Change Your Plans, Mr. Chairman
The leader of the state’s ethics agency has pronounced the nature, verdict and sentence on his own astonishing violation of the state’s ethics laws. G. Kenneth Bernhard, chairman of the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board, says he “technically violated” the state’s ethics rules by making $250 in political contributions to three candidates for state office since joining the board in January 2008.
Bernhard attempts to minimize his violations of the ethics code by creating three categories of breaches, “inadvertent,” “technical,” and “classic.” He expects to pay a fine. In his statement to the Courant, Bernhard even sets out what the investigation of his violations will entail.
He has no plans to resign. That ought to change. The state’s ethics agency, regrettably, has been a hive of embarrassments in recent years, including a staff attorney assuming the identity of a parking lot attendant and penning a letter accusing the then-executive director of various misdoings.
The state’s ethics agency cannot endure more perturbations. Before Bernhard departs, however, he ought to disclose if that $100 contribution to the Rell’s exploratory committee was spontaneous or solicited by the Ethics Governor.
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