency faces another possible reorganization, the push for ethics in government should be taken a step further. Let’s not beat around the bush.

Bold Moves

There should be an immediate review of all outside employment by state lawmakers. After the Amann case, every legislator should have asked for an opinion to make sure their own employment presented no conflicts. Few if any have asked, because most don’t want to know the answer to the question.

The office of ethics should be physically moved. Its current location, across the street from the Capitol, makes it an irrelevant bureaucracy for most lawmakers. Paper pushers you deal with when you have to. A better location for the office would be right inside the Capitol, with a substation in the Legislative Office Building. There, lawmakers and lobbyists would always have an officer at their elbow and the ethics police would get an education about the real life application of the laws they enforce.

Life at the Capitol is full of temptation and shades of gray. The only way to make the lines clear is to get everyone looking over their shoulder. Publicly financed paranoia is an investment in good government.

Dean Pagani is a former gubernatorial advisor. He is V.P. of Public Affairs for Cashman and Katz Integrated Communications in Glastonbury.