Ethics Commission Has Difficulty Tracking Financial Disclosure Forms

GoLocalProv News Team

Ethics Commission Has Difficulty Tracking Financial Disclosure Forms

RI Ethics Commission struggling to track forms
Elected and appointed local and state officials are required by law to submit an annual Financial Disclosure Statement to the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, but a GoLocal review finds that the commission essentially has no functional tracking structure to know if an official actually submits their application.

A GoLocal request for a copy of the ethics disclosure form for Graham Waters, the Town Administrator in Coventry, was responded to with a series confused and incomplete responses. Waters became the Town Administrator in February of 2016. He is the highest-ranking official in Coventry.

Over a three-day period, Ethics Commission staff could only confirm that there was no form for Waters on file.

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Lack of Tracking, Clarity, Answers

GoLocal had interaction with three different members of the staff and it became apparent that the Ethics Commission staff could not track the records and could not confirm if Water had been noticed for non-compliance.

“The question of whether he (Waters) is required to submit financial statements has not yet been addressed by the Town (Coventry). We have not sent him a form because his name has never been submitted to us,” wrote Michelle Berg, Financial Disclosure Officer of the Ethics Commission.

The Ethics Commission does not post Financial Disclosure forms online. Members of the public and the media must call or visit the office to access copies of the public documents. This is an aberration from practices of many states where all ethics documents are posted and searchable online.

According to the Ethics Commission:

All State appointed and elected officials and employees holding major decision-making positions, as well as all municipal elected and certain municipal appointed officials are required by law to file a Financial Disclosure Statement every year. See R.I. Gen. Laws § 36-14-16. All officials required to file must continue to file Financial Disclosure Statements until they have been out of office for one full calendar year. Additionally, candidates for elected office are required to file a Financial Disclosure Statement within 30 days of the deadline for declaring candidacy.

Financial disclosure statements must be filed annually by certain categories of public officials. Officials are required to disclose sources of income and assets, including those of a spouse and any dependent children and must also disclose whether they, a spouse or dependent child hold an interest in any business regulated by Rhode Island government or in any enterprise which engages in business transactions with the government.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story stated that the majority of states post their respective financial disclosure forms online. RI Ethics Chair Ross Cheit disputes the number is a majority. GoLocal has sourced a complete list of all state financial disclosure requirements - please see the slideshow below.


All 50 States - Ethics Disclosure Requirements

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