The Connecticut Office of State Ethics does not have any records of the advice given to its head when she was deciding to get her friend transferred to the agency.
Carol Carson, executive director of OSE, had the communications and legislative affairs manager at the State Elections Enforcement Commission – her friend – transferred to work at her agency in an agreement finalized in March.
During an interview with Raising Hale last month Carson said she consulted her agency’s legal division and disclosed her friendship to members of the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board, which oversees her agency.
Barbara Housen, general counsel at OSE, responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from Raising Hale saying there are no records of the advice given to Carson.
Housen and Carson subsequently confirmed that Housen herself gave the advice to Carson, her superior, orally beginning last October.
Since the advice was given orally and was not recorded, no documents could be disclosed in response to the records request.
Carson said OSE is not required to document all advice given.
Housen said when members of the public call in “we would typically try to keep some kind of informal log here.”
She said the log serves two purposes, tracking internal productivity and clearing up confusion if someone later misrepresents the advice.
Housen said OSE gives advice more than 1,000 times a year.
“I sought advice and acted consistently with the advice provided,” Carson said.
She said she had “several conversations beginning in October” that confirmed her “understanding that the Code of Ethics does not prohibit such action.”
“Ms. Carson disclosed fully to the board, myself and the OSE staff that she was acquainted with and friendly with Ms. Nicolescu having both worked on legislation during previous legislative sessions,” Housen said. “She also shared the qualifications of Ms. Nicolescu.”
“We discussed the relevance and application of the Code of Ethics generally and it was, and is, the opinion of the Legal Division that Ms. Carson’s actions do not violate any provision of the Code of Ethics,” Housen said.
Carson has been lobbying the legislature this session – with just days remaining before constitutionally-required adjournment – to make the position of her friend, Nancy Nicolescu, permanent within the agency.
Although part of Nicolescu’s job description is legislative liaison, or lobbying on behalf of the agency, Carson said she alone, instead of Nicolescu, has been lobbying for the change.
Carson earned $118,759 in 2010, according to CTSunlight.org. Nicolescu earned $86,156.
Under the state ethics laws, employees of OSE are held to a higher standard than all other state employees. A group of provisions, 1-80(h), apply only to employees enforcing the ethics code.
The statute says,
“The members and employees of the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board and the Office of State Ethics shall adhere to the following code of ethics under which the members and employees shall: (1) Observe high standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board and the Office of State Ethics may be preserved; (2) respect and comply with the law and conduct themselves at all times in a manner which promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the board and the Office of State Ethics…”
In 2009, OSE settled with a former ethics official, Maureen Duggan, for failing to behave in a way that “promotes public confidence in the integrity” of the agency and fined her $1,000 for that and one other violation.
Housen said Carson’s actions “do not violate any provisions of the Code of Ethics” and the Duggan case is “inapplicable.”
So their top ethics lawyer reports that she has several conversations in which she gives legal advice to her own boss informing her that she can hire her friend? Doesn’t this seem like the kind of thing that a responsible lawyer would have some notes of? Either the general counsel is making up a story to protect her boss or she should be axed for being sloppy to the point of uselessness. Maybe it is better to always keep undefined “get out of jail free” cards in your back pocket for these two. Funny that they might not recognize the hypocrisy in asking that the rest of the state government act according to a higher standard.
Toni Harp should prove herself on the side of integrity by stopping this back-door deal. There is time, should Appropriations care to show us that they take the public trust seriously. If a new, high paying job that no other watchdogs need is really neccessary (seems unlikely), let an open process happen, so that laid-off employees can compete, and the process is at least transparent, even if end result is the same.
I understand that the employees of the OSE are to be held to the highest standards but it seems that is lost on these folks.
In a similar incident revealed from a Freedom of Information request-the Ethics Enforcement Officer being aware what the salary for the position in 2006 was for the job posting received advice from the legal counsel- and the ethics representatives- recognizing the problem suggested putting it through prior to DAS putting a monkey wrench in the process. All seemed to be on board.
Later it was revealed in an additional incident during a recent ethics trial that the legal counsel and director Carol Carson were also aware that several board members of the Citizen Advisory Action Board-were seated illegally and voting, fining and attacking other members of the public on ethics charges-
Ethics in Connecticut? Time our legislature takes a closer look at the new and improved office of state ethics unless this is the best we in our state can hope for.