State ethics board Chairman G. Kenneth Bernhard resigned Thursday, saying that the board’s work would be impeded by the continuing controversy and investigation concerning three prohibited campaign contributions he made in 2008 totaling $250.<\/p>\n
Bernhard, a lawyer from Westport, initially said he intended to remain on the board last Friday, after The Courant uncovered the contributions, which ethics board members are prohibited by state law from making. The donations included one for $100 to the exploratory campaign committee of his fellow Republican, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, and two to GOP state legislative candidates — one of them Bernhard’s law partner.<\/p>\n
Bernhard said he was unaware of the prohibition at the time he made the donations, while he was a member of the board but before he became its chairman.<\/p>\n
However, a key legislator said this week he did not find ignorance of the law to be a “credible” excuse — not for the head of an agency that was created in 2005 to set high ethical standards for public servants, and to redeem citizens’ faith in the agency after the string of highly-publicized problems that destroyed the old State Ethics Commission. The old ethics agency imploded amid bitter internal conflicts — including a staff lawyer concocting a phony letter to make anonymous allegations against her boss, then-state ethics director Alan Plofsky — after the corruption scandal surrounding ex-Gov. John G. Rowland in 2004. <\/p>\n
On Thursday morning, after reading a couple days’ news coverage — including a highly critical Courant editorial — Bernhard e-mailed a letter resigning from the unsalaried but influential position: “I have had a few days to consider recent events with regard to my continuing to serve as Chairman of the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board. It is apparent that my service will be a distraction to the important work that the Board does for the people of our state and I cannot permit that to happen.”<\/p>\n
“Accordingly, it is with considerable regret that I am hereby submitting, effective immediately, my resignation from the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board,” Bernhard wrote to Carol Carson, executive director of the Office of State Ethics, and to the board’s vice chairman, Thomas Dooley. “It has been my great honor to have worked with you, the other members of the Advisory Board, and the professional staff in service to the State of Connecticut.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Carson said the newly begun ethics investigation inito Bernhard’s donations will run its course. Bernhard, a former Republican state representative who was appointed to the board in January 2008, has said he expects to be fined for the violations that he called “technical” and “inadvertent.”<\/p>\n
Bernhard wrote a letter a few days ago the legislative committee that oversees ethics, saying “it was technically a violation but it was not conduct which can be characterized as unethical.”<\/p>\n
That was unconvincing to the committee’s vice-chairman, state Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford who said: “His defense for his violation was ignorance of the law, and I didn’t find that credible. I don’t think he takes his position very seriously, and that’s a major reason for my thinking he ought to resign.”<\/p>\n
In an interview Thursday afternoon, Bernhard explained his position further — acknowledging again that he shouldn’t have made the contributions, but saying he believes they should be kept in context.<\/p>\n
“The rule that I broke was meant to avoid conflicts of interest,” he said. “It was not intended to define ethics. And at no point was I ever presented with a conflict of interest.” Such a potential conflict would have arisen if the ethics agency was considering a case against one of the people he had donated to, he said — but, if it did, he said that he easily could have dealt with it by recusing himself — disqualifying himself, that is — from handling the matter.<\/p>\n
“The contributions were made with full disclosure, and full compliance with the electoral laws — and I broke a rule that was intended to avoid a conflict which could have easily been remedied if it had materialized by recusing myself.”<\/p>\n
A big factor in his decision to change his mind and quit, he said, was “the news coverage” — particularly the editorial — which he said “was assailing and attacking an agency that and the professionals who run it in a way that they couldn’t do the important work we pay them to do. Rather than keep the story that really had no additional facts but just more spin alive, and harming the agency, I thought it best to remove myself from the situation.”<\/p>\n
Bernhard also is one of Rell’s appointees on the state’s Judicial Review Council, which investigates complaints of misconduct by judges “in order to promote public confidence in the courts.” He said Thursday he doesn’t see why his ethics board resignation would affect his continued service on the judicial council.<\/p>\n
“I thoughly enjoy public service. I don’t get paid for it. It takes a great deal of my time. I think I make a valuable contribution. I am fair and balanced in my judgment, and I like to think that I am an asset to the body that I am associated with,” he said. “What happened in 2008 — making a political contribution to a friend — doesn’t seem to me to bear in any way on my ability to continue to serve ably, honestly, and effectively the interests of the State of Connecticut.”<\/p>\n
The governor’s office had no immediate comment Thursday.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the ethics board met in a special session and appointed a three-member subcommittee of its members to investigate Bernhard’s campaign contribution violations and decide what sanctions may be imposed. Members talked of hiring an outside lawyer to conduct the inquiry, to avoid any questions of bias relating to their personal relationships with Bernhard. A person can be fined up to $10,000 for each violation of the state ethics code.<\/p>\n
With Bernhard’s departure, the nine-member Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board — which oversees the operations of the Office of State Ethics — now three of its seats vacant. It needs six members to reach a quorum required to meet. So, until Bernhard and two other members are replaced, it will need perfect attendance to hold a meeting.<\/p>\n
Carson, who runs the ethics office, had recommended last Friday that Bernhard resign for the good of the agency, but he initially resisted. Thursday morning, she responded to his resignation e-mail with this e-mailed message: “The state is losing a dedicated servant. I’m so sorry that this had to end this way.”<\/p>\n
Carson later had the ethics office issue a press release praising Bernhard. It said: “Mr. Bernhard was first a member, then chairman of the board during a time of great progress, as the [Office of State Ethics] ceased being a new agency in formation, and demonstrated substantive results in all areas of its mission: education, interpretation, enforcement and transparency. Mr. Bernhard’s contributions as both a member and chairman of the Board were valuable.”<\/p>\n
The release said that Dooley, of Vernon, will act as chairman and the board will ” take up the matter of reorganization” at its March 25 meeting.<\/p>\n
After Bernhard’s resignation, state Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy issued a statement defending him Thursday afternoon. Healy said: “Ken Bernhard is a good, honest man who is walking the plank for a corrupt system called the state Ethics Commission. While union members can work in the shadows while serving on state boards without revealing their in-kind donations, Ken Bernhard resigns for making an honest mistake that had no material impact on his ability to do his unpaid job.”<\/p>\n
Healy added: “How do small contributions, which were reported for the world to see, unethical when others can donate time, resources and labor without disclosure while serving on important decision-making commissions – like the state Judicial Review Board?”<\/p>\n
“Does anyone who knows Ken Bernhard think he willfully violated the law, put his law license at risk over a few hundred dollars?” Healy said. “It’s total poppycock!”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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