Editor’s note: For the second day in a row, the executive director of a Vermont commission has come under fire in the Legislature. Yesterday, lawmakers questioned statements by Vermont Commission on Women Executive Director Cary Brown that women can throw baseballs as fast as major league baseball pitchers while also refusing to answer the question, ‘What is a woman?’ Today, Christina Sivret is the Executive Director of Vermont State Ethics Commission, is criticized for failing to provide direction on how to fill out campaign finance forms.

by Paul Dame

When I first saw that there was a proposal to suspend the financial disclosure provision of state law for just this election, my first question was whether Aly Richards had some lobbying income she was trying to avoid reporting, or Molly Gray had some USAID income that might be politically damaging. But based on yesterday’s testimony it seems like there is a more severe dysfunction at work.

There seems to be a turf battle between the Ethics Commission and the Secretary of State’s office about the financial disclosure document that candidates are required to complete upon filing. This is an issue that should have been settled months ago, and yet here we are with some candidates ready to file and Monday, and there is no publicly available document for them to even review, let alone complete and submit.

Statute seems pretty clear that the Ethics Commission is responsible for creating the form and making it available to candidates. Unless something changes in the next few days, the State Ethics Commission, ironically, will be in violation of state law. If the Ethics Commission cannot follow a simple state statute with the staff they have, then they should fire their executive director and hire someone who can meet simple deadlines like this. The Secretary of State’s office seems willing to help direct candidates to the financial disclosure form, but the Ethics Commission has not produced a publicly consumable version of it yet.

While both the Ethics Commission and the Secretary of State’s office both indicate that they do not have the staff or resources to answer questions about the financial form, there is no excuse for not making the form available before candidates start filing on Monday. Yesterday’s testimony from the Ethics Commission indicated they see their primary purpose as education to prevent ethics violations. It seems like answering questions before candidates even complete the form is the most “upstream” kind of education they could provide, and they either need to take responsibility for it – or make the form so simple and clear that the average person will be able to understand it.

Finally, it is alarming and irresponsible for the Ethics Commission to have testified publicly yesterday that they do not have staff to enforce this provision of law. If there is not going to be enforcement, it does beg the question what is the purpose of the law, and why should anyone follow it. If the Ethics Commission isn’t going to provide upfront guidance about the form, and they are not going to enforce it, why are they demanding that every-day Vermonters who want to serve in the legislature make public details of their private financial positions?”

House Government Operations will continue taking testimony on s.298 Thursday morning.