The Rhode Island Ethics Commission on Tuesday unanimously voted to dismiss an ethics complaint filed against Gov. Dan McKee by the state GOP.
McKee hailed the ruling, calling the complaint irresponsible and a waste of taxpayer resources. But a good government watchdog said the governor’s behavior in the episode – lunching with a lobbyist and interested parties who were contributing to his campaign at the same time – should be considered disappointing.
The complaint involved a small fundraising lunch at the Capital Grille in January 2023, attended by the governor, his fundraising chair, Jerry Sahagian, lobbyist-political operative Jeff Britt, and Lindsey Scannapieco and Everett Abitbol, two officials from a Philadelphia company, Scout Ltd., seeking to redevelop the Cranston Street Armory.
In the course of the lunch, Britt provided Sahagian with an envelope containing a $1,000 campaign contribution for McKee from himself and separate $500 donations from the two Scout executives, according to a 17-page investigative report by Ethics Commission staff.
“McKee told them that they were in good hands with [James] Thorsen and [David] Patten” – two state officials who later made a disastrous trip to visit Scout officials in Philadelphia – “and the conversation ultimately left the Scout representatives feeling hopeful that the Governor supported their Armory proposal,” according to the report.
Also on Tuesday, the Ethics Commission voted to extend the timeline for reviewing different ethics complaints against Patten and Thorsen, who no longer work for the state.
McKee ordered steak at the lunch last January, and the group shared a few appetizers.
According to the report, McKee indicated he had to leave for another meeting and “confirmed with Sahagian” that Sahagian would pay the check totaling $177.66 without tip.
Britt wound up paying the bill since Sahagian said he forgot the campaign’s credit card. Two days later, Britt texted Sahagian a photo of the receipt as an invoice, but Sahagian said he forgot about making reimbursement until The Providence Journal reported on the lunch in June 2023. Britt was reimbursed the next day.
In its report, the Ethics Commission found that McKee was potentially liable for an ethics violation since the value of his lunch exceeded a $25 limit on gifts from interested persons. But since McKee’s underlying behavior was not “knowing and willful,” the commission ruled there was not a violation.
“There is no evidence that McKee was aware that Britt had paid the check, or that he should have been aware of such payment, until it was reported in the media five months later,” the commission report said, adding that McKee’s “conduct relative to the lunch and the payment of the check appears to have been reasonable under the circumstances.”
In a statement, McKee said the complaint filed by GOP Chairman Joe Powers was politically motivated.
“The current leadership of the Rhode Island Republican Party is irresponsible and not reflective of the Republican leaders that I have worked with over the years,” McKee said. “They showed their lack of leadership by using the Ethics Commission to pursue their own political agenda. This stunt was a waste of taxpayer resources, but it has not hindered the work of our office.”
GOP Chairman Joe Powers, who filed the complaint, called the decision disappointing.
“Regardless of the Ethics Commission’s decision, what occurred to Scout was an embarrassment,” Powers said in a statement. “Because Scout and its team wanted to do business in Rhode Island, they felt the need to hire a lobbyist, give donations to McKee, learn that their lobbyist paid for McKee’s lunch, and then experience a gift-grabbing spree by McKee administration officials in Philadelphia. To do business in Rhode Island, you should not need to go through this.”
Efforts to redevelop the long-dormant Cranston Street Armory continue to languish. McKee announced last July that the state was ending its predevelopment agreement with Scout.
John Marion, executive director of the non-partisan good government group Common Cause of Rhode Island, told reporters after the commission’s meeting that he thinks citizens should consider McKee’s behavior in the Capital Grille episode disappointing.
“The Ethics Commission was following the law as they see it,” Marion said. “The governor, on the other hand, was having lunch with lobbyists expecting a check at the end of the lunch, which, really, even if it’s legal, isn’t how people think government should work.”
Following the recent scrapping of a complaint aimed at House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, the decision marks the second recent case in which the state GOP has struck out in alleging an ethics violation against a powerful Democrat.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@thepublicsradio.org.
