PUBLIC SESSION
MEETING CONVENED
Chair Maria J. Krokidas called the meeting to order at 9:31 a.m. Also in attendance were Vice Chair Thomas J. Sartory, Commissioner R. Marc Kantrowitz, Commissioner Josefina Martinez, and Commissioner Wilbur P. Edwards, Jr. Chair Krokidas, Vice Chair Sartory, Commissioner Kantrowitz, Commissioner Martinez, and Commissioner Edwards participated remotely.
REMOTE PARTICIPATION
Chair Krokidas announced that the meeting would take place remotely pursuant to Governor Baker’s Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A, § 20, dated March 12, 2020. She stated that members of the public had been invited to listen to the public session by teleconference. Chair Krokidas noted that all votes at the meeting would be taken by roll call.
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES
On the motion of Commissioner Kantrowitz, seconded by Commissioner Edwards, the Commission voted 5-0 to waive the reading and approve the public session minutes of the June 25, 2020 Commission meeting.
| Chair Krokidas | Yes |
| Vice Chair Sartory | Yes |
| Commissioner Kantrowitz | Yes |
| Commissioner Martinez | Yes |
| Commissioner Edwards | Yes |
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Executive Director David A. Wilson presented his monthly report.
Mr. Wilson noted the recent passing of civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis and Chair Krokidas requested a moment of silence in memory of Mr. Lewis.
Personnel
Mr. Wilson reported that almost the entire Commission staff continues to work safely from home and the Commission office continues to be closed to visitors. He stated that public access to the office will be by appointment only for the foreseeable future. Mr. Wilson said he will submit a plan for review by the Commission regarding the eventual reopening of the office under workplace safety standards based on recommendations from an advisory committee of Commission staff which will reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission to staff and visitors. He stated that the plan will be shared with the entire staff, who will have an opportunity to comment on it, before the plan goes into effect. Since office occupancy is being limited to 25% of normal occupancy, or 6 persons, Mr. Wilson continues to encourage Commission employees to work from home as he remains cautious about reopening.
Mr. Wilson reported that two mandatory implicit bias trainings for Commission employees were conducted virtually by the Boston Law Collaborative on June 29, 2020 and July 27, 2020 to emphasize the importance of considering the role of implicit biases when analyzing societal inequities. He thanked Assistant Enforcement Counsel Tracy Morong for coordinating with the Boston Law Collaborative to set up the trainings as part of the Commission’s ongoing efforts to build a more inclusive workplace.
Ombudsman
Mr. Wilson reported that the Commission staff elected Ms. Morong to serve as the Commission’s Ombudsman for Fiscal Year 2021. He thanked Staff Counsel Norah Mallam for serving as the Ombudsman for the prior fiscal year, as well as Government Affairs Officer Robert Milt and Public Information Officer Gerry Tuoti for coordinating the election of the new Ombudsman for the current fiscal year.
Budget
Mr. Wilson noted that July 1, 2020 was the first day of Fiscal Year 2021. He explained that, in the absence of a full year budget, state government was funded with a one-month budget in July and the Governor had proposed a second one-month budget of $5.5 billion to cover state spending through August. However, the legislature recently approved a $16.5 billion three-month budget to cover costs through October as they await news of further federal aid. Mr. Wilson added that, while he does not know how it will affect the Commission in the long run for this fiscal year, the Commission will continue through October to receive funding at its Fiscal Year 2020 level.
Ongoing Projects
Mr. Wilson discussed the ongoing project to replace the Commission’s conflict of interest law online training program. He stated the Commission received funding from EOTSS for Fiscal Year 2020 to retain a consultant with expertise in electronic learning and learning management systems to help define functional and technical requirements for the conflict of interest law online training replacement project with the goal of issuing an RFQ in the next fiscal year. Led by Mr. Tuoti, the project team has selected a consultant and negotiated the scope of work. Mr. Wilson said that the project team had a kickoff meeting with the consultant on July 28, 2020 and will continue to work with the consultant over the next three months to develop the RFQ.
Next Meeting
Following discussion, the Commission scheduled its next meetings for September 17, 2020 at 9:30 a.m. There will not be a Commission meeting in August.
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 June. Mr. Giannotti said that he conducted four 90-minute public education seminars by video conference during June, one in-house seminar and three seminars for public agencies, including for the Inspector General’s Public Procurement Official and Mass. School Building Authority certification programs, the MassDOT/MBTA Legal Department, and the UMass President’s Office procurement services team.
Public Education and Communications Division/Information Technology Fiscal Year 2020 Memorandum
Mr. Giannotti presented his Fiscal Year 2020 memorandum detailing Public Education and Communications Division activities and Information Technology accomplishments. He said he conducted 46 conflict of interest law seminars for 1,363 public employees and consultants in Fiscal Year 2020. Beginning in April 2020 and until the COVID-19 pandemic ends, seminars are being offered by video conference only.
Mr. Giannotti thanked Mr. Tuoti for his hard work and coordination with other staff members in issuing 14 press releases in a timely manner during Fiscal Year 2020. Mr. Giannotti also thanked Information Technology Specialist Tony Webb for continuing to support the Commission’s information technology resources and for his work to complete the IT projects during the fiscal year, including a major project involving Ethos, the Commission’s case management application.
Mr. Giannotti provided an update on conflict of interest law education requirements for public employees during Fiscal Year 2020. He thanked Program Coordinator Arthur Xia for his hard work sending notices to all municipalities, independent municipal agencies, regional school districts, and educational collaboratives concerning the requirements. He explained that for the 2020 compliance period, the Commission was required to distribute the summary of the conflict of interest law to all the elected state and county officials and to collect from them an acknowledgment that they received the summary. Mr. Giannotti reported that all summary acknowledgments had been submitted to the Commission by elected state and county officials. He said that Mr. Xia is continuing to collect the remaining compliance records from new legislators from several special elections held to fill legislative vacancies.
LEGAL DIVISION MATTERS
General Counsel/Legal Division Chief Eve Slattery reported on the activities of the Legal Division.
Legal Division Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2020
Ms. Slattery presented the Legal Division Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2020 and a memorandum concerning the Calendar Year 2019 SFI filing season. She reported that the Legal Division answered a total of 5,728 requests for advice, which represents an approximately 2% decrease from Fiscal Year 2019 presumably due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Slattery stated that Legal Division attorneys served as legal advisors on three adjudicatory proceedings alleging violations of the conflict of interest law, G.L. c. 268A. She noted that there were three litigation matters during Fiscal Year 2020.
Ms. Slattery said that the Legal Division trained two new staff members in Fiscal Year 2020. She said that the Division consulted with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance regarding its emergency regulations on social media use and with the Massachusetts Cultural Council on its travel guidelines, credit card use, and purchasing goods and services. Ms. Slattery said that the Division drafted Advisory 19-1: Gifts and Gratuities to update and replace Advisory 04-02. The Division revised the chapter on Public Employees, Buildings and Resources for MCLE publication Massachusetts Election Administration, Campaign Finance, and Lobbying Law as well as the chapter on The Conflict of Interest Law and Municipal Attorneys in the MCLE publication Massachusetts Municipal Law. The Legal Division presented on conflict of interest law issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic during a weekly Massachusetts Municipal Lawyers Association telephone conference.
Legal Division Deputy Chief/SFI Lauren E. Duca presented information about the Calendar Year 2019 filing season for Statements of Financial Interests (SFI). She said that the compliance rate for the CY 2019 SFI filing season continued to be high – 94% of all public employees and public officials filed by the May 26, 2020 deadline. She noted that 98% filed electronically in part because the office was closed to walk-ins due to the COVID-19 crisis. As a result of the Commission’s determination to move the May 1st statutory filing deadline for appointed public employees to May 26, 2020, the CY 2019 season is still ongoing as the SFI Team works to locate 6 non-filers to get them filed. Ms. Duca reported that the total number of filers for the season was 3,886, representing a 5% increase in filers from the prior filing year, most of whom were candidate filers.
Legal Division Metrics for June 2020
Ms. Slattery presented the following Legal Division metrics for June 2020.
- Written advice. The Legal Division answered by letter or email 58 written requests for advisory opinions under G.L. c. 268A and c. 268B. Of these requests, 32 pertained to SFIs.
| June 2019 (same month last year): | 56 |
| May 2020 (previous month) (total/SFI): | 78/51 |
- Oral advice. The Legal Division attorneys provided advice by telephone in response to 518 requests for advice from state, county, and municipal officials. Of these requests, 279 pertained to SFIs.
| June 2019 (same month last year): | 403 |
| May 2020 (previous month) (total/SFI): | 518/279 |
- 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.
| June 2019 (same month last year): | 2 |
| May 2020 (previous month): | 1 |
- Backlog. As of July 22, 2020, the Division had 1 pending requests for written advice that is more than 30 days old. There was a total of 6 pending requests for written advice.
SFI Summary
Legal Division Deputy Chief/SFI Lauren Duca provided an update on the CY 2019 Statements of Financial Interests (SFI) filing season. She stated that the filing deadline for CY 2019 SFIs was May 26, 2020. The SFI Team sent the statutory notice of lateness by regular mail to 15 former employees who did not have an e-mail address in the SFI system. Ms. Duca explained that the notice provided them with a 10-day grace period to file. The SFI Team worked with those individuals to help them file by July 13, 2020. Ms. Duca said that since July 13, 2020, the SFI Team has been working to locate the former employees who missed the July 13th grace period deadline to get them to file a CY 2019 SFI as soon as possible.
Adjudicatory Matters
Ms. Slattery presented the calendar of pre-hearing conferences in pending Commission adjudicatory proceedings.
In the Matter of Christopher Hicks, Docket No. 20-0007: An Order to Show Cause was filed on July 22, 2020. Commissioner Edwards was assigned as the presiding officer. Staff Counsel Amy Bressler Nee will serve as legal advisor.
Litigation Matters
Ms. Slattery provided an update on [Doe] v. State Ethics Commission, Berkshire Superior Court Civil Action No. 1976CV00286. Ms. Slattery reported that on July 16, 2020, the Commission filed an Assented-To Second Motion to Extend Time to File Answer seeking an extension to September 30, 2020 to file a responsive pleading in order to allow the parties time to attempt to resolve the matter.
ENFORCEMENT DIVISION MATTERS
Enforcement Division Report for Fiscal Year 2020
Enforcement Division Chief Monica Brookman presented the Enforcement Division Report for Fiscal Year 2020. She reported that the Enforcement Division successfully resolved fourteen cases and reduced both the complaint backlog and the duration of preliminary inquiries in Fiscal Year 2020 despite staffing shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Brookman said that the Division hired contract Special Investigators Katelyn Farago and Paul Murray to continue the Division’s investigatory work. Ms. Brookman explained that while the complaint intake backlog had significantly increased between 2015 and 2018 while the Division underwent restructuring and several staffing changes, the Division was able to reduce the backlog due in part to the assistance of Ms. Farago and Mr. Murray. Ms. Brookman said that she intends to continue to make reducing the backlog a priority. She also noted that while another goal is to reduce the amount of time a case is in the preliminary inquiry stage, as delays associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have extended the cases currently in that stage, reduction is unlikely the next fiscal year.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
At 10:23 a.m., on the motion of Chair Krokidas, seconded by Commissioner 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 Sartory | Yes |
| Commissioner Kantrowitz | Yes |
| Commissioner Martinez | Yes |
| Commissioner Edwards | 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 July 30, 2020
- Minutes of the State Ethics Commission Meeting of June 25, 2020 Public Session
- Memorandum dated July 23, 2020 from Public Education and Communications Division Chief David Giannotti to the Commission concerning the Public Education and Communications Division report for the meeting
- Memorandum dated July 23, 2020 from Public Education and Communications Division Chief David Giannotti to the Commission concerning FY 2020 Public Education/Communications Division and Information Technology Accomplishments
- Memorandum dated July 22, 2020 from General Counsel/Legal Division Chief Eve Slattery to the Commission setting forth Legal Division matters for the meeting
- Memorandum dated July 22, 2020 from General Counsel/Legal Division Chief Eve Slattery to the Commission concerning Legal Division Report for Fiscal Year 2020
- Memorandum dated July 20, 2020 from Enforcement Division Chief Monica Brookman to the Commission concerning Enforcement Division Report for Fiscal Year 2020
Respectfully submitted,
Arthur Xia
Program Coordinator