Ethics board aims small
By Jessica Van Sack and Dave Wedge
Thursday, June 4, 2009
State ethics officials have ignored Beacon Hill big fish like former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and ex-Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, loading up instead on petty pinches of small-fry pols and public officials, a Herald review shows.
In the past 12 months alone, the feds indicted Wilkerson in an alleged bra-stuffing bribery scandal and a grand jury this week charged former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi with allegedly taking $57,000 in kickbacks in return for steering state contracts to a politically wired software firm.
During that time, the State Ethics Commission failed to sanction a single lawmaker, and instead took the following actions:
• Fined a Marlboro municipal office assistant $5,000 for signing off on a state loan document for her fiance.
• Fined a Westminster conservation official $2,000 for ruling on a deal in which her husband had a financial stake.
• Fined a Gloucester school committee member $2,000 for intervening in a dispute between her teacher son and an administrator.
• Charged an Abington board of health member with using her position to score a free tattoo. The charges were dropped after she told the commission she in fact had no tattoos.
• Fined an Agawam city councilor for suggesting a business take down a political sign.
The Ethics Commission can launch its own probes, according to its Web site, but investigations are rarely undertaken unless a complaint is filed by the public.
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