The commission says the governor failed to file a financial disclosure statement.

09:21 AM EST on Friday, January 7, 2005

BY BRUCE LANDIS
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- For the second time, the Ethics Commission yesterday found probable cause to believe Governor Carcieri broke the state ethics law, this time by failing to file a financial disclosure statement last spring.

The decision means the governor can either contest the accusations at a public hearing or negotiate a settlement with the commission.

The governor campaigned as a reformer and has made a point of emphasizing ethical issues while in office. In a pair of recent appointments to the commission, the governor has pleased reform groups, often critical of the commission, by appointing persons they think will support ethics enforcement.

The commission had already found probable cause to believe Governor Carcieri violated the state ethics law when he accepted tickets from Fleet Bank to watch a New England Patriots game in December 2003 from the bank's private box at Gillette Stadium.

Yesterday's vote on the financial disclosure filing case, which followed an investigation by the commission staff, brought both cases to the same procedural stage. The commission could also have dismissed the charge.

Barring a settlement, the next step would be an adjudicative hearing, a trial-like event held in public before the Ethics Commission. Commission prosecutors would present evidence supporting a guilty finding and Carcieri's lawyers would make the case for his innocence.

The commission would then meet in closed session to decide whether a violation took place and what punishment, including fines of up to $25,000 per violation, to impose.

Historically, the commission has settled cases at this stage by negotiating fines to be paid by the accused officials.

A recent example was when state Rep. Gordon Fox, D-Providence, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for voting on a no-bid, $770-million lottery contract that assured his law firm would get legal work from GTECH, the lottery giant. Fox later admitted he had a "substantial conflict" of interest in the case.

In a previous case, former state legislator and Cumberland Mayor Francis A. Gaschen agreed in September 2002 to pay a $10,000 fine to settle charges that he broke the ethics law when he sold his office furniture and law books to the town while he was mayor.

The case involving the governor that was before the commission yesterday concerns whether the governor failed to file a mandatory disclosure statement by the deadline, last spring, describing his finances the previous year.

The statements are required of many state and municipal officials, and are intended to let the public know about business relationships that might involve conflicts of interest. They give a general description of officials' employment and financial interests.

The commission acted yesterday in closed session, with Carcieri represented by lawyer Alan Gelfuso, who declined to answer questions afterward.

Carcieri met with Ethics Commission lawyers last August. The meeting included talk about a settlement, Carcieri said at the time. But, upon emerging, the governor said he was not yet willing to settle the charges against him. He asked, "When you haven't done something wrong, you don't think you did something wrong, why would you settle?"

Carcieri has said that he was working on state business when he went to the football game, and that he used the visit to lobby Fleet Bank, then discussing a merger, to keep a corporate presence and jobs in the state.

The governor later reimbursed Fleet $573 for his own attendance and food at the company's box seats, and another $1,146 for two friends who accompanied him. He also went with a state trooper and an office advance man.