PUBLIC SESSION
MEETING CONVENED
Chair Maria J. Krokidas called the meeting to order at 10:32 a.m. Also in attendance were Vice Chair R. Marc Kantrowitz, Commissioner Josefina Martinez, Commissioner Wilbur P. Edwards, Jr., and Commissioner Eron Hackshaw. Chair Krokidas, Vice Chair Kantrowitz, Commissioner Martinez, Commissioner Edwards, and Commissioner Hackshaw all participated remotely.
REMOTE PARTICIPATION
Chair Krokidas announced that the meeting would take place remotely pursuant to the law signed by Governor Baker on June 16, 2021 extending certain COVID-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency. Chair Krokidas stated that she, Vice Chair Kantrowitz, and Commissioners Martinez, Edwards, and Hackshaw were all participating by video conference. She stated that members of the public had been invited to watch and listen to the public session via Zoom Webinar. Chair Krokidas noted that all votes at the meeting would be taken by roll call.
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES
On the motion of Vice Chair Kantrowitz, seconded by Commissioner Martinez, the Commission voted 5-0 to waive the reading and approve the public session minutes of the January 19, 2022 Commission meeting.
| Chair Krokidas | Yes |
| Vice Chair Kantrowitz | Yes |
| Commissioner Martinez | Yes |
| Commissioner Edwards | Yes |
| Commissioner Hackshaw | Yes |
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Executive Director David A. Wilson presented his monthly report.
Personnel
Mr. Wilson stated that, as COVID-19 conditions have improved, starting on March 7, most Commission staff will resume hybrid work schedules of two or more days per week of work in the office combined with remote work. He noted that administrative staff, including administrative assistants, will resume working their normal schedules in the office by March 28. Mr. Wilson said he expects the Commission will reopen the office to the public by April 4, depending on the future course of the pandemic. He noted that the Commission office has sufficient hand sanitizer, plexiglass barriers, air purifiers, and other protective equipment to ensure that the office reopening is as safe and comfortable as possible.
Budget
At Mr. Wilson’s request, Government Affairs Officer Robert Milt provided an update on the Commission’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget. Mr. Milt reminded the Commission that it had submitted its $2,900,368 maintenance budget request to the Executive Office for Administration and Finance on October 28, 2021. He noted that the Office of the Governor released its Fiscal Year 2023 budget recommendation on January 26, 2022. Mr. Milt explained that the Governor’s budget recommendation includes $2,880,913 in funding for the Commission, which is approximately $20,000 less than the maintenance budget request the Commission submitted to Administration and Finance.
Mr. Milt reported that the Commission submitted its $2,954,468 maintenance budget request to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means on February 2, 2022. He explained that the Commission’s maintenance budget request as submitted to Ways and Means includes approximately $50,000 to support the new online training program, $20,000 to retain a part-time contract investigator position, and funding for annualized cost-of-living increases for Commission staff. Mr. Milt explained that the Joint Ways and Means Committee specifically directed agencies to include expected costs, such as annualized cost-of-living increases and the salaries of staff members paid according to the NAGE salary schedule, when submitting their FY 2023 maintenance budget requests and that this is the reason for the approximately $54,000 difference between maintenance requests to Administration and Finance and Ways and Means. Mr. Milt noted that Mr. Wilson will provide testimony to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means next month in support of the Commission’s Fiscal Year 2023 maintenance budget request.
Ongoing Projects
Mr. Wilson provided an update on the replacement of the Commission’s conflict of interest law online training programs in the absence of Public Information Officer and project leader Gerry Tuoti. He reported that, following the approval of the finalized script for the core content section of the course, the vendor, SkillBurst Interactive, provided a short preview of the interactive multimedia course for review by Commission staff last week. Mr. Wilson also reported that the project team approved the outline for the remaining branches of content that provides information about conflict of interest issues that end-users may most frequently encounter based on the type of public position they hold. He noted that the vendor also provided the project team with a revised timeline in which the fully developed English version of the course will be completed in June, with the Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese versions being completed approximately six weeks later. Mr. Wilson said that the project team will begin discussions with the vendor regarding the content delivery learning management system which will allow public agencies to automate certain conflict of interest law training-related processes that are currently handled manually.
At Mr. Wilson’s request, Government Affairs Officer Robert Milt provided an update on the replacement of the Commission’s legacy case management system, Ethos. Mr. Milt reported that the Legal Case Management System consortium issued an RFQ on November 16, 2021 and received responses from two vendors. He said that the consortium met twice as a Strategic Sourcing Team to finalize the bid evaluation criteria based on 130 functional and technical requirements along with other requirements related to cloud computing and security. Mr. Milt stated that vendor demonstrations are scheduled for March 15 and 16, and that following the demonstrations, the SST will recommend an apparent successful bidder to EOTSS.
Chair Krokidas commended the Commission staff for their hard work on both projects.
Next Meeting
Mr. Wilson reminded the Commission that the next Commission meetings are scheduled for February 23, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. and March 17, 2022 at 9:30 a.m.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION MATTERS
Public Education and Communications Division Chief David Giannotti presented his memorandum detailing Public Education and Communications Division activities for the month of January 2022.
Mr. Giannotti thanked Program Coordinator Arthur Xia for his hard work to assemble and distribute both the meeting packet for today’s meeting and the 800-plus page meeting packet for the Commission meeting scheduled for February 23, 2022.
Mr. Giannotti reported that he conducted an in-house public education seminar in January attended by 69 public employees. He said no press releases were issued in December; however, a press release was issued earlier today which will appear in the Division memorandum next month.
Mr. Giannotti updated the Commission on efforts to collect acknowledgments from elected state and county officials concerning conflict of interest law education requirements. He explained that all public employees, including elected state and county officials, are required to comply with the education requirement in 2022 by acknowledging receipt of the summary of the conflict of interest law within 30 days of receipt. Mr. Xia notified all state and county agencies, municipalities and independent municipal agencies, charter schools, and regional school districts and educational collaboratives on January 18, 2022 concerning the education requirements and also notified all 320 elected state and county officials. To date, 214 summary acknowledgements have been collected from elected state and county officials. Mr. Giannotti noted that he will work with Mr. Xia to send follow-up notifications to all public agencies to have agency consultants, vendors, and contractors who are public employees to also complete the education requirements.
LEGAL DIVISION MATTERS
General Counsel/Legal Division Chief Eve Slattery reported on the activities of the Legal Division.
Legal Division Metrics for January 2022
Ms. Slattery presented the following Legal Division metrics for January 2022.
- Written advice. The Legal Division answered by letter or e-mail 63 written requests for advisory opinions under G.L. c. 268A and c. 268B. Of these requests, 19 pertained to SFIs.
| January 2021 (same month prior year) (total/SFI): | 47/13 |
| December 2021 (previous month) (total/SFI): | 42/6 |
- Oral advice. The Legal Division attorneys provided advice by telephone in response to 404 requests for advice from state, county, and municipal officials. Of these requests, 97 pertained to SFIs.
| January 2021 (same month prior year) (total/SFI): | 401/80 |
| December 2021 (previous month) (total/SFI): | 318/23 |
- Review of municipal letters. Division staff reviewed 0 letters issued by city solicitors/town counsel pursuant to G.L. c. 268A, § 22 and 930 CMR 1.03.
| January 2021 (same month prior year): | 1 |
| December 2021 (previous month): | 2 |
- Backlog. As of February 4, 2022, the Division has 4 pending requests for written advice that are more than 30 days old. There is a total of 26 pending requests for written advice.
SFI Summary
Legal Division Deputy Chief/SFI Lauren Duca provided an update on the Calendar Year (CY) 2021 Statement of Financial Interests (SFI) filing season. Ms. Duca reported that reminder notices were sent to newly designated filers who entered filing positions in CY 2021 but who were only recently entered into the SFI system by their agencies. She said that the SFI Team had completed its review of the CY 2021 manual and electronic SFI forms. Ms. Duca noted that a technical issue with the SFI system involving the sending of the user access notification email to filers was detected before the SFI filing season was opened. She said that the SFI Team was able to open the CY2021 SFI filing season on January 28, 2022 and then worked successfully with the vendor to fix the issue.
Adjudicatory Matters
Ms. Slattery presented the February/March calendar of hearing dates and pre-hearing conferences in pending Commission adjudicatory proceedings.
In the Matter of Robert O’Brien, Docket No. 22-0001: An Order to Show Cause was filed on February 17, 2022. Commissioner Martinez was assigned as presiding officer. Assistant General Counsel T. Michael McDonald will serve as legal advisor.
Litigation Matters
Ms. Slattery provided an update on litigation matters. She reported the Supreme Judicial Court has yet to rule on the application for direct appellate review filed by Mr. Comtois on January 10, 2022 in Comtois v. State Ethics Commission, Appeals Court Docket No. 2021-P-1151.
Ms. Slattery thanked Assistant General Counsel Ting Chiu for filing the Administrative Record on January 28, 2022 in Fournier v. State Ethics Commission, Suffolk Superior Court Civil Action No. 2184CV2474B. She noted that Mr. Fournier has until March 2, 2022 to file a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings.
Commission Projects
Ms. Slattery provided an update on projects discussed at prior Commission meetings. She reported that, in January 2022, a total of $685.45 was collected from Christopher Hicks through the Comptroller’s Intercept program. Ms. Slattery noted that Mr. Hicks now owes a balance of $1,314.55 of his unpaid civil penalty.
Ms. Slattery reported that the Legal Committee met on January 27, 2022 to discuss a potential pro bono counsel policy. She noted that the Legal Division will prepare a draft pro bono counsel policy for review by the Legal Committee.
ENFORCEMENT DIVISION MATTERS
Enforcement Division Chief Monica Brookman presented the Enforcement Intake Metrics.
Ms. Brookman reported that the Enforcement Division continued to receive fewer complaints than usual last month, which gave the Division more time to focus on the complaint backlog. She said that she expects the Division will be able to reduce the backlog of cases over six months old this month.
Enforcement Committee
Chair Krokidas stated that the Enforcement Committee should review the Commission’s Enforcement Procedures to better understand which procedures are mandatory or discretionary. Commissioner Edwards asked Ms. Brookman to draft a memorandum to identify provisions in the Enforcement Procedures that may be amended in preparation for the Enforcement Committee meeting. Following discussion, the Enforcement Committee scheduled its next meeting for March 10, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the Enforcement Procedures.
The meeting recessed at 11:18 a.m. and reconvened at 11:26 a.m.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
At 11:26 a.m., on the motion of Chair Krokidas, seconded by Vice Chair Kantrowitz, the Commission voted 5-0 to enter executive session to discuss matters subject to the provisions of G.L. c. 30A, § 21, subparagraph (a)(7), and § 18, and G.L. c. 268B, §§ 3 and 4, including investigatory matters, preliminary inquiries, summons authorization requests, and adjudicatory matters.
| Chair Krokidas | Yes |
| Vice Chair Kantrowitz | Yes |
| Commissioner Martinez | Yes |
| Commissioner Edwards | Yes |
| Commissioner Hackshaw | Yes |
Chair Krokidas stated that the Commission would not reconvene in public session following the executive session.
LIST OF DOCUMENTS USED AT THIS MEETING
- Agenda for the Commission Meeting of February 17, 2022
- Minutes of the Commission Meeting of January 19, 2022 Public Session
- Memorandum dated February 11, 2022 from Public Education and Communications Division Chief David Giannotti to the Commission concerning Public Education and Communications Division activities in January 2022
- Memorandum dated February 4, 2022 from General Counsel/Legal Division Chief Eve Slattery to the Commission setting forth Legal Division matters for the meeting
- Calendar of hearing dates and pre-hearing conferences in pending Commission adjudicatory matters
- Memorandum dated February 4, 2022 from General Counsel/Legal Division Chief Eve Slattery to the Commission concerning an update on pending projects
- Enforcement Intake Metrics
Respectfully submitted,
Arthur Xia
Program Coordinator