Conflicts of Interest?

Conflict of Interest - Maine State Legislature
Title 1 MRSA §1014 lists several activities constituting a conflict of interest to help define ethical standards and to identify areas of real or apparent impropriety that are to be avoided. These are examples and should not be considered an exhaustive list. The section also identifies various situations of apparent “undue influence” and “abuse of office or position” where a conflict of interest is presumed.  The law defines a conflict of interest to exist where a legislator or a member of that legislator's immediate family:

• Has or acquires a strong and direct financial interest in a business, or derives a direct financial benefit from an association with a person with a direct financial interest in a business that the legislator knows will be benefited by a proposed law;

• Accepts gifts (excluding duly reported campaign contributions) from someone whose personal or business interests are likely to be affected by a proposed law, if the legislator knows or should know that the reason for the gift was to influence the legislator’s vote or to reward the legislator’s action; 

• Receives compensation not authorized by law for the legislator's assistance and services as a legislator, or for appearing on behalf of someone with a claim pending before the Legislature;

• Takes a job where there is a strong possibility that the job was given to the legislator or a family member to influence the legislator’s vote; or 

• Would receive special benefit in the legislator's business or profession under proposed legislation.  Under the law, a conflict of interest is presumed when a legislator:

• Receives compensation for representing someone before a state agency (except as a lawyer or other professional, acting within the scope of that legislator's employment);

• Represents someone selling goods or services to the State when the sales did not occur according to competitive bidding practices; or the legislator or a family member has a direct financial interest in a contract for goods and services with the State that was not subject to competitive bidding;

• Grants or obtains a special privilege for self or family by use of the legislator’s position; or

• Uses or discloses confidential information obtained because of office or position for the benefit of that legislator or someone else.  If a conflict of interest exists, State law explicitly declares that the legislator must not “vote on any question in connection with the conflict in committee or in either branch of the Legislature, and shall not attempt to influence the outcome of that question.” (1 MRSA §1015, sub-§1) 

http://www.maine.gov/legis/senate/Students/student_questions-3.htm

Jon Hinck, Alex Cornell du Houx and Stacey Fitts - three of the 12 members (25%) of the Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology.

The following is the definition of Conflict of Interest from the Maine Government website:

"The Legislative Ethics Law lists several situations involving a conflict of interest. These include situations in which a Legislator or a member of the Legislator’s immediate family has a unique and distinct interest in legislation, or accepts or engages in employment that could impair the Legislator’s judgment. In some cases, a conflict can exist if the employer or client of a Legislator — or another person or organization in close economic association with the Legislator — has a direct financial interest in legislation."

Jon Hinck is married to Juliet Browne who is a lawyer and partner at Verill Dana whose main practice deals with the defense of wind power companies .She has been extremely busy in the past few years representing wind developers on the local level, before Maine DEP ,and LURC and defending the companies in numerous appeals and lawsuits . She has represented First Wind, TransCanada and Independence Wind and is quite possibly the wind industry’s leading attorney in Maine.

Alex Cornell du Houx, an avid supporter of wind power, is the outreach coordinator of the Truman National Security Project. This organization states a deep philosophical belief that climate change is a national security threat. On that subject one of their position papers includes the following statement concerning the threat of climate change to our country’s national security, "Even if you do not have complete information, you still need to take action! Waiting for 100% certainty during a crisis can be disastrous." That sounds awfully like, “Shoot first then ask questions “. A sister organization of the Truman National Security Project is Operation Free, where Mr. Du Houx serves as Campaign Director. Operation Free lists as its first core motivational principal “get America running on clean energy”. In fact, the organization’s logo prominently features industrial wind turbines.

Stacey Fitts, co-chair of the Joint Standing Committee on
Energy, Utilities and Technology, works for Kleinschmidt Associates, an engineering, licensing, environmental service firm offering specialized technical services to the renewable industry. Attached to this email is some information regarding that firm. Kleinschmidt’s wind focus is primarily off -shore wind power, but the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee makes decisions on offshore wind and decisions made for offshore wind will benefit onshore, such as anything that helps along large transmission projects. Co-Chair Fitts was quoted in the February 7, 2011 Sun-Journal as saying "Everyone wants to find the conflict, the snake in the grass. But every legislator in the building is conflicted if you were to take that same standard and apply it to everyone else. It’s the nature of being part-time legislators."

But what happens when the legislator’s employer actively approves of its employee’s work as a legislator and perhaps encourages such legislative endeavors to exceed simple part-time work? As can be seen above, Kleinschmidt’s website brazenly boasts, “we have been very active in the development of state regulations in Maine where one of Kleinschmidt’s engineers is a member of the Governor’s Ocean Energy Task Force.