Accusations that House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi did favors for friends with state business has touched off a government investigation as well as a battle between two representatives interested in succeeding him, state Reps. Robert DeLeo and John Rogers.
The problem is, Rogers has been under an ethical cloud himself. A state agency found that some of his campaign funds went to a friend who made the mortgage payments on a Cape Cod vacation home owned by the representative and his wife.
Such is the state of play on Beacon Hill these days, where the marble halls of the State House echo with concern about corruption and scandal.
In the Senate chamber, members voted unanimously to demand the resignation of state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson after she was arrested by federal agents on charges of accepting nearly $25,000 in bribes. An FBI affidavit included photographs of Wilkerson allegedly accepting money at restaurants within a block of her office.
The state Senate was already reeling after state Sen. James Marzilli was arrested on charges he sexually harassed four women following a government meeting in Lowell. The Arlington Democrat ended up checking into a psychiatric hospital.
All the activity prompted Gov. Deval Patrick to call for a comprehensive ethics reform package when the House and Senate reconvene in January.
“I think that my concern … is it affects how people perceive the institutions of the House and the Senate, that it causes people to lose the trust they have in elected officials,” said state Rep. James Eldridge, D-Acton, who is switching chambers in January after winning a Senate race last Tuesday.
A DiMasi ally, state Rep. Jay Kaufman, co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Public Service, conceded there is “dust in the air” from the various controversies. But he said it hasn’t impeded the legislative agenda. He ticked off a list of accomplishments this year that included landmark energy and oceans management bills, as well as a protracted debate about casino gambling.
“Does it make for distracting conversation around the water cooler? Yes. But has it kept us from getting our job done? No,” said Kaufman, D-Lexington.
The State Ethics Commission is investigating DiMasi after a spate of newspaper stories about a 2007 bill authorizing the purchase of performance management software from Cognos ULC, a Burlington company.
DiMasi met with a Patrick administration official to talk about such software, and on the day the state wired the company its $13 million payment, Cognos paid $500,000 to Richard Vitale, DiMasi’s accountant and former campaign treasurer, The Boston Globe reported.
The state bans lobbyists from receiving “success fees” when bills pass, but Vitale has said he was not a lobbyist and did nothing wrong. Around the same time, Vitale gave DiMasi a $250,000 third mortgage on his North End condominium. DiMasi has since repaid that note and the state has canceled the Cognos contract.
DiMasi and the State Ethics Commission are now immersed in a court fight over whether the commission should have access to records and e-mails surrounding the Cognos contract. DiMasi has claimed a constitutional protection over items used in legislative deliberations, the Globe reported.
“The speaker remains greatly disturbed that his name and reputation have been unfairly called into questioned through innuendo and distortion,” said DiMasi spokesman David Guarino. “The simple fact is, Speaker DiMasi had absolutely nothing to do with the awarding of any contract by the Patrick administration — period.”
Rogers, meanwhile, settled with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance after it investigated the mortgage payments on his vacation home in East Falmouth. Thomas Drummey, a longtime friend and political adviser, made the first 22 payments while he was receiving $96,300 from a consulting company being paid with funds from Rogers’ political committee.
State law prohibits the use of political funds for personal matters.
Rogers argued he and Drummey, president of Randolph Savings Bank, which provided the $351,000 mortgage, had a private co-ownership agreement making it permissible for Drummey to pay down the mortgage. While the property was deeded to Rogers and his wife, Drummey and his wife were co-signers on the mortgage note.
The OCPF determined that Drummey did work for Rogers that justified the payments from the consulting firm. But it also noted in its disposition agreement with the representative that “those payments created an appearance of personal use of campaign funds.”
The new panel created to recommend ethics rule changes to Patrick will include Republicans and Democrats, government insiders and outsiders.
Panel members named last Friday include Harvard Pilgrim Health Care chief Charlie Baker, Boston College Law Professor George Brown, former Harvard attorney Kimberly Budd, former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, former federal prosecutor Joseph Savage, former state official Peter Sturges, former Anti Defamation League official Andrew Tarsy and Common Cause Massachusetts Director Pam Wilmot.
The task force will examine the state’s existing ethics, lobbying and public employment rules and seek input from government officials, experts and the public.
It will make its recommendations within 60 days.
Former attorney general Harshbarger said many of the problems stem from relatively low turnover among state elected officials, as well as centralized authority in the offices of the House speaker and Senate president. Members and their friends, he said, can trade off the perception of a close relationship with the legislative leaders.
Harshbarger also said the Legislature has used its budget and lawmaking powers to undercut the Ethics Commission and other watchdog agencies, forcing the attorney general and U.S. attorney to step in — as happened in the Wilkerson case.
“The Wilkerson one is not only sad but outrageous,” said Harshbarger. “That’s not indicative of everybody on Beacon Hill, but the fact that somebody could think they could get away with that indicates a culture where people feel there is no accountability as long as you keep your constituents happy.”
(Associated Press)
