Waivers from state ethics laws on the decline

Indiana government leaders are putting the brakes on letting state employees take related jobs in the private sector before a one-year cooling-off period has expired.

Waivers to that ethics requirement have sharply declined, state records show, and could decline more now that the Indiana General Assembly adopted a new approval process during this year’s legislative session.

Waivers for executive branch employees averaged a little more than 10 a year over the past decade. But in the first half of this year, only one was granted.

The drop occurred in the aftermath of an Indianapolis Star investigation that examined the waiver process. The investigation revealed efforts by Troy Woodruff, then-Indiana Department of Transportation chief of staff, to skirt the one-year cooling-off period to take a job with an engineering firm that he had helped award $500,000 worth of state work.

When the state suggested it would not grant him a waiver, he exercised a loophole that allows employees to work as consultants rather than as employees. The new rules would prevent such consulting work.

Gov. Mike Pence sought to rein in waivers in 2013 by advising department heads to run them through his office. This year, the General Assembly also tightened the process by requiring all waivers to go before the Indiana State Ethics Commission for a public airing. The legislature’s reforms kicked in July 1.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, a key architect of ethics reforms, said waivers now face more review.

“One small measure of that is the fact that these kinds of secret waivers that were happening have decreased because they require public scrutiny now,” said Bosma, an Indianapolis Republican.

Before the law changed, department heads had wide discretion in determining whether to lift restrictions. But during this year’s legislative session, lawmakers reduced that power and required a proposed waiver to go before the Ethics Commission for approval.

Under the old process, a department head choosing to approve a waiver simply filed a letter with the Ethics Commission explaining why those restrictions were lifted.

State Inspector General Cynthia Carrasco declined to speculate on why the number of waivers has dropped.

Bosma said he thinks lawmakers were clear that they “expected a different standard and closer scrutiny” on waivers when they adopted the reforms.

The waivers can deal with a variety of ethical considerations but often lift the one-year cooling-off period between the time employees leave the state’s employment and when they can take a job with a private company whose state contracts they had administered or negotiated or had other decision-making powers over.

A waiver has yet to be filed under the new rules adopted by the legislature. The one filed with the Ethics Commission this year was received in June.

Julia Vaughn, policy director of Common Cause Indiana, said she hoped the reforms sent a message to state department heads.

“I guess my fear is that, you know, are there people who should be seeking opinions who aren’t?” Vaughn said. “I think past evidence has shown there’s been a wide array of ways to comply with this. Some people have been very careful to seek guidance. Others have gone on their way and not sought any sort of advice.”

A leading Democratic lawmaker on ethics issues agreed with Bosma in saying the increased scrutiny is working.

“We’ve gone through a period where if there was not an ethics violation, it was very close to an ethics violation,” said state Rep. Clyde Kersey, D-Terre Haute, “and I think we need to make sure that everything is transparent and what has happened is according to the law.”

Star reporter Tony Cook contributed to this story.

Call Star reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @indystarchelsea.