Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau is asking the state’s ethics commission to investigate whether a Republican colleague violated confidentiality laws when she aired concerns to the media about a possible conflict of interest over Fecteau’s new job.
Fecteau, D-Biddeford, was hired in July to lead the Biddeford Housing Authority.
Just days later, Assistant House Republican Leader Katrina Smith, R-Palermo, filed a letter with the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices seeking “an independent review of the legal and ethical boundaries governing this arrangement” of Fecteau’s roles in the housing authority and Legislature.
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The commission investigates campaign finance violations, conflicts of interest and legislative ethics complaints under state law.
Fecteau, who previously worked for Avesta Housing, has long been a champion of statewide housing policy reform.
The commission told Fecteau on July 8 that there was no conflict of interest — the same day Smith asked the commission to investigate the issue, coincidentally.
The next day, the contents of Smith’s letter were shared in articles by the Biddeford Buzz and the Maine Wire, both online news organizations. The Biddeford Buzz published the full letter.
In her letter, Smith said she recognized that lawmakers have jobs outside the statehouse and that she didn’t presume Fecteau had violated any rules.
“However, the nature of this position, the interests of a municipal housing authority and the speaker’s unique authority within the legislative process raises serious questions that I believe warrant review,” she wrote in her letter.
Ultimately, the commission decided not to move forward with Smith’s request because they would need to meet in executive session given the “sensitivity of the issues involved.” However, the commission may not have the statutory authority to consider requests for advisory opinions in executive session.
Now, scrutiny is turning to Smith and whether her letter was a request for “advisory guidance,” as she maintains, or a formal complaint, which Fecteau and his attorney allege.
That’s an important distinction that will be at the heart of the discussion during Wednesday’s commission meeting.
According to statute, when a person files a legislative ethics complaint, the matter is confidential unless the commission decides to pursue the complaint.
Sharing the complaint publicly before it’s taken up by the commission (in this case sending it to local media outlets) is considered a violation of state law and is a Class D crime.
The advisory opinion process, in which a legislator seeks guidance from the commission on an issue involving questions of possible ethics violations, is public.
If the commission decides the letter was a request for guidance, the confidentiality clause does not apply and the matter is effectively settled. If it decides it was a complaint, the commission could decide to open an investigation and/or host a hearing.
In a memo to commissioners this month, Jonathan Wayne, executive director, said he initially regarded the letter as a complaint, partly because most legislator requests are seeking an opinion regarding their own conduct.
“In practice, we do not typically receive a request for advisory guidance from legislators about another legislator’s conduct,” he said.
Believing the letter to be a complaint, Wayne said he told Smith more than once to keep it confidential. She later clarified that it was “not intended to initiate a complaint proceeding.”
Wayne said he then realized the letter was “open to interpretation” and that he “overstepped” by assuming.
Fecteau, however, believes the letter was a clear violation of state law and asked the commission to refer Smith to the Office of the Maine the Attorney General.
“Rep. Smith did not simply mistakenly disclose her allegations to a staff member or friend,” Fecteau’s attorney, Kate Knox, wrote in a letter to Wayne. “She knowingly and with purpose shared her allegations with at least one member of the media — knowing that her action could (and did) result in news stories questioning the integrity and judgment of Speaker Fecteau.”
This, she said, is the very thing the statute is trying to prevent — “unadjudicated allegations against a high-profile legislator being used to publicly smear their reputation.”