"There should be no lack of clarity that public office cannot be used for private gain."
Luke Bronin
Hartford city Treasurer Adam Cloud has apologized for using his public email to steer private investment to a now off-the-air golf network, but the episode has brought a new focus on the question of ethics.
Although Cloud’s email to a private equity investor may not have violated the city’s ethics code, its Ethics Commission is taking the matter up later this month. A state official is again calling for a statewide code of municipal ethics that would apply to public officials in every city and town. And Hartford mayoral hopefuls are calling for the code itself to be reviewed and strengthened.
Luke Bronin is the Democratic candidate for mayor, having beaten Mayor Pedro Segarra in a primary last month. He said he’s spoken with Cloud -- who is running for re-election -- and believes his apology is sincere. But Bronin also said that appearances matter.
“I believe that you shouldn’t be able to use your official position in any way to benefit any family member, and I think it’s important that the municipal ethics code clearly state that,” Bronin said. “There should be no lack of clarity that public office cannot be used for private gain. I’m going to take a close look at the existing code.”
"Continuing ethics violations across municipalities really cry out for the legislature to take action."
Carol Carson
To be clear, while Cloud has apologized for using his city email for a private concern, he has not apologized for the fact that the company -- the Back9Network -- did business with his family at the time. His attorney, John Droney, said Cloud is being unfairly targeted.
“I think this is a witch hunt, I think it’s unfair, and I don’t believe that the Ethics Commission has any jurisdiction to investigate Adam Cloud for what has happened here,” Droney said, adding that he’s fine with making the city ethics code match the state one. He’s also fine with a statewide municipal ethics code.
“I think that’s great, too,” Droney said. “But leave Adam Cloud out of this. How many times does he have to apologize and ask to move on?”
WNPR reported last week that Cloud used his city email to reach out to Robert Smith, who runs Vista Equity Partners. After starting his email with city business, Cloud then switched gears and wrote about the Back9Network.
“Back 9 plans to become the premium lifestyle and entertainment network for golf fans globally,” Cloud wrote. “The margins are in the 60% range, well short of Vista's but compelling nonetheless. I share it with you only because I get the sense that you are a man that likes to be on the ground floor of great ideas!”
The email raised a question of ethics: should a city treasurer use his public email to encourage investment in a company doing business with close relatives?
The city’s ethics code prohibits conflicts of interest. That means a public official’s family can’t receive financial or personal gain from “any matter under consideration before the individual in the individual’s official capacity.”
"We just have too much of gray areas in the city of Hartford."
Joel Cruz
But that’s not what happened in Cloud’s case. As a result, Karen Hobert Flynn, a national leader for the advocacy organization Common Cause, said Cloud’s behavior likely didn’t violate the city’s ethics code. But it would have violated the state ethics code, were Cloud a state official. And that gets to this question: Why isn’t there a baseline code of ethics for all town, city, and state public officials?
Carol Carson thinks there should be. She’s the executive director of the Connecticut Office of State Ethics.
“I think that the continuing corruption, the continuing ethics violations that you’re seeing across municipalities really cry out for the legislature to take action, to create a single statute that will work for municipalities but that will create that baseline,” Carson said.
Carson said that the state’s Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board recently made a statewide municipal code of ethics one of its top priorities. It hoped such a code would serve as a template.
“It would address gifts, it would address nepotism, it would address side switching and moonlighting and revolving door or post employment issues,” said Carson, noting that it wouldn’t require financial disclosures from municipal officials. “It would also address public officials using their position or office for personal gain...And it would be the same across the municipalities. The rules would It would be the same in Hartford as they would be in New Hartford. They’d be the same in Groton and they would be the same in Litchfield.”
It’s an idea that’s been around since the 1990s, Carson said. But the legislature hasn’t been interested in moving forward. A bill to establish the code went nowhere last year. One reason that organizations like the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities fear a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
Leo Paul, Litchfield’s first selectman and a CCM board member, said he fears giving state lawmakers even more authority to regulate towns and cities.
“I don’t need the legislature to dictate to Litchfield on what we believe our ethics code should or should not be,” Paul said. “Because it could become so onerous that many of our volunteers who serve in our community and are the backbone of our community would not be willing to serve.”
And he said that just because someone in one town crosses an ethical line doesn’t mean that unethical things are is happening in town halls statewide.
“That does not mean that that’s happening in Simsbury, it doesn’t mean that it’s happening in East Hartford, it doesn’t mean that it’s happened in Willington or Goshen or pick a town anywhere in the state,” Paul said. “That’s not an indication that it’s happened everywhere in the state.”
Meanwhile, in Hartford, another mayoral candidate said that aligning the city’s ethics code to match the state’s would be a good first step.
“If we could make it look and read the same way the state code spells it out, then let’s do it,” said Joel Cruz, a city councilman who is running as an unaffiliated candidate for mayor. “Because it’s clear and there is no gray areas. And we just have too much of gray areas in the city of Hartford.”
When it comes to Treasurer Cloud, his attorney said there’s no gray area at all. His conduct didn’t violate the city’s ethics code. And it’s his expectation that Ethics Commission will find as much when it meets to consider his case.
