UPDATED: Mattiello to Push Legislation to Force Ethics Comm to Post Financial Disclosure Online

GoLocalProv News Team

UPDATED: Mattiello to Push Legislation to Force Ethics Comm to Post Financial Disclosure Online

Mattiello pushes reform on Ethics Commission
Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello is calling on the Rhode Island Ethics Commission to improve transparency.  Mattiello will introduce legislation on Tuesday forcing the Ethics Commission to post all elected and appointed officials financial disclosure forms online.

A GoLocal review published on Thursday found that the forms are only available during the agencies working hours and can sometimes take days to send out the forms.

The Ethics Commission has refused to post the forms of 4,400 elected and appointed officials in Rhode Island.

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“The Ethics Commission, like all departments and agencies throughout the state, should have public records accessible on their websites.  As public servants, we are all required to fill out the Yearly Financial Disclosure Statements and the public should not be forced to obtain them only during business hours,” said Mattiello. 

“Legislation will soon be introduced to compel the Ethics Commission to place these statements on their website beginning with the 2017 forms due on April 27, 2018.”

“Common Cause looks forward to seeing the Speaker's proposal to require that financial disclosures be posted online. Our organization worked successfully with Speaker Mattiello on the constitutional amendment to restore the Ethics Commission's full oversight of legislators and we trust he will craft a thoughtful proposal,” said John Marion, Common Cause RI.

Representative Dan McKiernan gave notice on Thursday during the House session that he will be submitting legislation on Tuesday, which is the next legislative day. The bill compels the Ethics Commission to post the reports. By House rules, a bill submitted after the legislative deadline require two business days notice. Mattiello is a co-sponsor of the legislation. 

Mattiello’s Decision is Just the Latest in His Effort to Push Reform

For background, under the Mattiello’s leadership, he sponsored the successful Constitutional amendment legislation that restored the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission over the General Assembly. As Speaker, he also led the legislative effort to eliminate the master lever voting process.

And, Mattiello fought to strengthen campaign finance laws and lobbying disclosure requirements.

While Chairman of the Ethics Committee Ross Cheit dismisses the need for accessibility and transparency the posting of elected and appointed officials disclosure forms online, it is supported by both Democrat Raimondo and GOP rival Fung. 

Michael Raia, Director of Communications for Raimondo told GoLocal, “[The Governor] would agree that it makes sense that those disclosures should be easily accessible and available to the public online.”

And, Fung told GoLocal that the existing process is burdensome and the public deserves greater accessibility to the records. “Of course they should be online, “ said Fung.

The effort by Mattiello will give Rhode Islanders the opportunity to access records without going to the Ethics Commission office in the downtown office or wait to call or email during office hours.

It appears that most everyone that about 100 to 200 of the 4,400 disclosure forms will need to have the addresses redacted -- those are the forms of members of the judiciary and police chiefs. 

“Common Cause believes deeply that these forms are an important tool used by citizens and journalists to hold public officials accountable. We recognize that for some officials, such as state judges and police chiefs, putting some of this information online may pose a safety risk,” added Marion.

“Our organization hopes the legislation finds a reasonable balance between that privacy concern and public access to this important information. If so, Common Cause looks forward to supporting the bill,” said Marion.

Ethics Commission Ross Cheit
Cheit Defends Offline Policy

Earlier in the week, Cheit defended the existing process and said that it was reviewed two years ago.

“These issues were thoroughly vetted at a hearing that GoLocalProv did not attend or cover even though it received advance notice, but a careful analysis of the public comments and evidence provided at that hearing answers all of your questions and provides considerable evidence of the excellent performance record of the current system, which is also documented in the Director's Report at every Commission meeting,” wrote Cheit in an email  to GoLocal. Cheit is a Brown University Professor and has served on the Commission since 2004.

What Cheit did not disclose, however, was that only one person gave testimony -- according to Gramitt, only RI Common Cause’s John Marion gave testimony.

On Friday after Mattiello's announcement, Cheit changed his tune.

“The Commission has a strong record in favor of transparency and would happily post all financial disclosure statement online with the support of the General Assembly,” said Cheit.

“We do not need to be forced to do this; but we would we need additional funding to do it correctly and with care,” added Cheit


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