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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1769 SimsPHONE: 717-783-1610 STATE ETHICS COMMISSION TOLL FREE: 1-800-932-0936 FINANCE BUILDING 613 NORTH STREET, ROOM 309 HARRISBURG, PA 17120-0400 In Re: The Honorable Brian K. Sims, File Docket: Respondent. X-ref: Date Decided: Date Mailed: FACSIMILE: 717-787-0806 WEBSITE: WWW.ethics. a. ov 17-003 Order No. 1769 1 /22/20 1 /31 /20 Before: Nicholas A. Colafella, Chair Mark R. Corrigan, Vice Chair Roger Nick Melanie DePalma Michael A. Schwartz Shelley Y. Simms This is a final adjudication of the State Ethics Commission. Procedurally, the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission conducted an investigation regarding possible violation(s) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., by the above -named Respondent. At the commencement of its investigation, the Investigative Division served upon Respondent written notice of the specific allegations. Upon completion of its investigation, the Investi ative Division issued and served upon Respondent a Findings Report identified as an "investigative Complaint." An Answer was filed and a hearing was held. The record is complete. ALLEGATIONS: That Brian K. Sims, a public official/public employee in his capacity as a Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 182"d District, violated Sections 1103(a), 1103(d), 1104(a , 1104(d), 1105((b)(5), 1105(b (7), and 1105(b)(8 of the State Ethics Act (Act 93 of 1998 , 65 Pat& §§ 1103(a), 1103�d), 1104(a), 1104(d)), 1105(b)(5), 1105(b)(7), and 1105(b)( ), when he solicited and/or accepted honorarium in association with appearances/presentations/speeches; when he utilized staff, office space, equipment and materials of his Legislative District Office and/or his Capitol Office to coordinate, confirm, finalize, etc. appearances/presentations/speeches, resulting in his receipt of payment and/or honorarium; and when he intentionally filed deficient Statements of Financial Interests for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 calendar years, by failing to disclose the names and addresses of any and all direct or indirect sources of income totaling in the aggregate $1,300 or more; when he failed to disclose any and all names, addresses, sources, and amounts received for transportation, lodging, and hospitality received in connection with his public office or employment; and when he failed to disclose anv and all offices, directorships or employment of any nature whatsoever in any business entity. 11. FINDINGS: A. Stipulations 1. The Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission received a signed, sworn complaint alleging that Brian K. Sims violated provisions of the State Ethics Act (Act 93 of 1998). Sires, 17-003 Page 2 2. Upon review of the complaint the Investigative Division initiated a preliminary inquiry on February 1, 2017. 3. The preliminary inquiry was completed within sixty days. a. The Commission, through the Executive Director, initiated a full investigation on March 31, 2017. 4. On March 31, 2017, a letter was forwarded to The Honorable Brian K. Sims, by the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission, informing him that a complaint against him was received by the Investigative Division and that a full investigation was being commenced. a. Said letter was forwarded by certified mail, no. 7011 0470 0002 7996 6267. b. The domestic return receipt bore an illegible signature with no delivery date. 5. As is permitted pursuant to 65 Pa.C.S. § 1108(c), on July 6, 2017, the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission filed an application for a ninety -day extension of time to complete the Investigation. 6. The Commission issued an order on July 27, 2017, granting the ninety -day extension. 7. As is permitted pursuant to 65 Pa.C.S. § 1108(c), on September 25, 2017, the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission filed an application for a second ninety -day extension of time to complete the Investigation. 8. The Commission issued an order on September 27, 2017, granting the ninety -day extension. 9. On October 10, 2017, an amended Notice of Investigation was forwarded to The Honorable Brian K. Sims, c/o Nora Winkelman, Chief Counsel, by the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission informing him that the allegations contained in the March 31, 2017, Notice of Investigation were being amended. a. Said letter was personally served upon The Honorable Brian K. Sims, c/o Nora Winkelman, via hand delivery on October 10, 2017. 10. Periodic notice letters were forwarded to The Honorable Brian K. Sims, c/o Nora Winkelman, Chief Counsel at least every ninety days in accordance with the provisions of the Ethics Act advising him of the general status of the investigation. (See 65 Pa.C.S. § 1108(c)). 11. The Investigative Complaint/Findings Report was mailed to the Respondent on March 26, 2018. a. The Investigative Complaint/Findings Report was issued within 360 days of the initiation of a full investigation (see 65 Pa.C.S. § 1108(c)). 12. Brian K. Sims has served as a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as a Representative of the 182nd District of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since December 1, 2012. a. Sims' District covers portions of the City of Philadelphia. 13. Members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly are permitted to maintain district offices, in addition to the offices at the main capitol. Sims, 17-003 1 e3 a. The Rules of the House of Representatives provide that allowable expenses include rent for legislative office space and equipment, including telephones and other office equipment. 14. Since his election to public office in November 2012, Sims has maintained a legislative district office at the following addresses: 21 S. 12th St., Suite 182 Philadelphia, PA 19107 1015 Chestnut Street, Suite 1101 Philadelphia, PA 19107 a. The district office includes office equipment for use in conducting legislative business such as computers, telephones, fax machine, and copier. b. The telephone number for the district office is (215) 246-1501. 15. The General Operating Rules of the House of Representatives, Rule 14, permits expenses for the hiring of administrative, clerical and professional personnel. 16. Following Sims' election to public office, Sims hired and/or was assigned personnel (Legislative Assistants) who staffed his District and Harrisburg Offices. 17. Between 2013 and 2016, the following employees have worked for Sims as Legislative Assistants: 2013 Name Salary Location Anna L. Aagenes $49,000.12 Philadelphia Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $32,500.00 Philadelphia Mason B. Lane $59,500.22 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $68,214,00 104A EW, Harrisburg Jamie Barton $38,948.00 104EW, Harrisburg 2014 Name Salary Anna L. Aagenes $49,000.12 Philadelphia Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $32,500.00 Philadelphia Mason B. Lane $59,500.22 Philadelphia Sarah A. Rabot $18,500.00 Philadelphia Bernard A. Williams, Jr. $13,000.00 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $68,214.00 104A EW, Harrisburg 2015 Name Salary Anna L. Aagenes $50,232.00 Philadelphia Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $43,564.04 Philadelphia Sims, 17-003 4 Mason B. Lane $60,996,00 Philadelphia Sarah A. Rabot $40,000.22 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $69,940.00 104A EW, Harrisburg Shannon P. McLaughlin $19,332.56 Philadelphia 2016 Name Salary Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $55,016.00 Philadelphia Mason B. Lane $60,996.00 Philadelphia Sarah A. Rabot $40,000.22 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $71,708.00 104A EW, Harrisburg Shane M. Benz $19,332.56 Philadelphia Abby E. Rambo $43,004.00 Philadelphia Kali M. Brink $40,014.00 Philadelphia 18. General Operating Rules of the House of Representatives, Rule 1 E, contains the following definitions: a. "House employee." The term includes the following: (1) A person employed by the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the House Republican Caucus or the House Democratic Caucus. (2) Except as otherwise precluded by law, an officer of the House or a person employed by an officer of the House. b. "House office." Legislative offices and work spaces, including: (1) An office assigned to a Member for the conduct of legislative duties, wherever located. (2) House conference or meeting rooms located in the Capitol complex. (3) A legislative district office. (4) The offices of an officer of the House. C. "House resources." House -owned or House -leased equipment including telephones, computer hardware or software, copiers, scanners, fax machines, file cabinets or other office furniture, cell phones, personal digital assistants or similar electronic devices, and office supplies. d. "House work time." Compensated time spent in the performance of duties by a House employee. 19. General Operating Rules of the House of Representatives, Rule 2 E (1) provides that "[n]o campaign activity may be conducted by a House employee on House work time. No campaign activity may be conducted in a House office or with House resources or House funds. Sims, 17-003 T e5 20. Rule 2 E (1)(f) provides that: De minimis campaign activities may be unavoidable for a Member or House employee in the course of their official duties and shall not be considered a violation of these ethical conduct rules. This includes the following activities: (i) A Member or House employee may, in responding to inquiries from the public, need to address incidental questions that relate to a Member's or another person's campaign or a related legislative record. (ii) A Member or House employee may provide scheduling assistance and information to campaign staff to ensure that no conflict occurs among the Member's campaign schedule, official schedule and personal schedule. (iii) A Member or House employee may engage in political conversation in the natural course of personal communication. 21. Rule 2 E 1 onI discusses prohibited campaign activity. The exception found in Rule 2 E _1 (f)(ii�only refers to campaign activity because it is an exception to the prohibited campaign activity in Rule 2 E (1). 22. In or around December 2012, Campus Pride, Inc. began facilitating presentations at institutions around the country on Sims' behalf. a. By January 2015, Sims was no longer affiliated with Campus Pride, Inc. as a Board Member. 23. Campus Pride, Inc.'s mission is to serve LGBTQ and ally student leaders and campus organizations] in the areas of leadership development, support programs and services to create safer, more inclusive LGBIWriendly colleges and universities. a. Shane Windmeyer is the Executive Director. 24. Between 2013 and 2015, Sims made appearances (through Campus Pride) and/or delivered speeches at the following universities. College/University University of Pittsburgh James Madison -University UCLA Fort Hays State University Date of Speaking Event March 28, 2013 April 11, 2013 April 19, 2013 October 17, 2013 25. In addition to arranging speaking engagements through Campus Pride, Inc., Sims also coordinated speaking arrangements outside of Campus Pride, Inc. 26. Sims advised interested organizations/schools that he maintained a nonexclusive arrangement with Campus Pride, Inc. to serve as a paid speaker and that they could discuss the arrangements for his presentation directly with Sims. 27. Between 2013 and 2017, Brian Sims received the following amounts from the following entities for appearances/speeches: Sims, 17-003 'f a 6 Date of organization/College Payment Presentation 3/21/2013 Old Dominion University $2,500 plus travel f Lodging 3/26/2013 Amherst College $2,600.00 3/28/2013 University of Pittsburgh Rainbow Alliance* $4,000.00 4/11/2013 James Madison University* $4,000.00 4/19/2013 UCLA Associated Students* $2,650.00 6/20/2013 CNA Continental Casualty Insurance $2,500.00 9127/2013 Millersville University $1,000.00 10/9/2013 Chatham University $1,250.00 10117/2013 Fort Hays State University* $4,750.00 + Hotel, plus travel Total $25,150.00** 6120 to 6/22/14 New Orleans Pride Festival $500.00 plus expenses Total $500.00 1/2112015 Northern Michigan University* $6,680.00 4/9/2015 James Madison University $5,020.00 4/11/2015 Bloomsburg University, Lavender Graduation $750.00 4/1612015 Raritan Valley Community College $3,000.00 4/28/2015 Gettysburg College $500.00 5/20/2015 Wawa, Inc. $2,500.00 8/30/2015 York College $2,000.00 10122/2015 University of Delaware, Haven $2,500.00 Total $22,950.00 3/17/2016 Indiana University Southeast $5,850.00 8/2812016 York College $2,000.00 9/15/2016 Bucknell University $2,000.00 9/22/2016 Rutgers University $3,000.00 10/16/2016 Penn State University - Dubois $1,000.00 10/13/2016 University of New England $2,926.00 Total $16,776.00 2/16/2017 Old Dominion University $2,750.00 4/13/2017 University of Houston, Alumni Association $2,500.00 4/2012017 University of Colorado $3,700.00 Total $8,950.00 *Sims received these payments from Campus Pride, Inc. Sims 17-003 7 *Isic]. [There is a minor mathematical discrepancy in this calculation; the stipulated sum shall apply.] 28. For some of the events referenced above, Sims received no separate amounts designated for travel, food, or lodging costs associated with his appearance/speaking at the events. 29. On October 9, 2013, Sims made an appearance/speaking event at Chatham University located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 30. Chatham University issued Sims a 2013 Form 1099 accounting for the $1,250.00 payment he received. 31. On September 27, 2013, Brian Sims spoke at Millersville University, a public university of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 32. A 2013 Form 1099 was issued to Sims, identifying the non -employee payment made to him in the amount of $1,000.00. 33. On June 20, 2013, Sims spoke at CNA Financial Corporation ("CNA") in Chicago Illinois. 34. CNA paid Sims $2,500.00 for the presentation and additionally paid $318.80 for his airfare. a. Sims did not report the $2,500.00 received from CNA as a directlindirect source of income upon Statements. of Financial Interests filed for calendar year 2013. b. Staff at CNA communicated directly with Sims regarding his travel to Chicago for his presentation on June 20, 2013. C. Sims` presentation on June 20, 2013, was the only instance he presented at CNA. 35. Brian Sims appeared as a speaker at Northern Michigan University in 2015. 36. Sims received $6,680.00 from Campus Pride for speaking at Northern Michigan University in 2015. 37. A 2015 calendar year Form 1099 from Wawa, Inc. listed non -employee compensation in the amount of $2,500.00 for Brian K. Sims for a speaking engagement performed on May 20, 2015. 38. On April 11, 2015, Sims appeared and spoke at the Wh Annual Lavender Graduation held at Bloomsburg University. 39. Sims received a check from Bloomsburg University dated April 21, 2015, in the amount of $750.00. 40. Brian Sims, in his capacity as a public official and Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly as a State Representative, is required to file a Statement of Financial Interests ("SFI") form on an annual basis, reporting amongst other mandated disclosures, financial information for the prior calendar year. a. Sims was first elected as a State Representative in November 2012 and assumed office on December 1, 2012. Sims, 17-003 Fa 8 41. As a Member of the General Assembly, Sims filed Statements of Financial Interests with the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission. 42. Sims was compensated from public funds in the following years as follows: 2013 $83,936.UU 2014 $84123.00 2015 $4 912.00 2016 $84,622.UU 43. The amounts that Sims received from the following entities represent the designated approximate percentages of Sims` public salary for the years in which the appearances occurred: Date of Presentation 3/21/2013 3/26/2013 3/28/2013 4/11 /2013 4/19/2013 6/20/2013 9/27/2013 10/9/2013 10/17/2013 6/20 to 6/22/14 1121 /2015 4/9/2015 4/11/2015 4/16/2015 4/28/2015 5/20/2015 8/30/2015 10/22/2015 OrganizationlCollege Old Dominion University Amherst College University of Pittsburgh Rainbow Alliance James Madison University UCLA Associated Students CNA Continental Casualty Insurance Millersville University Chatham University Fort Hays University New Orleans Pride Festival Northern Michigan University .lames Madison University Bloomsburg University, Lavender Graduation Raritan Valley Community College Gettysburg College Wawa, Inc. York College University of Delaware, Haven 3/17/2016 Indiana University Southeast 8/28/2016 York College 9/15/2016 Bucknell University 9/22/2016 Rutgers University 10/16/2016 Penn State University - Dubois 10/13/2016 University of New England 2/16/2017 Old Dominion University 4/13/2017 University of Houston, Alumni Association 4/20/2017 University of Colorado Percentage of Public Salary 2.9% 2.9% 4.7% 4.7% 3.15% 2.9% 1.19% 1.48% 5.65% 0.59% 7.8% 5.9% 0.88% 3.5% 5.8% 2.9% 2.3% 2.9% 6.9% 2.3% 2.3% 3.5% 1.18% 3.4% 3.2% 2.9% 3.15% Sires, 17-003 i e9 44. Sims does not represent, as a State Legislator, any of the places where any of the presentations referenced above occurred. 45. In evidence as R-01 are summaries tracked in the Constituent Tracking System maintained by the House Democratic Caucus of the number of pieces of casework performed by Sims' legislative staff for each of 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. 46. In evidence as R-02 is a report indicating the number of received and sent emails held in Keller's email account in calendar year 2013 as of the date in 2017 that a litigation hold was placed against the account In connection with this investigation. B. Pleadings 47. On March 31, 2017, a letter was forwarded to The Honorable Brian K. Sims, by the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission, informing him that a complaint against him was received by the Investigative Division and that a full investigation was being commenced. (See 65 Pa. C.S. § 1108(c)). 48. On October 10, 2017, an amended Notice of Investigation was forwarded to The Honorable Brian K. Sims, c/o Nora Winkelman, Chief Counsel, by the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission informing him that the allegations contained in the March 31, 2017, Notice of Investigation were being amended. a. Said letter was personally served upon The Honorable Brian K. Sims, c/o Nora Winkelman, via hand delivery on October 10, 2017. 49. Periodic notice letters were forwarded to The Honorable Brian K. Sims, c/o Nora Winkelman, Chief Counsel at least every ninety days in accordance with the provisions of the Ethics Act advising him of the general status of the investigation. (See 65 Pa. C.S. § 1108(c)). 50. The Investigative ComplaintlFindings Report was issued within 360 days of the initiation of a full investigation (see 65 Pa. C.S. § 1108(c)). 51. Brian K. Sims has served as a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, as a Representative of the 182" d District of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since December 1, 2012. a. Sims' District covers portions of the City of Philadelphia. 52. Sims' district office includes office equipment for use in conducting legislative business such as computers, telephones, fax machine, and copier. a. The telephone number for the district office is (215) 246-1501. 53. Fallowing Sims' election to public office, Sims hired and/or was assigned personnel (Legislative Assistants) who staffed his District and Harrisburg Offices. 54. Between 2013 and 2016, the following employees have worked for Sims as Legislative Assistants: 2013 Name Salary Location Anna L. Aagenes $49,000.12 Philadelphia Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $32,500.00 Philadelphia Sims 17-003 al; ge 16 Mason B. Lane $59,500.22 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $68,214.00 104A EW, Harrisburg Jamie Barton $38,948.00 104EW, Harrisburg 2014 Name Salary Anna L. Aagenes $49,000,12 Philadelphia Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $32,500.00 Philadelphia Mason B. Lane $59,500.22 Philadelphia Sarah A. Rabot $13,500.00 Philadelphia Bernard A. Williams, Jr. $13,000.00 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $68,214.00 104A EW, Harrisburg 2015 Name Salary Anna L. Aagenes $50,232.00 Philadelphia Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $43,564.04 Philadelphia Mason B. Lane $60,996.00 Philadelphia Sarah A. Rabot $40,000.22 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $69,940.00 104A EW, Harrisburg Shannon P. McLaughlin $19,332.56 Philadelphia 2016 Name Salary Timothy G. Keller, Jr. $55,016.00 Philadelphia Mason B. Lane $60,996.00 Philadelphia Sarah A. Rabot $40,000.22 Philadelphia Rhonda Campbell $71,708.00 104A EW, Harrisburg Shane M. Benz $19,332.56 Philadelphia Abby E. Rambo $43,004.00 Philadelphia Kali M. Brink $40,014.00 Philadelphia 55. Prior to being elected as a State Representative in November 2012, Sims was employed as Staff Counsel for Policy and Planning with the Philadelphia Bar Association and had been a Speaker/Lecturer for the topic Lesbian, Gay, Bi- Sexual and Transgender (LGBT) Athletes & Allies. 56. The following is an outline of the topic/presentation content of Sims' LGBT Athletes & Allies presentations: a. Welcome b. How l got here C. Football Summary d. Polling the Audience Sims 17-003 T 11 e. Youth Statistics f. Football team reaction gg Gay Polling h. Allies; Bringing it together i. What next? 57. As a Speaker/Lecturer for LGBT Athletes and Allies, Sims received payment as consideration for the value of his time and expertise regarding the topic(s) for which he presented. a. Fees paid to Sims for his appearances/speaking engagements were a primary source of income for Sims [in at least 2011 and 2012]. 58. In October of 2012, Sims appeared and served as the Keynote Speaker at an event held at Yale University, which was sponsored by ROMBA (Reaching Out MBA) an organization that educates, inspires, and connects lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, MBA students & profess ionalslalumni. a. Following his appearance at Yale, on November 17, 2012, Sims sent an email to representatives of Yale as follows: Ruben, could you please give me a call on my cell phone? [number redacted] It's now been a month since the program and I've not received a check, nor am I getting a response to my inquiries to Caren. I'm sorry guys but had I known it would be over a month before would receive payment for the conference I may have reconsidered. This is my. job, and this is how I pay my mortgage and not receiving payment for this long isn t appropriate. b. Todd Sears was one of the speakers at the 2012 Yale University ROMBA event. 59. Immediately following his email to Ruben Lozano — Aguilera, Sims engaged in a series of emails with Todd Sears and Ryan Fuller on November 17, 2012, as follows: a. 10:29 AM Sims sent an email to Sears and Fuller: Hey guys, I'm having a really hard time getting a response from the ROMBA team about a paycheck so I want to check with you. Have you guys been paid, Brian. b. Sears responded at 10:33 AM Hey there Do you mean expense reimbursement? If so, I don't think so. Ryan would def know tho Xx C. Ryan Fuller responded at 11,22 AM He Sims - Nothing yet on our end. d. Sims responded at 11:28 AM Sims, 17-003 >sge 12 It's been a month and I've not been reimbursed for my travel nor have l received the honorarium they contracted me for my keynote speech. [F***] I hate when kids are in control of a conference and THIS Happens. It's how I pay my bills and they just don't seem to get it. I keep getting, these cutesy answers about how they're "looking into things with the team' and "hope to have an answer for me soon." I've been getting that for a month. Ugh e. Sims eventually received payment of $2,000.00 from ROMBA. 60. Between 2011 and 2012,Sims received [payments totaling approximately $60,000.001 from entities, institutions, and colleges/universities as payment in consideration for his presentation(s)lappearance(s)Ispeech(es) and/or reimbursement of travel, lodging and meal expenses. a. Sims was not a public official as that term is defined by the Ethics Act (65 Pa.C.S. §1101 et se .) until takin office as a Representative for the 182"d District o the Commonwealth of I�ennsylvania since December 1, 2012. 61. Campus Pride, Inc.'s mission is to serve LGBTQ and ally student leaders and campus organizations] in the areas of leadership development, support programs and services to create safer, more inclusive LGBTQ4riendly colleges and universities. a. Shane Windmeyer [is] the Executive Director [of Campus Pride, Inc.] 62. [Sims was a Board Member of Campus Pride, Inc. during 2012, 2013, and 2014.] a. [Sims took office as a Representative of the Pennsylvania General Assembly on or about December 1, 2012.1 b. By January 2015, Sims was no longer affiliated with Campus Pride, Inc. as a Board Member. 63. fSims attended an orientation session at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, ennsylvania, when he was a newly elected legislator during which lawyers from the Democratic Office of Chief Counsel made presentations that included the Pennsylvania Public Official and Employee Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et secq.] 64. Nora Winkelman ("Winkelman") has served as the Chief Counsel to the House Democratic Caucus since approximately February 2009. a. Winkelman is responsible for general legal advice to the leadership, members of the Caucus, and its employees regarding, amongst other things, contracts, legislation, ethics, and personnel issues. 65. In or around December 2012 or January 2013, Sims inquired of Winkelman as to his ability to continue to participate in speaking events for which he (Sims) would receive payment. 66. Winkelman gave a verbal response to Sims which included that Sims could not paid for speaking in his capacity as a State Representative.] a. Sims did not request a written opinion from Winkelman, nor did Winkelman reduce her opinion to writing at this time. 67. Sims never sought an Opinion or Advice of Counsel from the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission, specifically regarding Sims' ability to receive payment for speeches/appearances. Sims, 17-003 Fage 13 68. The topic of Sims' paid speaking engagements was not addressed by Winkelman again until 2016. 69. Timothy G. Keller, Jr. ("Keller") has served as a Legislative Assistant for Representative Sims since 2013, and in 2016 became Sims' Chief of Staff. 70. On October 3, 2016, at 2:37 p.m., Winkelman responded to Keller's email with the following: a. Sorry Tim, this got lost in the shuffle. What I told him was that I believe he can continue speaking engagements (for which he is compensated) substantially similar to those he was doing prior to his becoming elected to the House. He cannot accept compensation for speaking engagements, the primary focus of which are legislation that he is working on (or working against) as a state legislator, the legislative process generally, or other topics that he is only familiar with because of his state legislative ob. The idea here is that he cannot benefit financially frrom the work he does as a legislator, other than by the wages (and per diems) or other expense reimbursements he receives from the House. I gave him this advice based on his characterization of the speaking engagements as basically what he did for a living prior to being elected and has chosen to continue to do because there is no prohibition to a state legislator having outside employment. And, of course, he needs to report any compensation he does receive on his annual Statement of Financial Interests, as well as any travel reimbursements he receives that are in excess of the $650.00 threshold. Let me know if you have any questions. Nora 71. [Between 2013 and 2015, Sims made appearances and/or delivered speeches for which he was paid at the following universities: Colle a/Uniiversit University of Pittsburgh James Madison University UCLA Fort Hays State University Northern Michigan University Date of Speaking Event March 28, 2013 April 11, 2013 April 19, 2013 October 17, 2013 January 21, 2015 72. The following chart outlines the amounts [Sims received for presentations at the institutions listed:] University Payment to Briars Sims Pittsburgh University 3,000.00 James Madison 3,000.00 UCLA 2,000.00 Sims 17-003 Page 14 Fort Hays State $3,000.00 University N. Michigan University $6,680.00 73. In addition to arranging speaking engagements through Campus Pride, Inc., Sims also coordinated speaking arrangements outside of Campus Pride, Inc. 74. Sims advised interested organizations/schools that [the arrangement he had with Campus Pride, Inc. relating to paid presentations by Sims was not an exclusive arrangement, and that arrangements for presentations by Sims could be discussed directly with Sims.] a. In March of 2013, Sims responds to a request to appear at an event as follows: I'd also be very interested in coming to CNA and I think it's great that you're responsible for LGBT history month. I signed with a speaker's bureau recently but mainly for college speaking arrangements. I speak a few times each month at colleges for $2,500-$5,000 but would work directly with you myself to save on the honorarium of that'd help as well. ,tune is a busy month but this is something that's very important to me and I promise that if you had some goals for the engagement beyond just a single program, I'd be very open to that throughout the day(s) as well! Rep. Brian Sims (D-182) House of Representatives Commonwealth of Pennsylvania www.PaHouse.com/sims b. By January 2015, Sims [had decided to discontinue his previous business arrangement with] Campus Pride, Inc. 75. hAfterimsSwas elected and seated as a public official/Member of the Pennsylvania ouse of Representatives, Sims received payments for presentations about his experiences as a Legislator, including legislation he was sponsoring and supporting. See, Paragraph 54 of the Investigative Complaint/Findings Report; Paragraph 54 of Respondent's Answer to the Investigative Complaint/Findings Report.] 76. On October 9, 2013, Sims made an appearance/speaking event at Chatham University located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 77. In preparation for Sims' speech at Chatham University, the following emails were exchanged between [Annie] Guadagnino and Timothy Keller, Legislative Assistant to Sims: a. On September 5, 2013, Guadagnino sent an email to Keller at 12:04 p.m., requesting a headshot [photograph] for Representative Sims. Rims, 17-003 15 b. On September 6, 2013, at 10:31 a.m., Keller sent an email from the email address tgkeller@pahouse.net to Guadagnino as follows: Annie, As per your request, attached is a high resolution head shot. Regards, Tim Keller District Coordinator Office of State Rep. Brian Sims 215-246-1501 C. The email address t. kq eller@pahouse.net is the official email address assigned by the Pennsylvania House ot Representatives to Keller, as evidenced by "pahouse.net". 78. Guadagnino sent Keller an email dated September 26, 2013, at 5:16 p.m. with the subject "honorarium/travel arrangements' to Tim Keller at the email address tgkeller ,pahouse.net. An excerpt of that email is as follows: Hi Tim, don't mean to complicate things any further for you, but we wanted to offer a couple of options for Rep. Sims to consider. 1. We can offer a $1,000.00 honorarium and reimburse him for travel; or 2. We can offer a $1,250.00 honorarium for Rep. Sims if he would like to cover his own travel costs. I know this is different than what we discussed, but we definitely want to show our appreciation for Rep. Sims. Let me know what you think! Annie 79. On October 11, 2013 at 11:02 a.m., Guadagnino sent an email to Keller, copying Mason Lane, with the subject "Thank you! (and forms for honorarium)" as follows: Hi Tim, Representative Sims gave a fantastic speech on Wednesday and we are very happy that so many students and community members got a chance to meet him! I wanted to send you a reminder that in order for us to process his honorarium we will need him to fill out a W-9 and an independent contractor form. Let me know if you have any questions. The forms should be sent: Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics Chatham University c/o Annie Guadagnino Woodland Road Pittsburgh, PA 15232 Sims, 17-003 image 16 80. Chatham University issued Sims a 2013 Form 1099 accounting for the payment he received. 81. On September 27, 2013, Brian Sims spoke at Millersville University, a public university of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 82. From September 25-27, 2013, Millersville University held a conference identified as "Human Rights Across the Globe." 83. A 2013 Form 1099 was issued to Brian Sims, identifying the non -employee payment made to him in the amount of $1,000.00. 84. The parties stipulate that the following is a transcript of the only portion of Sims' September 27, 2013, presentation at Millersville University that is at issue in this case (Tr. at 433) (paragraph 95 a, Investigative Complaint/Findings Report): And so I decided about two years ago now, that I was going to run. Sat down with my close friends. I'm going to assume that you all have to go to class and it's not because I'm extra boring. It's alright I'm holding it against you. Umm and I decided to run. And I actually ended up running against the longest serving incumbent in the Pennsylvania House to end up losing her position to a challenge and she was a staunch advocate of LGBT civil rights. It's something I'm very comfortable telling crowds of people. I did not go after and beat one of these crazies that I now do battle with. l did run against another democrat, a long serving democrat. A democrat who had probably been supportive of LGBT civil rights longer than I've been alive. No kidding. I was 6 years old though when she was elected and I didn't feel like in the sort of modern era of Pennsylvania politics that enough was being done for LGBT issues and for progressive issues and I knew that no matter how strong an ally can be that there is no substitute for actually being there yourself. BarneyFrank has this great line that says, "unless you have a seat at the table you're probably on the menu" and gay people had been on the menu in Pennsylvania. So, I ran, I announced on September 8tn of 2011, my election was April of 2012, and I remember telling the incumbent that I was going to run the largest, cleanest, healthiest race in the history of our district and I was going to win because of it, and I did. And I won by 233 votes Just outside of the margin. And as you heard I became the first openly LGBT person ever elected to the state legislature. But about 6 hours after I started my duties whichactually technically began at midnight on t December 1st, a republican member of the Pennsylvania legislature came out. A guy named Mike Fleck. Umm he's a I ittle bit older than I am, he'd been in the legislature for obviouslyy longer than I have been, umm but Mike became I believe tine first republican in the country, the first republican legislator in the country to come out and to serve openly gay who wasn't forced out. He wasn't outed by anybody and there's a big difference between pressure and duress and I think a lot of people in his life were telling him "hey you can do Sims, 17-003 image 17 this now, now is the time." Umm so Pennsylvania went from having, being the second largest state in the country that had never elected anybody openly LGBT, to having now two gay people in the legislature who were out and in each caucus and it actually has made an incredible difference I believe. Last year we launched something called the LGBT Equality Caucus in the state house and it was as it sounds it's every legislature of the 203 members of the house that are interested in LGBT issues. Last year it had 27 members, this year it has 62. Umm specifically with regard to HB 300 that the non-discrimination bill there is the, in the panoply of LGBT civil rights I consider non-discrimination, which is freedom from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations, hate crimes, anti -bullying and marriage equality for me make up the package of civil rights. There are other things, I mean there are I guess other issues in there for sure, but if we could pass those bills, the Non -Discrimination Bill, the marriage equality bill that I just, I'm about to introduce formally in a couple of days actually that we introduced a few months ago, House Bill 156 which is the anti -bulling bill, don't know the number on the hate crimes bill if we re able to get these things passed in Pennsylvania all of a sudden Pennsylvania stops being this enigma, it stops being this island in the northeast. Every single state we touch except for Ohio and West Virginia does a better job of protecting its LGBT citizens. And I'm so sick of hearing people say wow Pennsylvania is the only state in like the northeast that doesn't allow marriage equality right. And I go whoa, whoa, whoa, marriage equality, we don't even protect in the most basic ways, the most insidious types of discrimination are still legal. One of the things I tell my colleagues all the time is I am a siting state representative, a sitting state representative. I represent the wealthiest district in Pennsylvania history, the most formally educated district in Pennsylvania history, I represent the district in Pennsylvania that puts the most money into the state and has for all time, and yet in about 70% of Pennsylvania I can get kicked out of a diner for being gay. Right. Listen some days I sweat glitter and smell like lavender and if walked into a diner in, in, back in Narnia Pennsylvania they can kick me out for it. That's insane to me and it's insane to my colleagues. And so you know I, when I started this I use to hear all the time it's cloudy gray skies in Harrisburg, we have a republican house, we have a republican senate, we have a republican governor and I used to think that was true and l now can tell you that the path to equality in Pennsylvania is clearer than it has ever been before. And it's not just because there, are you know we are looking at some good democratic gubernatorial candidates and what not. I have to say to my colleagues all the time if one party has the market cornered on equality we are never going to have it. Equality is not justa democratic thing and we have got to stop pretending that it is. I am a staunch progressive democrat, very, very, very proud of it. We have led the charge on equality on every issue in American history. But we win Sims, 17-003 e18 when we allow other people to get involved and we are finally reaching this point I think to Pennsylvania where republican legislators feel like they can support these issues. It used to be at every Sunday at about 2:00 the 203 members of the state house would get swamped with emails and letters and it's the stuff that people sign as.they're walking out of church. You know they go to their seminary and they sign that little letter that just says "hate gays somewhere" you know keepon going ' I don't' think women should be allowed to do anything' that kind of thing and then we get them in like bulk on Monday morning. That s not happening as much anymore and you know just to look at the co -sponsorships of the bills that we have out there, there are republicans that are getting on these bills and that is critically, critically important. Not just because Mike Fleck came out of the closet not just because I got elected because republicans I think in the 2012 election finally realized that LG being anti -gay is no longer the wedge issue that it used to be. For whatever you can say about the republican party in Pennsylvania it has been very, very good at learning how to draw lines and districts that will sustain it, learning how to take issues that will get its candidates elected and stay in power and LGBT issues used to be one of those things if you were anti-gayy in your issues it got you a majority it got you that coveted 50.1 % which is all you needed and I don't think that's true anymore. l don't think being anti -gay gets you majorities anymore. So, I don't expect that the haters in the state house are going to hate gay ppeople any less what I expect is the vast majority of the republicans in the state house who don't hate gay people who have gay family members just like all of us, who have gay co-workers I expect that they feel less compelled to tow the party line. They feel less afraid of veering away from what has been one of the pillars of modern republicanism which was to hate gay people. One of the things that I'm starting to see that scares me a little bit is the opponents separating women's rights from LGBT civil rights. These things used to be lumped together racial and ethnic justice, LGBT civil rights, women's rights, reproductive rights and you know when you were trying to show how conservative or how liberal you were as a legislator you looked at those four issues to see somebody voted. In the last couple of months what I'm seeing in the house is people start to separate how they vote on women's issues and reproductive rights issues from gay civil rights issues. Now as a gay civil rights advocate some of that I'm okay with that I think good I'm able to convince this person from the middle of nowhere that gay people aren't awful and deserve protection but they're still voting against women's issues. In April, we had a bill called House Bill 818. House Bill 818 banned private insurance companies in Pennsylvania from offering private insurance company to a woman to have an abortion at her own cost for which she has a constitutional right. I want you to think about that for a second. 36 democrats voted for it, I was furious. I took to the house floor. There's this great line in politics and I reminded my colleagues Sims, 17-003 f%- 19 that we put our hands on the bible and swore to uphold the constitution. We didn't put our hands on the constitution and swear to uphold the bible. It didn't work. That bill passed and somehow 36 democrats, some of whom support LGBT civil rights now, thought that it was okay to ban insurance companies from offering private insurance coverage for women. It's a scary thing and I know that as we continue to talk with my more conservative colleagues about how to help them you know with their views on LGBT issues that I don t want them to turn to these other issues to kind of prove their conservativeness when they need to. So there's still a battle out there. But the path to LGBT civil rights is in Pennsylvania right now just simply could not be better. There are a lot of lawsuits right now that have been filed there was another one was filed yesterday by the Equality Forum on behalf of 32 of the married couples that got marriage licenses in Montgomery County, obviously there's the ACLU suit that's out right now. Some of the best lawyers in Pennsylvania are working on these issues right now. Hands down some of the best lawyers in Pennsylvania. And I get asked a lot when and how it's going to happen and I don't know. I have no clue if it's going to be the courts first, if it's going to be the federal government first, if it will the supreme court first, if it will be my bill, I have a bill, a marriage equality bill along with Steve McCarter from Montgomery County and there's a senate version. I don't know. I don't care. I mean this is a race and whoever gets there first we're all the winner and so I am more hopeful I think than I have ever been in this battle, and there are more opportunities right now for us to see big gains than ever before. We've got them on the run, we have them on the run. The opponents of equality in Pennsylvania, the opponents of equality around the country, know that they are losing and they are lashing out in some places and they are not in other places. A year ago, my colleagues by now would have started receiving tons and tons and tons of mail from the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference opposing the bills that I'm working on. I have a bill right now to ban reparative therapy, we have right now there are, we are hearing a lot about the bathroom issue and LGBT non- discrimination what about bathrooms which is an absolute utter BS red herring argument. But I'm hearing less and less and less of it. They are not as organized against us as they used to be and I want to end with this. In June, some of you may have heard this or not, but in June the day after, the day of the supreme court's DOMA decision I took to the house floor to talk about it. There is at the end of each session an opportunity for us as legislators to address issues that maybe weren't germane to any bills that were presented that day, but we can talk about kind of almost anything you want and it's called under unanimous consent and it implies that the room gives unanimous consent for you to speak. So my colleges some of them will get up and talk about their 401h anniversary, some of them will get up and talk about you know this is now the year of the puppy and why that's a good thing and they'll talk about the baseball team in their hometown. It really is a courtesy that we extend to Sims, 17-003 rage 20 everybody and I went up to the Speaker the republican Speaker of the House, Sam Smith and I said Mr. Speaker I would like to speak about today's supreme court decisions and he kind of himmed and he hawed and he, you know, oh all right: all right. And I said Mr. Speaker I'm not going to cast dispersion on anybody, I'm. not going to talk about how far we have to come, 1 m not going to talk about the problems in Pennsylvania or who's causing those problems. I can look at half the room and decide that. I said I'm not going to do any of that. I just, as a civil rights attorney I want to talk about how big these decisions were for the country. And he said okay, and so the way that this works is I go back to my desk and at some point he calls me up, you know, the gentleman from Philadelphia County please take the microphone and I walked over to the mic and 1 got maybe 5 words into speaking about the DOMA decision I mean I really, I barely introduced myself and my mic went dead and what happened is somebody objected to my unanimous consent. Again, we speak in theory at the unanimous consent of everyone in the room so it only takes in theory 1 person to object to stop a person from talking. It doesn't happen. I wasn't sure if this was something that happens every single day. It doesn't happen. And the person that objected to me was a guy named Darryl Metcalfe. Darryl Metcalfe. I call him DeCaf it's his drag name. And Chairman Metcalfe who is chair of a committee that I serve on, the State Government Committee, the only committee that I asked to serve on byy the way. Chairman Metcalfe is our most notorious tea partier, he's a wackadoo. He umm, it's not fair to conservatives, it's not fair to republicans, to call him a conservative republican, they would agree with me and I think he would actually agree with me he's being going after Corbett all summer long about not being conservative enough, hating kids enough that you take away a billion dollars isn t enough. So, he was the person that objected to me and my colleagues, mostly my democratic colleagues, were infuriated about it and they tried to take the mic and I think some of them were going to try to continue what I was going to say about the decisions. Some of them wanted to take the mic to talk about how angry they were that unanimous consent had just been pulled. And the Chairman kind of worked his way out the back of the room and everybody was very angry. And the next morning, we, the democrats all met as an LGBT Caucasus to talk about what to do about it and I said you know what we are goin to leave it alone. People are angry we're going to use that momentum to get them to support House Bill 300. 1 don't need speeches back. I'm not looking for that, I'm looking for momentum. And throughout the day that's what we did. And I think that day we added twelve co-sponsors to the Non - Discrimination Memo in Pennsylvania which had stalled out and a number of them were republicans. But about the middle of that day Chairman Metcalfe did something shockingly stupid. No surprises. He told WHYY that the reason that he had stopped me from speaking is because what [was. going say was against God's law. The p clip, the recording is riceless. It's priceless and he says a lot of umms in it and it was something along the lines of umm I had to stop him umm uhh because uhh I felt like uhh what he Sims 17-003 f 21 was going to say was a violation of God's law. Whew. I tell people all the time if I'm going to violate God's laws I'm going to do a much better job of it and I took to the house floor at the end of the day and on a different rule. I'm just learning the rules now. There's a different rule that says if your character essentially has been impugned you can take to the house floor. And so I did. I walked down to this microphone in front of the speaker and when this happens there are 2 people on either side of him that recognize you and they'll say "Mr. Speaker the gentleman from Philadelphia" and he then calls on me. Well I sat there at this microphone for about 5 minutes and he wasn't calling on me. And I was as nervous as could be, I didn't exactly know what I was doing. I don't really understand the rules all that well yet. The Mason's Rules of Formal Procedure. But I knew what he had done was wrong and I knew I was really ticked off about it and I was standing at the mic waiting to be called on and it just wasn't happening and then I turned around and realized that half the democratic caucus had risen up from their desks on the house floor and shuffled in behind me. Gives me goosebumps to talk about it. It was a really intense moment for me and there's a video of it and in the video, I'm very shaky and part of it is I just didn't know what I was doing. l just knew I knew how angry I was, how wrong this was, I also knew that people like him, you know this is the kind of guy, this guy is an old school bully ,and unfortunately sometimes the fastest way to stop that bully is to call them out. Fine I will see you at 3:00 high. And I knew that's what had to happen with him. I didn't expect the showing of solidarity and so part of the reason I was so shaky was just knowing that all these people were standing with me, standing behind me and I asked the speaker, I explained to the speaker essentially how angry I was and I how I thought this was wrong and I read quote and he says all right what do you want to do about it. And I didn't have a clue. I was oh geez so I asked that he be reprimanded and whatever and the truth is I never, the moment itself was reprimand enough. In the days that followed I was all over MSNpBC and CNN and 1, it has in many ways it kickstarted a national opportunity for me to speak about LGBT civil rights because people were so infuriated about it. The emails that followed were the best. I got a lot of Mr. Chairman, I live in your district, I go to your church, I'm also a republican, I'm also a conservative I also think I may be in the tea party and I am nothing like you. The support from republicans was why this was so important. Getting my party, gettin the democrats in the state house to hate this guy wasn't going to be difficult, he's a schmuck. He is the architect of the 4 most hateful bills that I know of in Pennsylvania right now. The Voter ID bill was his, the Anti -Gay Marriage Amendment is his, the Ultrasound Wand Bill that's his, if you want an abortion, and the Arizona style Anti -Immigration Bill, that's his, literally the 4 most hateful bills in Pennsylvania right now are his and he got his when he watched his colleagues walk over to our side of the aisle and apologize to me and it happened constantly. I still can't walk around anywhere like the republican part of the House of Representatives without somebody pulling me aside and apologizing to me for what he Sims, 17-003 gage 22 did and I was very clear in the press afterwards to say this is not a democrat versus a republican thing, this is the House versus this guy. This is respect and decorum versus the tea party and I didn't lump them with him and it's helped me a ton. I also hit on him all the time. All the time. Umm, you know the only thing worse than the idea of Daryl Metcalfe getting hit on by a man is having to be the man doing it. I make sure I touch him when I talk to him. Just put my hand on his shoulder. You know Mr. Chairman that was a great bill you introduced... no it wasn't. Umm I catch him staring at me a lot, I really do. The moment, the moment I was sworn in standing there arm up they read my name aloud he whipped his head around and looked at me and I gave him the most gratuitous over the top like wink that I could. And umm you know there are some people that if you corner them they lash out, they hurt you. He is not one of those people. He is one of those people that when you corner him and he lashes out he hurts himself because he says what he actually believes. He says what he actually thinking, he's unlike a lot of politicians. He doesn't cover up what he says, he doesn't spin what he thinks he tells you exactly what he thinks. What he thinks is that women are not equal, that gay people are not equal, that racial and ethnic minorities are not equal, that people who are differently abled are not equal. He doesn't respect anybody but the person he sees in the mirror every morning.. And umm it's our job so people like him sometimes get a microphone and sometimes get shoved out the back door and I think right now we are doing a really great job of utilizing him and people like him when we can and utilizing you all, and people like you more often than not so thank you all very, very much for having me. QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION OF RESPONSE PROVIDED BY 13RIAN SIMS TO QUESTIONS] So, I'm glad that you asked. Ryan is actually somebody I'm pretty close with. I have developed this fun reputation at the capitol. Partly because of what happened with Chairman Metcalfe, but mostly because I was doing it before hand, of being bi-partisan. I replaced somebody that was hyper - partisan and so the bar was relatively low and anything that I did to reach out, I don't mean that in a bad way, but anything I did to reach across the aisle was going to be seen as a very overt gesture especially because I have this freakishly progressive liberal district but you don't pass legislation in Pennsylvania unless republicans support it and not every single good idea is a democratic Idea or a republican idea and so for the most part almost all of my bills that I've introduced this year I've done with a republican prime sponsor. How I did it, I gat a couple of them drunk. It's sounds silly but there is, there is this thing about sitting across from somebody, sharing a meal, you know breaking bread, having a drink with somebody and so when I first got into office I hunted down the other legislators that were my age or had similar backgrounds. It was the military, sports, or my age, and just started showing Sims, 17-003 'laage 23 up in their offices with a six-pack or you know showing up at a bar together. And then all of a sudden you start to figure out where we have, you know bills in common. So, Ryan Aument, his best friend is Bryan Cutler in the state house. They both ran each other's races, they're very close. Bryan is Chair of the anti -choice or pro -life caucus. Bryan is the chair of the pro -life caucus, and yet he and I are about to go on the road, we're going to travel all of Pennsylvania. We both support the merit selection ofludges. Judges should not be elected in the state of Pennsylvania, we do a bad job with that and so we're out, we're going to be out hawking this bill together. They are proof positive that, you know, they are not moderate republicans. I am not a moderate democrat, but you know there is a... it worked for a long time in American politics that people who disagreed fundamentally, ideologically could still get along together. It's in fact what s the basis of our government. So, he's been, you know every time I tell somebody, or somebody tells me "oh you can't go to them they are too conservative" I think that's an awful measure of who I can befriend or who I can get along with in the capitol. But Ryan's been a really, really good example, no one will ever accuse him of being a rhino or of being a soft conservative. He's not, but he gets along really well with the gay dude in the state house. 1, by the way, I met with all of the closeted legislators and, for the most part in Harrisburg, and you ever want to see somebody freak out have me walk into your office. Have me walk into your fancy office in the capitol and be in the closet, and the thing is I don't believe in outing at all. I don't want to imply shame to a situation that I feel very blessed by. 1 don't want one kid anywhere in the country thinking "oh man that guy had to leave his job" or he had, you know, he got condemned because he's gay. No, no, no, no, no. But 1, like all of you, I hate hypocrisy; Hate hypocrisy. And so more often than not what I will say is listen l don't care where you're at on your own personal journey in your sexuality. It's not for me to know. And if you're married or not, maybe you have an understanding with your spouse, I don't care. I really legitimately don't'care. But if you vote against these bills we are going to have a much louder. conversation and I think that is a fair thing to say to somebody. Again, if your statistically more likely to oppose these things out of your own internalized fear, you're not looking out for your constituents in a way that I'm looking out for your constituents so I have no problem kind of injecting that bit of fear in any of them. Right. Hop -rah. 2NO QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION OF RESPONSE PROVIDED BY RIAN SIMS TO A QUESTION] Oh DeCaf. I am. Yes, he was. He's been, this is his fourth term, 8 years. Sure. Yeah. The question for those of you that didn't hear, was the importance of voting, the importance of the electoral process in politics. I was at an event last night for one of the democratic gubernatorial candidates, Allyson Sims, 17-003 'age 24 Schwartz, and Allyson when she was a senator in Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania enacted its domestic DOMA was one of only six senators who stood up and said absolutely not, this is ridiculous. And one of the things that occurred to me while I was listening to her speak was if somebody asked me today what's the fastest path to equality in Pennsylvania, or where could we best put our resources, I would say into the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania right now. We have the first chance in 80 years or so to unseat an incumbent governor and right now there's nothing I can think of that would, you know every single, all nine of the gubernatorial candidates, the democratic gubernatorial candidates, just like all of the row officers in the last election are all pro, complete)y pro - equality. You know with Chairman Metcalfe, he is from Butler County, Cranberry specifically, and he's not going to lose a primary challenge and he really won't have a general challenge, it's all, it's pretty much an all republican area. And, but just like with those 36 democrats I was talking about earlier that voted for House Bill 818. It's not just about sending a democrat its which ones we send, but the electoral politics right now are the single most important factor in where I go. There's a 20+ vote lead in the house for republicans. There's a, the republicans control the senate and they control the governor's office. That math is not, no matter what that math is never defeated by a great argument, that math is never defeated b better ideology or better ideals. You know we couldn't ge this governor to accept Medicaid. Money that we already paid to the federal government that we want back which will insure a half a million Pennsylvanians, put 40 more thousand people to work and put about $400 million in the budget, we can't even get him to do that. And it's because of the electoral math. It's not because we don't try hard enough, or we don't believe deep enough, or we don't have the right numbers. The single fastest, most important, way to impact policy at the municipal level, the state level, and the federal level, is through who we put in office. Period. Period. Period. There's just no way around that and if right now You're in Pennsylvania and you're a supporter of equality you ve got a lot of really good candidates to choose from. There's a Tot of "out" people.running right now for office. This weekend I'm going to be in New Hope doing an event for Lori Schreiber. I'm a huge suppporter of Daylin Leach who's running for congress. Day in has been the most pro-LGBT legislator in the last ten years in Pennsylvania. Now we might have him as a congressman. It's intense. These things ... those things are more important than lobby days in Harrisburg, they're more important than emails to legislators. They're more important than fancy websites. It, about issues unfortunately because I've done all of those things and I still do. But nothing's more important than electing people that represent our better angels. The parties stipulate that the length of this event was 1 hour, 24 minutes and 26 seconds. Jr. at 433). Sims, 17-003 25 b. The parties stipulate that Sims began speaking at 36 minutes and 53 seconds and finished his speech at 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 34 seconds. Jr. at 433). 85. On June 20, 2013, Brian Sims spoke at CNA Financial Corporation ("CNA") in Chicago, Illinois. 86. In preparation for the speaking event at which Brian Sims would speak at CNA, Kenn Plebanek communicated with Tim Keller. 87. Utilizing the email [redacted], Plebanek sent an email to Tim Keller at t kel lerCcD na house. net on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at 12:21 p.m., with the subject matter A Speaking Event -June 20." Content of the email was as follows: a. Hello, I was told to forward this email of the questions we have for Rep. Sims to this email address. I can be reached during work hours at [telephone number redacted], however, after 6:00 m. central if that is easier to speak I can be reached at telephone number redacted]. Thank you so much for your assistance. Kenn Plebanek CNA Insurance P.S. Beyond the questions below, does Rep. Sims have a current photo that we should use on the marketing materials for this event? We chose one of his PA House website of him talking at a podium but we were not sure if he preferred a different one used. If you do have a high resolution one we could use, please forward that to me as well. Thanks. 88. Plebanek sent another email dated June 17, 2013, at 10:33 a.m., that was addressed to takeller(7a.pahouse. net and bsims557(cD ahoo.com, to a pin communicate to district office legislative assistants regarding the paid speaking event Sims was participating in. Text of the email was as follows: a. Hello again, We are very excited to be hosting Rep. Sims this Thursday at CNA in Chicago. We can't believe the week is here. I wanted to be sure that all is set on your side and there are no questions about the trip. We should have one of our SVPs opening the session and then I believe I will be brought on to read your introduction and then l will introduce Rep. Sims. I also need to pass along that one of our members at CNA was able to secure a car service for Rep. Sims upon his arrival at Midway Airport. Once Rep. Sims has arrived at Midway, he should contact Keith Williams at [telephone number redactedj. Keith will be in the staging area a few minutes from the terminal and will provide him with directions of where to meet the car. Keith will then bring Rep. Sims directly to CNA at Jackson & Wabash. I hope this is acceptable as it should Sims 17-003 26 be much better than taking a train or a cab. There is no fee for this obviously. Upon Rep. Sims' arrival at CNA on the Wabash side of the building, he should check in at the security desk. They should then contact me and I'll escort Rep. Sims to his meeting with CNA's Government Relations and then can take him down to the area where he will be presenting. Please let me know if there are any questions on this or anything around his visit. We hope Rep. Sims will be able to speak around thirty minutes and then we should have time for a Q&A. If I receive questions in advance, I will pass them along to you as soon as possible. Thank again, Kenn Plebanek 89. After Mason Lane concluded his conversation with Rita Wilmes, Lane sent Brian Sims an email at bsims557 _yahoo.com using the email address mlanea ahouse.net on Friday, May 31, 2013' at 11:59 a.m., with the subject matter "CNA speaking event in Chicago (6120)". a. The text of the email was as follows: Hi Brian, Rita Wilmes called from CNA in Chicago. She needs a W 9 from you in order to send you a check for your speaking engagement in Chicago on June 20th. You can send it to her at email address redacted]. You can call her at [telephone number redacted] if you have any questions. Hope your trip went well! Mason B. Lane Chief of Staff Office of Representative Brian Sims Pennsylvania House of Representatives 182nd Legislative District mlane(c pahouse.net 90. CNA tendered payment to Brian Sims as follows: Date Issued Check No. Amount 06 0 2013 1 385040 2 500.00 91. As art of the speaking event, CNA paid for Sims' airfare to Chicago in the amount of $�318.80. 92. Sims acquired payment of $2,500.00 from CNA. a. Sims did not report the $2,500,00 received from CNA as a direct/indirect source of income upon Statements of Financial Interests filed for calendar year 2013. 93. In June 2014, Sims traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana, for the New Orleans Pride Festival, where he served as a guest speaker. Sires 17-003 l a 27 94. In addition to travel and lodging, Sims received a $500.00 payment for appearing at the New Orleans Pride Festival. 95. [Respondent Sims flew to New Orleans on Friday, June 20, 2014, and returned to Philadelphia on Sunday, June 22, 2014.1 96. [Respondent Sims stayed at the Hotel Modern during his attendance at the New Orleans Pride Festival.] 97. Sims stayed two (2) nights at the Hotel Modern. 98. Sims does not report travel, lodging and/or hospitality provided to him by/on behalf of New Orleans Pride upon Statements of Financial Interests filed for calendar year 2014. 99. Brian Sims appeared as a speaker at Northern Michigan University in 2015, 100. Sims was to speak at Northern Michigan University on Wednesday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m., in the Don H. Bottum University Center s Great Lakes Room. a. The speech to be given by Sims was sponsored by the President's Committee on Diversity, NMU Volunteer Center, Multi -Cultural Education and Resource Center, ALLIES, Outlook, Q&A, and the Student Finance Committee. 101. [in or around January 2015, Brian Sims ceased usin Campus Pride, Inc. in relation to arrangements for his speaking engagements. 102. [Sims received $6,680 in connection with his speaking engagement at Northern Michigan University.] 103. Sarah Rabot was employed as a Legislative Assistant at Sims' District Office from 2014 through 2016. 104. Brian Sims spoke at Raritan Valley Community College on April 16, 2015. a. Sims's appearance at Raritan Valley was arranged between officials of Raritan Valley and Rachel Doran. 105. Raritan Valley Community College is located in Branchburg, New Jersey. 106. The event for which Sims was to appear/speak was titled "LGBT Civil Rights and the Power of Allies: A Conversation with Rep. Brun Sims." a. Sims spoke on Thursday, April 16, 2015, at the College's Conference Center. b. The event was sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs, Office of Multi -Cultural Affairs, and the Committee to Internationalize and Diversify the Curriculum. 107. For his appearancelspeech, Sims was paid $3,000.00 by Raritan Valley Community College, as is evidenced by the canceled check paid to the order of "Brian Sims" as detailed below: ec ate ec - ec ount 04/14/15 A0m 250fi76 3 0000.00 Sims, 17-003 page 28 108. The following is a transcript of the portion of a speech that Sims gave at Raritan Valley Community College which the Investigative Division claims to be relevant in this case (Tr. at 258-259) (paragraph 146, Investigative Complaint/Findings Report): I'm now the only "out" member of the legislature again. The one guy that came out my very first day in office lost his aob because he came out. He was the only Republican in the entire country in elected office that came out because he wanted to, only one. There's a guy named Tim in Ohio, who I'm great with, who came out after he had already been in office. Every other Republican that's ever come out in office came out because of duress, because someone was going to "out" them. Not Mike, his... he was married, he'd been separated for a couple years and he'd been dating a guy and his wife came to him and when I got elected and said 'listen, you can be 'out' in politics now" and that's why he came out. He didn't get forced to come out. Within a day of coming out he had 4 primary challengers and the primary was 2 years away and one of them won and beat him. He's not there anymore. But I will tell you that, the way that I talk about those colleagues in the Capitol, and the way that I still talk to some of those colleagues in the Capitol, is seen by everybody around me and I knew that it would be, and probably the most important person that has seen it is the head conservative in Pennsylvania. His name is Daryl Metcalfe. Uh, I call him DeCaf, it's his drag name, umm right, he'd love knowing that 1 gave him a drag name. Daryl Metcalfe is the head of the tea party, if you will, in the Pennsylvania legislature. He is as squirrely and uncomfortable as he sounds like he probably is. He is the architect of the five most hateful pieces of legislation in Pennsylvania in the last ten years. Everything from the ultrasound wand if you want an abortion, to "English Only." He was the one that tried to deputize all of our police officers like they did in Arizona to check people's immigration papers. He's a really bad dude and he decided to make me kind of his nemesis and it completely backfired for him. Umm I'm 36 years old and I have a nemesis and it's great. Umm what happened is, if you all remember 2 years ago in June when the Supreme Court ruled on marriage equality, I got up on the House floor to speak about it and this big fat Irish Catholic guy that sits behind me, Mike O'Brien, wonderful guy, and he leaned down to me on the floor and he said "Sims, you gonna talk about this gay marriage stuff?" and to be honest with you I hadn't thought about talking about it on the House floor. I had been s eaking about it to all of my colleagues throughout the day but the House floor is a big scary place. I was relatively new in office and you always get this feeling like if you, if you, say the wrong introduction, you're going to get like shut down like "will the fool from Philadelphia sit down" and kind of like "oh I'm so sorry umm" and that s kind of how I felt, so I didn't speak much on the House floor. If L..like 3 times I had spoken on the House floor it was to call out my colleagues Sims, 17-003 l e 29 for being sexist. I used to ... I always like to say why am I the guy in the room that likes women the most? Umm, umm so it's mid -,tune and the way that you speak on the House floor is there's a couple of microphones all around you and then there's two main ones in the front of the floor and at the very bottom is this giant stand where the speaker sits. We call it the rostrum and the speaker's there. And the two ways that you speak are one you just stand up and walk to a microphone and one of the parliamentarians will see you and they'll point it out to him and then he'll call on you. The other way is to lust go up and let them know you want to be called upon and that's what I decided to do. I walked up and I said "Mr. Speaker I would like to talk about the Supreme Court decisions today" and he "ugh Brian c'mon" and I said "Mr. Speaker I'm not going to cast aspersions at all, I'm not going to talk about why don't we have this stuff in Pennsylvania, I'm not going to talk about who's standing in the way. I m a civil rights attorney and I'm going to speak about a civil rights decision, perhaps the biggest one in my lifetime, from the Supreme Court ofthisland and I want to do it on the House of Representatives floor, that seems incredibly appropriate to me. And so yeah kind of hummed and hawed and went down and I, 1 sat in my seat for about 10-15 more minutes until it was time and 1 got up and I walked over to the microphone and he says "for what purpose does the good gentleman rise?" A really quick backdrop to this is that I was speaking under a rule called unanimous consent umm, it was, you know, it's something that all my colleagues use if you want to speak on something that's not germane to a particular bill on a given day. You speak on unanimous consent and in theory everybody on the floor has said you can talk about what you want to and everyday it's used to talk about "oh my wife is in the backroom, we've got the ladies auxiliary over here, the Moose club is here, the baseball team that lust won something or other I don't care about is here. It's always just used for those kinds of things so I got up and I said "Mr. Speaker today I rise to talk about "click", my mic went dead. Completely dead. There's a video of it and you see me like screwing with the damn thing. Umm, the building is really old, I thought I broke the mic for a minute. Umm as soon as that Mpened one of my colleagues from Philadelphia stood up ind me. Uh, "for what purpose does the gentlelady rise. "Mr. Speaker today I rise to talk about the Supreme Court" "click", her mic went dead. Third guy from Montgomery County Pennsylvania stoodup, Steve Santarsiero "Mr. Speaker gay marriage click, , and his mic went dead. And then I figured out what had happened. Everybody else already knew. There's a master kill switch on all of the microphones on the floor and it's only controlled by one person, and it's'the Speaker of the House, the guy who had just given me permission to speak, and all hell broke loose on the floor. It was like parliament like wigs and shoes flying and umm I got, I got like called up to the front. I was up there with my own leadership trying to figure out what had happened and it turned out that when you speak under unanimous consent if one person objects it's no longer unanimous and you don't get to speak. But nobody had ever seen it happen. Every Sims, 17-003 'f e 30 single day for years, and years, and years, and years, every single day, it's the rule that is invoked for members to speak on the things that theywant to speak about on the floor and i nobody had ever seen t denied to anybody. Nobody had ever seen an objection, let alone a ruling on an objection, that stops somebody from talking. And so there was this whole big back and forth on the floor "how could that possibly be, in government of all places here on the floor, one person doesn't want you to speak so you don't get to speak. And we were going back and forth and it turned out that per the rules that person didn't even have to identify themselves. I got stopped from speaking in a civil government about a civil decision from my civil court by a person who wouldn't even identify themselves. And that wasn't good enough and there was a lot of yelling and screaming and finally Daryl Metcalfe stood up in the back of the room and he said you need a name, it was me, put my name down" and he stormed out of the room. In the immediate aftermath, I won more Republican co-sponsors for non-discrimination then we had in the nine years it had been out there and the reason was I didn't lump them in with him. Right after it happened I remember Marguerite Quinn, this Republican woman that sits in the front, throwing a bunch of elbows so she could get over to me and apologize. "Oh my God I'm so sorry, I cannot believe that just happened to you here of all places." I remember this old Italian guy came up to me and he's like "I disagree with your lifestyle but that shouldn't have happened here." Thanks. Umm it was a decorum thing and people were appalled by it and I had to make sure that I didn't lump them in with him. I need these Republicans on my side, I need them a) to just see an overt act of discrimination and now get proactive, sign onto the bill. Don't just lump yourself with him because I m not lumping you with him and that's what I did. I met with them all and I said "listen this isn't about Republican or Democrat, it's about respect versus a lack of respect, it's about decorum. It's about how you handle yourself and I drew a line in the sand and I had a lot of people ?o I don't exactT know what supporting you is going to look like, but I know I can't be on his side and it worked. Umm and I had decided I wasn't going to speak about it on the House floor. The next morning, about ten of my colleagues stoppped by my office and handed me speeches that they had written. That gives me goosebumps. I still have every one of them. I have a drawer in my office dedicated to these speeches that all my colleagues went home and wrote about marriage equality. But I was on the House floor the next day and Daryl Metcalfe gave me a gift, he went on radio and it was the best thing that he could've ever done. He went on a N13 ... NPR and he got asked why he objected to me speaking and his response was "well umm I objected umm because what he umm was about to say was a violation of God's law" yeah, God's law. That's what he said. The reason he objected to what I was about to say, no written remarks by the way, he had no idea what I was about to say, he said the reason he objected to me speaking on the House floor was because I was going to violate God's law. I will tell you that when I violate God's laws I do a much Sims, 17-003 'age 31 better ob of it than that by the way. Umm and I was furious when � heard that, I was sitting in my seat on the House floor stewing: I sit next to a woman named Maria Donatucci who is everything you would think a woman named Maria Donatucci would be and she just knew how issed off I was. And then Mike O'Brien leaned down from behind me again he says "you know Sims there's another rule that lets you speak on the House floor" and he handed me the rule book, and it turns out of your good name has been impugned by another member of the House, you can speak about it on the House floor and so I just walked up to a mic. This time I decided I'm not going to tell him, I'm just going to walk up to a microphone and he didn't call on me. And I could see the two parliamentarians point me out that I was there and he still didn't call on me and I sat there, and I sat there, and I sat there, and there's a video of it and I remember one of the comments on the video is "he looks like a scared mouse" I remember thinking like the strongest mouse in Pennsylvania. Umm, looks like a scared... and it wasn't that I was scared, it was that I didn't know...I didn't know what was happening and I didn't know 2flyma'tely wasn't getting called on. And then right before I did get called on, somebody cleared their throat behind me and I turned around and the whole of the Democratic Caucus of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives had risen up out of their seats and had filtered into the aisle behind me. Whew, and umm I didn't know it. Umm, I will say probably a dozen or so Republicans umm had joined them, but I was just standing there thinking l was by myself and a microphone and I heard this "uh-hmm it was a woman named Cheryl Parker, Chair of the Philly delegation standing right behind me and I turned around and it Just took all of the, sort of breath out of me and that's right when he called on me. And umm, I was holding my iPad because I had the quote, umm I had blown up a copy of the quote so I could read it and he called on me and I said "Mr. Speaker, pursuant to rule 9B, subsection 3, who cares, I would like to speak on the House floor because my good character has been impugned. And he says "in what way?" and 1 literally was like "that man from Butler County, my colleague Chairman Daryl Metcalfe said on radio yesterday that the reason he prevented me from speaking in this civil body was because what I was about to say was a violation of God's law". And you could hear this gasp from the room. It was awesome, it was awesome. Umm I think how, you know, what I think a lot of his Republican colleagues at the time were thinking was don't give them ammo, right, they may have disagreed with my rights to some extent but why be a hateful bigot and attack me because it gave us ammo and he said "well what do you want to do?" Honestly, I hadn't even thought about it. I didn't even know if there was something I could do I just wanted to read this thing aloud because I was angry. And I said "ummmmmm I ummmm, Mr. Speaker I would like him reprimanded that was the best word I could come up with "I want him reprimanded" and he kind of does this, he goes "how so?" and I was like "1...Mr. Speaker I don't know in what way do you think it's appropriate?" Umm it took about another 15 minutes of this parliamentary back and forth to figure out Sims 17-003 32 that I could file like a petition with an ethics committee and yada, yada, yada. I didn't do any of those things. Instead I spent the next 6 weeks on Rachel Maddow calling him stupid in every way I possibly could. Umm, there are some people that when you corner them they lash out and they get really dangerous. I think I'm one of those people. You put me in a corner and you know be ready for what you're going to get, but not everybody. Some people when you corner them they like punch the wall and hurt themselves right, and that's him. He's not a wolverine, he's that person that like when you attack him, he, he like steps in ditches and stuff, that's what I tell people. He steps in every ditch we dig in front of him. Umm, Ihit on him all the time now. All the time now. It umm, the only thing worse I think than Daryl Metcalfe getting hit on by a man is having to be the man that's hitting on him, but it was one of those things where I needed, needed our colleagues, especially our colleagues that now, that may disagree with me a little bit but are so offended by his behavior, I need them to see it overfly. He's one of those people that if I'm within 10 feet of him he gets all squirrely and uncomfortable so I make sure that every time I talk to him I touch him. Like I'll put my hand on his shoulder or his arm and no matter what he's wearing I tell him it goes good with his eyes and all those things. Umm, and the truth is while it's funny for me, and not a lot of things up there are that funny for me, ! do it because there's a lot of utility in it, it has, it has shown to his colleagues around him just how ridiculous his I of hatred is. There are, I may think less legitimate, but there are still legitimate policy reasons to someone's mind that they can oppose equality. That's hard to say but there are. can't say think that every single person that I work with that opposes equality does it because they have this burning deep hatred for me, but he does. He does, and exposing that his policy positions don't come from his mind but come from his hateful heart is, has been a very, very, very effective way of once again drawing a line in the sand. It makes people have to choose. Am I with this guy? 1 may agree with him on this particular policy issue but look how he's arrived at this policy issue, I can't agree with that. Umm it's been very, very, very useful. So if you see Daryl.Metcalfe anywhere, anytime soon, no matter what he's wearing, tell him it goes great with his eyes and touch his shoulder and you will watch the most uncomfortable squirrelly man kind of crawl into himself. The video recording of Sims' speech at Raritan Valley Community College was one hour and 43 minutes long. Jr. at 254, 259). 109. [Respondent Sims received a payment of $3,000.00 for his speech/appearance at Raritan Valley Community College.] 110. Rachel Doran serves as a Political Consultant for Rittenhouse Political Partners. 111. In or around September 2014, Doran entered into an agreement with Brian Sims to provide fundraising services for Sims's re-election campaign. Sims, 17-003 Fa e33 112. In addition to fund raising activities regarding Sims' re-election campaign, Sims also requested that Doran provide assistance in relation to Sims' speaking engagements. a. [In approximately April 2015, Doran stopped assisting Sims in connection with his presentations.] 113. Wawa, Inc. is a chain of convenience store/gas stations with locations in Wawa, 114. In an effort to secure and confirm Sims' presence at the Wawa event, the following emails were sent between Rachel Doran and Jeannie Eichinger: a. Using the email address rachel .sims4pa,com, Doran sent the following email to Jeanne Eichinger on Tuesday, January 13, 2015, at 7:32 p.m.: Dear Jeanne, Thank you for your interest in having Representative Sims speak at Wawa. Currently, we are booking through September of 2015 and I would be happy to find a date that works for you to get to Representative Sims and to your corporation. Representative Sims charges between $7,000.00 and $9,500.00 to speak at corporations, in addition to travel accommodations being provided. Since you are in state, we would be happy to offer you a $6,600.00 rate for him to speak. Please let me know if you need any additional information from our office and I look forward to hearing from you soon. We look forward to seeing you at Wawa very soon! Best Rachel Doran Sims for PA [telephone number redacted] b. On January 14, 2015, at 6:47 a.m. Jeannie Eichinger sent the following email to Rachel Doran: Rachel, I will check with the team, frankly we have never been char ed to have one of our representatives come to talk to us so his is very new to us. Would this be payable by a corporate check or would this have to come from a PAC donation? Again, we have never been charged so I am not familiar with this process. I was given three dates for March yesterday, are you sayingg you would need to provide us with different dates/times? Thank you, Jeanne C. On January 15, 2015, at 1:23 p.m. Doran sent the following email to Eichinger. Sims , 17-003 34 I understand, since Brian has been doing thistype of speaking since before he was a representative, this is probably a different scenario then most others. If you have specific questions, I would be happy to answer them over the phone, but since this would be an honorarium, a corporate check would be ideal. The dates that you received from Brian's office are still the ones that can still be worked out if they work from you, but since we are speaking about the honorarium, Brian's official staff could not be part of this conversation. Thanks for understanding and I look forward to any questions you may have. Rachel On January 15, 2015, at 1:49 p.m. Eichinger sent the following email to Rachel Doran, and copied Daniel Hupkowicz, in which the subject matter was "Brian Sims Speaking Request" as follows: You do realize this would be a small group that he would be speaking with --not a university that would maybe charge or draw thousands of people. I still have never heard of a current "public servant" charging. When our lobbyist had a discussion with him, I did not get the sense that he would have charged to talk with us. Would it help if we talked to the representative- -as he was a former associate of Wawa and seemed happy to talk with us ... We really need to have a discussion about this as this truly is a great deal of money for us. Does he ever talk without charging? Jeanne 115. On January 15, 2015, at 3:26 p.m., Sims, using an email address of Bsims557@yahoo.com wrote the following email: This is bullshit. I don't represent Wawa. I represent Center City Philadelphia. A place, I might add, that they all have pulled out of about 5 years ago after talking a lot of shit on Center City. What they want is to a get a world class LGBT speaker to their corporation for free because he represents people in a state where they do business. I'm not sure how to respond other than to ask them how many other reps they bring in. How exactly do they define "representing them" and why do they think that they should get something from free that others made an investment in. Frankly, I think this is why Wawa is having the problems they're having already. What are your thoughts guys? Sims directed his January 15, 2015, email to Mason Lane and Rachel Doran and on January 15, 2015, at 3:38 p.m., Mason Lane using the email address of mason@sims4pa.com sent an email to Sims and copied Rachel Doran at rachel@sims4pa.com as follows: Rachel and I spoke about it earlier and we both feel similar as you do. Sims, 17-003 Tage 35 116. On January 15, 2015, Mason Lane was employed as a District Office Legislative Assistant/Chief of Staff for Sims. a. At 3:38 p.m., Lane was on House work time at the time the email was sent. 117. In preparation of Sims' paid speech at Wawa, Bruce sent the following email to Sarah Rabot at srabotgpahouse.net on Monday, May 18, 2015, at 2AT p.m.: Dear Sarah, Thanks for taking our call today. As indicated, here is a link to an article that appeared briefly on NJ.com this past Friday. We have no other media inquiry or follow-up. httpp:\\www.nJ'.com\news\index.ssf\2015\05\wawa sued_by_I esbian_employee who_helped_start_gay.html We wanted to share this with you as a courtesy so Representative Sims is aware of it. Please let me know if have any questions or concerns. As stated on our call, we do not anticipate any media at Wednesday's event, as it is an internal event for our associates. Our associates are excited about the upcoming event and we look forward to welcoming Representative Sims to Wawa. Again, please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. My best, Lori Bruce 118. Sarah Rabot, using the email address srabot aC7 ahouse.net, forwarded the email to Sims at bsims557@yahoo.com on aN�2015, at 2:06 p.m. 119. [Address redacted] is Sims' personal/private residence. 120. A 2015 calendar year Form 1099 from Wawa, Inc. listed non -employee compensation in the amount of $2,500.00 for Brian K. Sims. 121. In responding to his staff, Sims notes: "I'm not sure how to respond other than to ask how many other reps they bring in." 122. Brian Sims spoke at Microsoft Headquarters, located in Redmond, Washington, on April 23, 2015. a. The title of Sims' presentation was 'Being a Productive Ally in the Era of Corporate Citizen.' b. As part of Sims' appearance at Microsoft, an image was projected behind him reading "Microsoft welcomes, Rep. Brian K. Sims Pennsylvania House of Representatives." C. Included within the projected image was Sims' official General Assembly photograph, as contained within the Pennsylvania Manual, and the Official Seal of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 123. Troup B. Coronado ("Coronado") maintains a business telephone number of [redacted] and email address of [redacted]. Sims 17-003 36 124. During the time Coronado was arranging Sims' appearance/speech at Microsoft, Sims and Coronado were discussing the possibility of Sims also appearing at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Sims' receipt of [payment a. Using the email address [redacted], Coronado sent the following email to Brian Sims on February 5, 2015: Brian - Should I ask the $1,000 k honorarium payable to Troup Consulting (per our agreement) or payable to you? See below. Friendly reminder to get me your preferred travel dates by tomorrow. Thanks T.B.0 [number redacted] b. On April 28, 2015, Sims responded to Coronado as follows: Troup, Can you give me any details on this and the UW honorarium? The Microsoft one was paid directly to you that's definitely the best route. Anything on the UW honorarium? C. On April 29, 2015, Coronado responds to Sims: Yes, the 1 k Microsoft honorarium check is being paid to me directly. (I just need to send Staci my signed W-9 tomorrow) I left Sean a VM today on the UW honorarium status. We started at $500.00 and I know he was trying to reach an even $1 K. I will let you know once we connect. Now go to bed! :) d. On April 29, 2015, Sims sent the following email to Coronado: Troup, We gotta figure out the Washington thing. I can't have flown across the country for 2 days of speaking and have you get paid $1,000.00 for it and me (maybe) getting paid $500.00. 125. While Sims was in Seattle to speak at Microsoft, he also spoke at the University of Washington. a. Sims did not receive an Honorarium for speaking at the University of Washington. 126. [Sims received a check in the amount of $500.00 from Coronado.] 127. The number [redacted phone number] is [a] number for Brian K. Sims, and it is the number listed on Statements of Financiaf Interests filed by Brian Sims each year. Sims 17-003 gage 37 128. [Coronado contacted Brian Sims after hearing from the Investigative Division of the State Ethics Commission.] 129. The $1,000.00 paid for Sims' presentation at Microsoft was paid to Coronado. a. Coronado subsequently paid Sims $500.00, 130. Brian Sims was a speaker at York College of Pennsylvania ("York College") in 2011 and 2015. 131. Sims spoke at York College on Tuesday, October 11, 2011. a. The topic about which Sims spoke was identified as "LGBT Athletes & Allies." b. Sims received a $2,000.00 payment, plus $100.00 for travel expenses. G. Sims was not a public official/Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly at this time. 132. [Sims again spoke at York College in 2015]. . a. [In August 2015 Sims spoke at the freshman orientation at York College.] b. At this time, Sims was holding public office as a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. 133. On Tuesday, August 18, 2015, at 9:16 a.m., Brian Sims sent the following email to Amrom: Tami, I'm just getting back from a weeklong trip to Israel and just saw the exchange with Mason Lane from my Office. I'm terribly sorry and thought I'd sent this information to you awhile ago. I looked just now and clearly have not. I'll have the contract and W9 signed and returned to you as soon as I'm in my office tomorrow (I'm in DC all day today and the full title and description to you as well. I'm very sorry. Brian 134. A contract dated July 9, 2015, was drafted between Brian Sims and York College, terms of which stated that Sims was to Speak about "Diversity from Day One" on August 30, 2015. a. The contract read, in part, as follows: One diversity lecture: content as discussed in planning phone calls. Payment will be made in the amount of $2,000.00 via check, immediately following performance. Speaker will provide York College with a title and description along with a signed contract by July 28. b. Sims signed the contract on or around August 20, 2015. 135. [Sims received payment from York College in the amount of $2,000.00 for his presentation in 2015.1 136. [in 2016, Sims gave another presentation at York College.] Sims, 17-003 'age 38 a. Arrangements were made between Sims and Amrom. b. Sims was still serving as a Member of the General Assembly in 2016. 137. [York College signed a contract for Sims to make a presentation at York College on August 28, 2016, on the topic "Diversity in our World Today" for a payment of $2,000,00.] a. [Sims received his payment in the amount of $2,000.00 from York College for his August 2016 presentation.] b. Sims was a public official and Member of the General Assembly in 2016 when he spoke at York College. 138. On April 11, 2015, Sims appeared and spoke at the 51h Annual Lavender Graduation held at Bloomsburg University. a. Bloomsburg University is a public university within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. b. Sims was the commencement speaker for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Ally ("LGBTQA"} community and the "Lavender Graduation" was a celebration of the LGBTQA community, allies, and the many achievements during their time at Bloomsburg University. 139. Rabot was an employee of the House of Representatives assigned to Sims' District Office. 140. A check was issued to Brian Sims from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania for payment as follows: 141. Rachel Doran was retained by Sims and. assisted Sims [with arrangements] for speaking engagements. a.. [Sims provided Doran with names of institutions at which Sims could potentially provide presentations.] 142. Gettysburg College was one of the schools identified by Sims. 143. Carla Pavlick was an Administrative Assistant for the Political Science Department and International Affairs program at Gettysburg College. 144. Pavlick sent an email to Rachel Doran at rachel5,s ms4pa.com on January 15, 2015, with the subject matter "Speaker's agreement or Rep. Sims" which contained, in part, the following: Hi Rachel I'm attaching a speaker's agreement for Rep. Sims. Can Cuplease complete the home address and SS# section and then return it to me either by email or fax? For lodging, meals and transportation, I'll cover those expenses directly. My fax number is (717) 337-6033. Sims, 17-003 T a 39 I'll work with Sarah on the logistics and itinerary. Thank you so much for helping to get this visit[ed] approved. 145. Rabat was the Legislative Assistant primarily responsible for coordinating Sims' legislative schedule. a. By early April 2015, Doran was no longer working for Sims as either a aid consultant nor was she assisting with Sims' speaking events as a volunteer. 146. The event was held on Tuesday, April 28, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. in the Joseph Theatre at Breidenbaugh Hall. The speech was free and open to the public. 147. A check in the amount of $500.00 was issued by the Gettysburg College Operating Fund made payable to "Brian K. Sims." 148. Brian Sims spoke at Gettysburg College on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. a. Sims did not receive any additional expenses for travel, lodging or meals from Gettysburg College. b. [Sims received $500.00 for his presentation at Gettysburg College.] 149. In or about July 2015, Sims was invited by the University of Delaware ("UD") to give a speech to University students. a. Sims was invited to speak at the University by the UD LGBT Student Organization HAVEN through student Matthew Scott. b. Scott initially contacted Sims' district office, and was given Sims' cellular telephone number. 1. Scott communicated with Sims directly via Sims' cellular phone and yahoo e-mail account. C. Sims' payment was discussed via a conference call between HAVEN and Sims personally, with both sides agreeing to the sum of $2,500.00. 150. Sims appearedldelivered a speech at the University of Delaware on October 22, 2015, for which he was paid $2,500.00. 151. On March 17, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. Brian Sims spoke at the Stern Concert Hall, Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Indiana. 152. Sims was invited to speak at Indiana University by Nicholas Moore, president of the University's Gay Straight Alliance ("GSM"). 153. Sims' speaking event at Indiana University was sponsored by the following IU departments: • The Student Program Council The Office of the Chancellor The Common Experience Program • The School of Business The Division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs The Academy of Diversity and Inclusive Education • Campus Life • The IUS Athletics Department Sims, 17-003 rage 40 • The Office of Residence Life and Housing • The School of Arts and Letters • The Career Development Center • The [US Bookstore 154. For his speech/appearance at Indiana University Southeast, Sims was issued two separate checks, as detailed below: pate of Check Check Na. Check Amount 01/26/ 0016 301206463 $5,500.00 02 18 0 6 301213947 $360.00 155. A 2016 Form 1099 was issued by Indiana University to Brian Sims listing his non - employee compensation of $5,850.00. 156. In or around September 2016, the media began publishing articles concerning Sims participating in paid speaking events as a Pennsylvania Representative. a. On September 28, 2016, Tim Keller, Legislative Assistant for Sims, contacted Nora Winkelman, Democratic Caucus Chief Legal Counsel, regarding the issue of Honorarium and paid speaking events. 157. [At times Sims used the pseudonym "Erin Parker" when communicating with persons regarding proposed presentations.] 158. Using the mail address bsims557@yahoo.com, Sims sent an email on .tune 8, 2016, at 11:40 a.m. to Marly Dot , Assistant Director of Student Affairs for Penn State Dubois that in part was as follows: Marly, My name is Erin and I've been working with Representative Brian Sims recently on his local and national speaking engagements at colleges in businesses. I understand that the Representative spoke at PSU DuBois back in March 2011 and 1 wanted to both give you an update and pass along an offer. 159. On Tuesday, June 28, 2016, at 11:05 a.m. Marly Doty sent the following email to the email address bsims557@yahoo.com: Hi Erin, I am very interested in having Brian back to campus! I need to be sure there won't be anything political in his talk through — hasn't been an issue before -- it gets complicated if there is. Can you please reconfirm that this would be a similar [to] before? Also, is there a description somewhere for each of the topicsnk below? Thayou, Marly 160. On Monday, July 11, 2016, at 2:23 p.m. Sims using the email address bsims557@yahoo.com sent the following email to Doty: Hi Marly, sorry for the delay. I got a fun and relived message from Brian when I said that his speech couldn't be political. It's most definitely not a problem. While I don't have specific descriptions from the title below, over the last few years the colleges and businesses he's been to have expanded on them for their particular needs, if there's any interest you Sims, 17-003 �a 41 specifically, I can look to find if there's been a description used before. Erin EP/bs 161. As a result of Sims' (Parker's) efforts, Sims entered into a Speaker's Agreement with Penn State Dubois Office of Student Engagement on August 9, 2016. a. Sims spoke at Penn State, DuBois campus on Monday, October 16, 2016. b. The speech title and/or topic was "Learning to be an Effective Ally." 162. Sims received payment from Penn State University [in the amount of $1,000.00 for his presentation in October 2016.] 163. Bucknell University is a private liberal arts college located in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. a. Brian Sims spoke at Bucknell University on Thursday, September 15, 2016. 164. Sims was invited to speak at Bucknell by the Office of LGBTQ Resources, a recognized student organization. a. Sims' appearance at Bucknell University in 2016 was coordinated through William McCoy. b. McCoy serves as the Director for the Office of LGBTQ Resources at Bucknell University. 165. Per the terms of the contract between LGBTQ Resources and Sims, Sims was paid $2,000.00 for his presentation at Bucknell University by check number C0359618 dated 9/1312016. a. In addition, Sims received from Bucknell University $174.96 in travel expenses. 166. In addition to those previously detailed above, Sims made presentations/appearances/speeches at the following universities/institutions: school Date Title of Presentation Amount Rutgers University 9/22/2016 Deem Making and $3,000.00 University of 10/13/2016 Turning Ideology into Activism: Using Your Values to Advocate $2 500.00 New England Old Dominion 2/16/2017 Gender and LGBTQ Equality $2,750.00 University Universityof Houston 4/8/2017 University of Houston LGBTQ Alumni Association Red Dinner $2,500.00 University of Colorado 4/20/2017 LGBT Athletes and Allies $3,700.00 167. Rutgers University a. Rutgers University is a public research university located in the State of New Jersey. Sims, 17-003 a3�ge 42 b. Sims spoke at Rutgers University on September 22, 2016, at the Rutgers - Camden Campus. 1. Sims' appearance was arranged through the Office of Student Involvement, Rutgers University. C. A Professional Service Provider Agreement was entered between Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey and Brian Sims on August 8, 2016. 1. Per the Professional Service Provider Agreement, Sims received payment in the amount of $3,000.00. 2. Sims received no additional expenses as to travel, lodging or hospitality. 168. University of New England a. The University of New England is a private, coeducational university located in Biddeford, Maine. b. Sims gave a keynote lecture titled "Turning Ideology into Activism: Using you Values to Advocate" on October 13, 2016, between 7.00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at the Ketchum Library, St. Francis Room. c. An engagement contract was entered between the University of New England and Brian Sims on or about August 25, 2016. d. For his appearance, Sims received payment of $2,500. 1. In addition to his payment of $2,500, Sims also received travel expenses of $426.60, accounting for 790 miles of travel at $.54 per mile. 169, Old Dominion University a. Old Dominion University is a public research university located in Norfolk, Virginia. b. Sims gave a keynote about gender and LGBTQ equality on Thursday, February 16, 2017, at 7:00 p.m. in the North Cafeteria, Old Dominion University. 1. A Standard Speaker's Agreement was entered between Sims and Old Dominion University on January 30, 2017. 2. As part of the agreement, Sims received payment of $2,750.00, plus travel and expenses, at the conclusion of the speech. 170. University of Houston Alumni Association a. Brian Sims spoke at the University of Houston's LGBTQ Alumni Association Red Dinner on April 8, 2017. b. A Speaker Agreement Form was entered on August 11, 2016, between the University of Houston Alumni Association and "the Honorable Brian K. Sims." 1. Sims was also identified on the Agreement as "Representative Brian K. Sims." 2. Sims was the Keynote Speaker. Sires, 17-003 43 C. As part of the Speaker Agreement, Sims received payment in the amount of $2,500.00. 1. Airfare for Sims was paid for by the University of Houston's LGBTQ Alumni Association by having Sims flyingg roundtrip on United Airlines from Philadelphia to Houston totaling $924.20. 2. Sims departed on April 7, 2017, and returned on Sunday, April 9, 2017. 171. University of Colorado a. On April 20, 2017, Brian Sims spoke at the University of Colorado, Denver Campus. b. The title/focus of Sims' speech was "LGBT Athletes, Advocates, and Allies." G. For his appearance, Sims received $3,700.00. 172. Brian Sims was invited to speak at the following colleges in 2013 following his election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives: Amherst College Old Dominion University University of Pittsburgh • UCLA 173. Sims' speaking engagements at the University,of Pittsburgh and UCLA were coordinated by Campus Pride, Inc. and included the following: a. University of Pittsburgh. 1. School Department/Organization that sponsored the event — Rainbow Alliance 2. Date of Presentation — March 28, 2013, 8:45 p.m. 3. Name of Event - Brian Sims Lecture. 4. Description of event - Lecture regarding Brian Sims' time as an openly LGBTQ college football player, his successful political career as the President of Equality Pa and his election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. b. UCLA 1. Contract between Associated Students UCLA, {"ASUCLA"), a Student Organization and Campus Pride, Inc. on Wednesday March 20, 2013, which included Brian Sims as a speaker. 2. Brian Sims was to speak on April 19, 2013, at 5:00 p.m. for 120 minutes at Royce Hall, 340 Royce Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90095. 3. Sims was to speak as part of Ally Week on the campus of UCLA. 4. ASUCLA agreed to pay Campus Pride, Inc. $2,650.00 for Brian Sims to speak. 174. Brian Sims scheduled his 2013 appearances at__ Amherst_.Callege __and _.Old Dominion University. Sims, 17-003 gage 44 175. [Sims made a presentation at Amherst College on or about March 26, 2013, and he received a payment of $2,500.00 for his presentation and an additional $250.00 payment.] 176. [Sims received a payment for making a presentation at Old Dominion University.] 177. [In 2013 Sims opened a checking account at Beneficial Bank.] 178, Sims established a checking account with USAA Secure Checking Account identified as [account number redacted]. a. Sims was the only individual possessing signature authority over the account. 179. Brian Sims, in his capacity as a public official and Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly as a State Representative, is required to file a Statement of Financial Interests ("SFI") form on an annual basis, reporting amongst other mandated disclosures, financial information for the prior calendar year. a. Sims was first elected as a State Representative in November 2012 and assumed office on December 1, 2012. 180. As a Member of the General Assembly, Sims filed Statements of Financial Interests with the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission. 181. Sims' Statement of Financial Interests filings for calendar year 2012 contained the following: Calendar year: 2012 Date filed: 4/30/2013 Public Position: Representative Governmental Entity: State House Occupation/Profession: rer Speaker/Lecturer Real Estate Interests: Creditors: None USAA Credit Card, Interest Rate: 19.2% SallieMae Loans. $10,470.90, 3.25% $5,355.79, 5.25% 7,703.39, 5.2570 13,215.44, 7.25% $3,338.39, 7.2570 $31,119.62, 2.875% $23,921.49, 2.875% $9,572.21, 5.375% $7,479.15, 5.375% Discover Student Loans: $5,218.74, 4.00% Direct/indirect Sources of Income: Pennsylvania State House, 133 Capitol Building, Harrisburg, PA Rollins College, 100 Halt Ave., Winer Park, FL . West Virginia University, 1550 University Ave., Morgantown, WV 26506 Penn State University -DuBois, One College Place, DuBois, PA 15801 Reaching Out MBA, P.O. Box 515381, #65462, Los Angeles, CA 90051 Gifts: None Sims, 17-003 Vega 45 Transportation, Lodging, Hospitality: None Office, Directorship or Employment in any Business: None Financial Interests in any Legal Entity in Business for Profit: None Business Interests transferred to an immediate family member: None 182. The SFI Sims filed for calendar 2013 included the following: Calendar Year: 2013 Date Filed: [fMarch 2014] Public Position: representative, 182nd District Governmental Entity: Pennsylvania General Assembly Occupation/Profession: Legislator Real Estate Interests: None Creditors: Discover Student Loans, 4% interest rate SallieMae: 3.25%, 5.25%, 7.25%, 5.38%, 5.38%, 2.88%, 2.88% Direct/indirect Sources of Income: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA Saul Ewing, LLP, 1500 Market St., 38th Flr, Philadelphia, PA 19102 Rental Property - 915 South 20tn Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146 Campus Pride, P.O. Box 240473, Charlotte, NC 28224 Gifts: None Transportation, Lodging, Hospitality: U.S. Department of State, Wash., D.C., Value - $1,276.00 Office, Directorship or Employment in any Business: None Financial Interests in any Legal Entity in Business for Profit: None Business Interests transferred to an immediate family member: None a. Brian Sims fled an amended/second/subsequent Statement of Financial Interests for calendar year 2013 on or around April 30, 2014. The information was identical to the form filed [in March 2014], with the excepption that Sims identified himself as a member and council member for the "Pa House of Reps and Pa. Council of the Arts." 183. [Sims failed to list his Campus Pride, Inc. Board membership on his Statement of Financial Interests for calendar year 2013.] a. [Sims was a Member of the Campus Pride, Inc. Board of Directors in 2012, 2013, and 2014.] Sims, 17-003 gage 46 184, The Statement of Financial Interests filed by Sims for calendar year 2014 contained the following: Calendar Year: 2014 Date Filed: 4-29-2015 Public Position: Representative/Pennsylvania House of Represen- tatives MemberlPennsylvania Council on the Arts Governmental Entity: Pennsylvania General Assembly Occupation/Profession: Legislator Real Estate Interests: No Creditors: Discover Student Loans, interest rate 4.0% SallieMae: 3.25%, 5.25%, 7.25%, 5.38%, 5.38%, 5.38%, 2.88% Direct/Indirect Sources of Income: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, State Capitol Building, Harrisburg, PA 17120 Saul Ewing, LLP, 1500 Market St., 38th Fir, Philadelphia, PA 19102 Campus Pride, P.O. Box 240473, Charlotte, NC 28224 Gifts: No Transportation, Lodging, Hospitality: No Office, Directorship or Employment in any Business: No Financial Interests in any Legal Entity in Business for Profit: No Business Interests transferred to an immediate family member: No a. Sims did not report travel, hospitality or lodging which was provided [in relation to his presentation at] the New Orleans Pride Festival, including air fare and hotel accommodations. b. Sims failed to identify his Office, Directorship or Employment in Campus Pride, Inc., as Sims was still serving as a Board Member in year 2014. 185. Sims filed three (3) separate Statements of Financial Interests for calendar year 2015, two of which were amended forms. The initial filing disclosed the following information: Calendar Year: 2015 Date Filed: Mber/Council ruary 20161 Public Position: Member Council of the Governmental Entity: Pa House of Representatives/Pa Arts OccupationlProfession: Legislator Real Estate Interests: None Creditors: Discover Student Loans, interest rate 4.0% SallieMae: 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25% Sims, 17-003 image 47 Direct/Indirect Sources of Income: Gifts: Transportation, Lodging, Hospitality: Office, Directorship or Employment in any Business: Financial Interests in any Legal Entity in Business for Profit: Business Interests transferred to an immediate family member: Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, North Third Street, Harrisburg, PA 17120 James Madison University, 800 S. Main St., Harrisonburg, VA 22807 Northern Michigan Universit , 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Marquette, MI 4985 Raritan Valley Community College, 118 Lamington Rd., Branchburg, NJ 08876 Wawa, 2060 W. Baltimore Pike, Media, PA 19063 York College, 441 Country Club Rd, York, PA 17403 University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 None None Hahnemann University Hosppital,.230 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, Position Held: Member, Board of Governors None None 186. Sims filed an amended Statement of Financial Interests for calendar year 2015 on May 3, 2016, amending Direct/Indirect Sources of Income as follows: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania James Madison University Northern Michigan University Raritan Valley Community College Wawa Gettysburg College Bloomsburg University York College University of Delaware Hahnemann University Hospital 187. Sims filed a second amended (third overall) Statement of Financial interests for calendar year 2015 [in October 2016 which included disclosures for transportation, lodging and hospitality, as fo, ows: Direct or Indirect Sources of Income: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania James Madison University Northern Michigan University Raritan Valley Community College Sims, 17-003 T�age 48 Wawa York College University of Delaware Hahnemann University Hospital Transportation, Lodging, Hospitality: Microsoft, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052, Value - $1,184.03 The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, Value - $2,500.00 Office, Directorship or Employment in an Business: Hahnemann University Hospital, 230 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19102 Position held: Member, Board of Governors a. Sims disclosed travel, hospitality and lodging provided by Microsoft, Inc. for a trip associated with his receipt of payment. 188. Robin Schatz serves as the Director of Government Affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. 189. In 2015, Sims was one of seven (7) legislators who traveled to Israel as part of an educational trip. a. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia subsidized the trip for each legislator in the amount of $2,500.00. 190. [The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia filed a lobbying disclosure quarterly expense report identifying the legislators whose trips to Israel in August of 2015 were subsidized by the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.] 191. Sims had a conversation with Schatz in which Sims inquired whether Schatz was going to disclose Sims' receipt of travel/lodging/hospitality in association with his trip to Israel. 192. Sims did not make complete disclosure of the transportation, lodging and hospitalityy totaling $2,500 from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia until October 6, 2016, five months after reporting of such was required. 193. Sims filed a Statement of Financial Interests for calendar year 2016, which contained the following disclosures: Calendar Year: 2016 Date Filed: 4127/17 Public Position: Member/Council Member Governmental Entity: Pennsylvania House of Representatives/ Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Occupation/Profession: Legislator Real Estate Interests: None Creditors: Discover Student Loans, interest rate 4.0% SallieMae: 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25%, 3.25% Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C. Direct/indirect Sources of Income: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, North Third Street, Harrisburg, PA 17120 Bucknell University, 701 Behrend College Rd., Lewisburg, PA 17837 PSU -- Behrend 4701 Behrend College Road Sires, 17-003 49 Erie, PA 16563 University of New England 11 Hills Beach Road Biddeford, ME 04005 Indiana University 400 East 7th Street Bloomington, IN 47405 York College of Pennsylvania 441 Country Club Road York, PA 17403 Hahnemann University Hospital 230 N. Broad St. Philadelphia, PA 19102 Rutgers University 65 Davidson Rd. Piscataway, NJ 08854 Air BnB 212 South 12th St. Philadelphia, PA 19107 Gifts: Transportation, Lodging, Hospitality: Office, Directorship or Employment in any Business Financial Interests in any Legal Entity in Business for Profit: Business Interests transferred to an immediate family member: None Mel Heifetz 304 South 12th St. Philadel hia, PA 19107 Value - 91,400.00 Hahnemann University Hospital, 230 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, Position Held: Member, Board of Governors None None 194. On the Statement of Financial Interests filed by Sims for calendar year 2012, Sims lists his occupation/profession as "SpeakerlLecturer." a. Sims did not hold elected/public office during calendar year 2012 until December. 195. For Statements of Financial Interests filed for years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, Sims identifies his occupationlprofession as "Legislator." a. Prior to his election to public office, Sims disclosed in an email that his income is derived from speaking events/appearances, and [he] relies on payments of fees to him to meet his financial obligations. b. Following his election to public office, Sims identified his occupation/profession as "Legislator" and no longer disclosed an occupation of Speaker/Lecturer. 196. Sims was compensated from public funds in the following years as indicated below: w ..��r ., 2 6 983.00 Sires, 17-003 Nge 50 2013 83 936.00 2014 84 123.00 2015 $841912.0U 2016 $84 622.00 2017 85 672.00 197. Between 2013 and 2016, Mason Lane was employed as a Legislative Assistant/Chief of Staff for Brian Sims. a. During this time period, Lane was a subordinate employee to Sims. b. Lane was assigned to Sims' District Office. 198. At the time Sims received $12,771.86 in monetary payment from Mason Lane, Lane was a subordinate employee. a. Sims did not disclose his receipt of these monies on any Statement of Financial interests for calendar years 2014, 2015 and/or 2016. 199. As a Member of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, Brian Sims is eligible for reimbursement of vehicle expenses incurred in the performance of his official legislative duties. 200. Pennsylvania House of Representatives Members are provided with two (2) options as to vehicle expense reimbursements. a. A Member may utilize his or her personal vehicle and be reimbursed only for mileage incurred in the performance of their legislative duties; or b. A Member may enter into a contract with the Office of the Chief Clerk to obtain a vehicle through the Department of General Services ("DGS"). 1. Vehicles obtained through the Department of General Services are Commonwealth -owned vehicles. 201. In the event a House Member utilizes their assigned Commonwealth Fleet Vehicle for personal use, as opposed to legislative business, the Comptroller's Office for the House of Representatives calculates the percentage of personal versus business use. a. Pursuant to the Department of General Services State Fleet Vehicle Guidelines, as well as Procedures for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, the House Comptroller will deduct a feelcharge from the Member's monthly salary reflective of the personal use of a Commonwealth vehicle. b. House Members are required to maintain a Monthly Automotive Report, STD-554, recording personal and legislative mileage. 202. Upon taking office as a Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Sims chose to lease a Commonwealth vehicle through DGS. 203. [Sims has had use of a Commonwealth vehicle during the time he has been a Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.] 204. On numerous occasions, Sims has utilized his Commonwealth vehicle to attend paid speaking events, some of which were located outside the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 205. Sims identified travel on October 9, 2013, as_ legislative business. Sims, 17-003 rage 51 a. Between October 8, 2013, and October 10, 2013, Sims was in the Pittsburgh area attending various events.] 1. House Bill 300 proposed amending the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression." 2. n October 9, 2013, Sims spoke at Chatham University for which N. received payment of $1,250.00.] C. Testimony 206. Mason Lane ("Lane") served as Chief of Staff to Representative Sims from December 2012 to 2016. a. As Sims' Chief of Staff, Lane oversaw office operations, advised on policy issues, worked with Sims on legislative agenda, and oversaw the district office staff. 1. Sims' district office director was Anna Aagenes. b. Sims' district office had public hours from 8:30 a.m. or 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. 1. As Sims' Chief of Staff, Lane's work hours were approximately 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 P.M. C. The House Democratic Caucus provided training to Lane with regard to executing his duties as Chief of Staff to Sims. 1. Such training included ethics training and specifically the inability to use public equipment, public facilities, and public time for private gain. d. As Sims' Chief of Staff, Lane had the following Commonwealth/House email address provided by the General Assembly: Waneahouse.net. e. Lane did campaign work for Sims from 2012 to 2016, prior to Sims' election, during the transition to Sims taking office, and after Sims took office. 1. Lane had the following email address for campaign work: mason@sims4pa.com. f. Requests were received at Sims' district office for Sims to provide paid speaking events as well as speaking events in his capacity as a State Representative. 1. Requests for Sims to provide speaking events were discussed among Lane and Sims' district director and scheduler at weekly or semi -weekly scheduling meetings. 2. Part of the scheduler's responsibility was to make sure that speaking events did not conflict with other commitments on Sims' schedule. g. Lane testified that requests for Sims to provide paid speaking events were passed on to Sims, and that Sims handled the majority of them himself. 1. ID 1-1 and ID 1-3 are communications that Lane received and/or. sent to Sims concerning a speech that Sims gave at CNA. Sims, 17-003 age 52 2. Lane testified that ID 1-3 is an example of Lane passing on to Sims information pertaining to a non -legislative event. 3. It was Lane's understanding that Sims had an agreement with Campus Pride whereby Campus Pride would organize and set up speaking engagements for Sims. h. As part of his job as Sims' Chief of Staff, Lane would occasionally arrange travel for Sims' engagements/legislative events. i. As part of his job as Sims' Chief of Staff, Lane frequently attended legislative speeches that Sims was giving. 1. Some of those legislative speeches were at colleges and universities. j. Lane attended Sims' speaking engagement at Chatham University. 1. Lane testified that he attended another event in Pittsburgh at that time as well. k. Lane testified that he would not typically be involved with the written description, content, or compensation for Sims' paid speaking engagements. 1. Lane testified that his email dated October 11, 2013, to Anne Guadagnino of Chatham University, in which Lane indicated that "we'll" complete a W-9 and independent contractor form relative to Sims' speech for Chatham University (ID 3-8), could have meant that Sims would complete and forward the forms. I. Lane did not seek a written opinion from the State Ethics Commission regarding Sims providing paid speaking engagements, but he testified that guidance was sought and received from Nora Winkelman, Chief Counsel for the House Democratic Caucus. M. Lane testified that the three checks in evidence as ID 48-1 — ID 48-3/R 04- 1 — R 04-3 were checks that he wrote to Sims when Sims endorsed over to Lane Sims' paper paychecks because the physical size of Sims' paper paychecks was too big for Sims to deposit the paychecks using Sims' mobile device. 1. The dates of these checks are 1219114, 815/15, and 2118/16. 2. Lane testified that during a budget impasse, the direct deposit of Representatives' paychecks had been suspended such that the Representatives had to physically pick up paper paychecks. 3. On direct examination, Lane testified that these checks Lane wrote to Sims were not loan(s), gift(s), or compensation to Sims. Tr. at 87. (a) On cross-examination, Lane testified that he guessed you could call this a loan. Tr. at 117. 4. Lane testified that he wrote these checks to Sims because of their friendship. Sims, 17-003 lsage 53 n. Lane first met Sims in 2009 when Lane was an employee of Equality Pennsylvania and Sims was chairman of the board of directors of the organization. 1. Equality Pennsylvania was a political advocacy organization that provided education, training, and outreach to Pennsylvanians on issues of LGBT equality. 2. As part of his job at Equality Pennsylvania, Lane worked on an LGBT nondiscrimination bill, hate crimes legislation, and equal marriage legislation. 3. Sims worked with Lane on Equality Pennsylvania's legislative agenda. 4. Lane testified that for awhile, Sims was "the face" of Equality Pennsylvania and provided speaking engagements regarding the efforts of the organization. 5. Sims' speeches for Equality Pennsylvania included LGBT legislative issues. o. After Sims took office as a Pennsylvania State Representative, people interacted with Sims' office via telephone calls, emails, letters, and walking into the office. 1. Lane testified that it was chaotic getting the office infrastructure up and running during Sims' first year in office. 207. Rachel Doran ("Doran") is a political fundraising consultant and principal of Rittenhouse Political Partners in Philadelphia. a. Sims 4 PA is the candidate committee for Brian Sims. b. Doran worked with Sims 4 PA as a fundraising consultant beginning in the fall of 2014. c_ While at Sims 4 PA, Doran used the following email address: rachei sims4pa.com_. d. Doran worked with Sims' scheduler and also communicated with Lane in Lane's capacity as an advisor and trusted person in Sims' life. e. Sims asked Doran to volunteer her time to help him with paid speaking engagements for the stated reason that he could not use government staff for this work. 1. Doran agreed to help Sims with his paid speaking engagements. 2. Doran was not paid by Sims or by Sims 4 PA to assist Sims with his paid speaking engagements. 3. Sims and Doran spoke about the rates to be charged for Sims' speaking engagements, including in -state and out--of-state rates for corporations and educational institutions. f. Doran communicated with Jeanne Eichinger,("Eichinger"), a..r-epres ntative . of Wawa, regarding Sims providing a speaking engagement for Wawa. -- - - - Sims, 17-003 gage 54 1. Doran's communications with Eichinger included the following statement: "The dates that you received from Brian's office are still the ones that can still be worked out if they work from you, but since we are speaking about the honorarium, Brian s official staff could not be a part of this conversation." (ID 8-2). 2. It was Doran's understanding that Sims stated that he could do this work but that he could not use government staff to do so. g. Facilitating Sims' speaking engagements required more time than Doran thought it would take. h. In the spring of 2015, Doran stopped facilitating speaking engagements for Sims. 208. Sarah Rabot ("Rabot") was em.ployed by the General Assembly as Sims' district coordinatorllegislative aide from 2014 to 2015. a. Rabot worked in Sims' district office in Philadelphia. 1. Rabot's office hours were approximately 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. b. As Sims' district coordinator/legislative aide, Rabot had a government - issued email address and the use of a desktop computer and telephone. 1. Rabat's Commonwealth/House email address was the following: SRabot@pahouse, net. C. Rabot's duties as Sims' district coordinator/legislative aide included serving as Sims' scheduler. 1. Rabot was told that for Sims' paid speaking events, she could help with scheduling dates and times. 2. Rabot testified that she would just do the scheduling part and then "hand it over" to Sims or someone working on his campaign. Tr. at 192. 3. Rabot rarely booked travel for Sims but might look up flights for him. d. Rabot testified that there were times she was asked to submit a W-9 form for a speaking engagement provided by Sims even though Sims was not going to be receiving a fee. 1. These requests came from the persons requesting Sims' attendance, not from Sims or Lane. e. Rabot would use her Commonwealth/House email to provide photographs and Sims' biography for Sims' speaking engagements. f. For Sims' Gettysburg College speaking engagement, Rabot helped to schedule the date and may also have supplied Sims' photograph and biography. g. For Sims' speaking engagement at Michigan, Rabot at most would have looked up the flight for Sims. ---- .--- - ._ - - Sites, 17-003 alge 55 h. For Sims' speaking engagement at Bloomsburg, Rabot checked to see if the requested dates and times aligned with Sims' schedule and availability. i. Rabot did the scheduling for Sims' Wawa speaking engagement. 1. Wawa contacted Rabot at Sims' district office during normal office hours. 2. Wawa provided a media article to Rabot at Rabot's Commonwealth/House email address to forward to Sims. 3. Rabot forwarded the media article to Sims at Sims' personal email address. j. ID 13 is an email by which Rabot used her Commonwealth/House email address to forward to Sims at Sims' personal email address --and copy to Lane at Lane's Comm onwealthlHouse email address —a conference program and trip itinerary. 1. Rabot received this information at the district office and printed it at the district office. 209. Gregory Curran ("Curran") is employed as a Special Investigator with the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission. a. Curran was involved in the Investigative Division's investigation of Sims. b. ID 32-1 -- ID 32-3 consists of emails between Sims and Brandi Yagle of Bloomsburg University regarding payment to Sims for a paid speaking engagement at Bloomsburg University. C. ID 33 consists of emails exchanged between Sims and Coronado regarding Sims' payments for speaking at Microsoft and the University of Washington. 1. Ultimately, Sims did not get paid for speaking at the University of Washington. 2. Sims did not get paid directly by Microsoft for speaking at Microsoft, but rather was paid by Coronado. d. ID 37 is a copy of a disc provided by CNA with a video of Sims speaking at CNA. e. ID 36-1 (beginning with the email at the bottom of the page) -- ID 36-4 consists of emails between Sims and Marly Doty ("Doty"), a representative of Penn State Dubois. 1. Sims forwarded to Doty an email opinion of Nora Winkelman, Chief Counsel of the House Democratic Caucus, regarding "Sims Speaking Engagements." f. Sims provided a paid speaking engagement at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey. 1. The internal college poster advertising this event, which is in evidence as ID 38-3, refers to Sims as "Rep. Brian Sims." 2. Sims' speech was one hour and 43 minutes long. Sims 17-003 'age 56 3. The parties have stipulated that Fact Finding 108 infra (paragraph 146 of the Investigative Complaint/Findings Report) is a transcript of the relevant portion of Sims' speech given at Raritan Valley Community College. g. 1D 39-1 — ID 39-2 is a copy of the Statement of Financial Interests Sims filed on March 10, 2014, for calendar year 2013. h. ID 40-1 -- ID 40-2 is a coppyy of an amended Statement of Financial Interests Sims filed on April 30, 2014, for calendar year 2013. i. ID 41-1 — ID 41-2 is a copy of a second amended Statement of Financial Interests Sims filed on April 30, 2014, for calendar year 2013. j. None of the Statements of Financial Interests Sims filed in March and April of 2014 for calendar year 2013 listed Old Dominion University, Amherst College, or CNA as direct or indirect sources of income. k. ID 42-1 -- ID 42-6 is a Statement of Financial Interests filed electronically by Sims for calendar year 2014. I. Campus Pride Inc.'s IRS 990 tax forms list Sims as a board member/director of the organization in 2013 and 2014. (ID 46-2, ID 47-2). M. None of the Statements of Financial Interests Sims filed in March and April of 2014 for calendar year 2013 listed Sims' directorship as a board member of Campus Pride Inc. n. The Statement of Financial Interests Sims filed electronically for calendar year 2014 did not list Sims' directorship as a board member of Campus Pride Inc. o. ID 43-1 — ID 43-2 is a copy of a Statement of Financial Interests Sims filed on February 12, 2016, for calendar year 2015. P. ID 44-1 — ID 44-7 is a Statement of Financial Interests filed electronically by Sims for calendar year 2015. q. ID 45-1 -- ID 45-2 is a copy of an amended Statement of Financial Interests Sims filed on October 7, 2016, for calendar year 2015. r. On January 21, 2015, Sims spoke at Northern Michigan University. 1. Sims received $6,680 for that speaking engagement from Campus Pride Inc. 2. Sims disclosed Northern Michigan University as the source of this income on his aforesaid Statements of Financial Interests filed for calendar year 2015. 3. None of the aforesaid Statements of Financial Interests that Sims filed for calendar year 2015 listed Campus Pride Inc. as a direct or indirect source of income. 210. Timothy Keller ("Keller") previously worked as an employee in Sims' district office, first as district coordinator, then as district director, and finally as_Chief of staff. - _. Sims, 17-003 gage 57 a. Keller first began working for Sims on January 21, 2012. b. Keller received video ethics training from the House Democratic Caucus when he began working for Sims. C. As a member of Sims' staff, Keller had the following Commonwealth/House email address provided by the General Assembly: TGKeller(a).pahouse.net. d. The duties of a scheduler in Sims' office varied depending on the event. 1. Keller testified that for a paid presentation, he usually just passed the event on to Sims or forwarded it to his (Keller's) superior. e. There were a couple of Sims' paid speaking events for which Keller performed scheduling duties, including an event at Chatham University. f. Keller engaged in the following activities for Sims' Chatham University presentation. 1. Keller used his Commonwealth/House email to forward a high resolution head shot of Sims to Anne Guadagnino, Program Coordinator of Chatham University's Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics, per her request. (ID 16). (a) Keller testified that if someone could not figure out how to download the high resolution head shot from the web site, he would send it to them. (b) Keller testified that he would send a high resolution head shot of Sims to anybody who asked for one. 2. Keller testified, "...there was a lot of communication back and forth between me and Anne." Tr. at 331-332. 3. Keller engaged in a series of emails with Sims about the title of Sims' presentation, travel plans, and payment or donation or waiver of the fee. (ID 17-1 — ID 17-2). g. Keller testified that for Sims' Chatham University presentation, there was internal deliberation at Sims' office as to whether this would be a legislative function or a "personal capacity" type of event. 1. As of September 24, 2013, Sims instructed Keller to tell Chatham University representative(s) that he (Sims) wanted to waive payment. (ID 17-1). 2. On September 27, 2013, Sims informed Keller of his (Sims') selection of a payment option offered by Chatham whereby Sims would receive a payment of $1,250.00 and would cover his own travel costs. (1D 18-1). 3. On October 30, 2013, Keller emailed Anne Guadagnino to confirm that she had received the necessary documents to process Sims' payment. (ID 18-9). h. In 2013—which is the year the Chatham Universityy presentation occurred — Keller sent and received more than 6,161 emails using_ his Commonwealth/House email. (R-02). Sims, 17-003 age 58 ID 20-1 -- ID 20-3 is an email exchange between Keller and Nora Winkelman, Chief Counsel, House Democratic Caucus. 1. Keller asked Winkelman for a copy of her opinion regarding Sims continuing with paid speaking engagements while serving as a Legislator. 2. Winkelman's reply, emailed to Keller on October 3, 2016, is as set forth below see also, Fact Finding 70 a): Sorry Tim this got lost in the shuffle. What I told him was that i believe he can continue speaking engagements (for which he is compensated substantially similar to those he was doing prior to his becoming elected to the House. He cannot accept compensation for speaking engagements the primary focus of which are legislation that he is working on (or working against) as a state legislator, the legislative process generally, or other topics that he only is 'Familiar with because of his state legislative job. The idea here is that he cannot benefit financially from the work he does as a legislator, other than by the wages (and per diems or other expense reimbursements) he receives from the House. I gave him this advice based on his characterization of the speaking engagements as basically what he did for a living prior to being elected and has chosen to continue to do because there is no prohibition to a state legislator having outside employment. And, of course, he needs to report any compensation he does receive on his annual Statement of Financial Information as well as any travel reimbursements he receives that are in excess of the $650.00 threshold. Let me know if you have any questions. Nora ID 20-1 — ID 20-2. 3. On October 4, 2016, Keller forwarded to Sims Winkelman's above October 3, 2016, email providing advice regarding "Sims Speaking Engagements." 211. Tamah Amrom ("Amrom") is employed by York College of Pennsylvania ("York College") as an associate director of student activities and orientation. a. Amrom's email address at York College is: [redacted]. b. Sims spoke at York College in 2011 regarding LGBT diversity in athletics. C. In 2015 Sims spoke at York College's orientation. Sims, 17-003 age 59 1. Amrom contacted Sims through a former York College student, who contacted Lane and then provided Amrom with Lane's campaign email address. (ID 25-3). 2. After Amrom's initial contact with Lane, Amrom set up the rest of the speaking event through Sims directly. 3. York College does not permit speakers to speak about political issues without presenting the opposite side. 4. Sims spoke for about 45 minutes about his own story. 5. Sims did not speak about his campaign, the election he ran and won, any legislation that he was planning on passing, or any conversationstinteractions he had with other lawmakers while at the Capitol. 6. York College paid Sims $2,000.00 for the speaking engagement Sims provided at the York College 2015 orientation. 212. Sara Goodwin ("Goodwin") is employed by York College as assistant dean of student affairs, having served in that capacity for four years. a. Goodwin was previously director of student activities and orientation at York College. b. Sims spoke at York College in 2011 for athletes and in 2015 and 2016 for orientation. C. Prior to Sims' 2015 presentation and 2016 presentation, Goodwin spoke to Sims regarding the subject matter of each presentation as being diversity, inclusion, and acceptance of others. d. Goodwin did not speak to any members of Sims' staff. e. Goodwin was present when Sims spoke at the York College 2015 orientation and 2016 orientation. f. Goodwin does not recall Sims speaking about any political matters during the aforesaid presentations. g. ID 25-6 is the contract between Sims and York College for Sims' 2015 speaking engagement. 1. Goodwin signed the contract on behalf of York College. 2. The contract provided for Sims to be paid $2,000.00 for this speaking engagement. 213. Dr. Blaise Liffick (°Liffick") is a professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science at Millersville University of Pennsylvania ("Millersville University"). a. Liffick previously served as chair of the Millersville University president's commission on gender and sexual equality. b. Sims was invited to speak about LGBTQ issues at the 2013 international policy conference at Millersville University. Sims, 1 7-003 Page 60 1. Sims spoke at this event. 2. Sims was paid for speaking at this event. 214. Dr. Victor DeSantis ("DeSantis") is employed at Millersville University as the interim Chief of Staff. a. DeSantis was previously dean of the College of Graduate and Professional Studies at Millersville University. b. The 2013 international policy conference at Millersville University was on human rights. C. ID 21 is the agenda for the 2013 international policy conference at Millersville University. d. Sims spoke at the 2013 international policy conference at Millersville University as part of a panel. 1. DeSantis was not present for Sims' speech. 2. DeSantis was not aware of any specific legislation or any work specifically that Sims spoke about. e. Millersville University has had other Pennsylvania legislators speak on campus. 1. To DeSantis' knowledge, these other Pennsylvania legislators were not paid for their speaking engagements at Millersville University. 2. One such legislator spoke about a bill he was sponsoring, while another spoke about his legislative work and a thirdan alumnus of Millersville University —spoke about why his preparation on campus while a student was important to his work as a legislator. 215. Lori Leaman ("Leaman") is employed by Millersville University as a program event coordinator for civic and community engagement. a. ID 22-1 — ID 22-11 is a page from the Millersville University website pertaining to the 2013 international policy conference. 1. ID 22-8 provides biographical information regarding Sims. b. The panel presentation in which Sims participated was videotaped. 216. Nora Winkelman, Esquire ("Winkelman") is employed as the Chief Counsel for the House Democratic Caucus. a. At or about the time of the orientation given to incoming Democratic House Members -including Sims --Winkelman spoke to then Representative -elect Sims about whether Sims could continue giving speeches around the country and getting paid for those speeches. 1. Sims told Winkelman the nature of the speeches and confirmed that the speeches were something he did more or less for a living. 2. Sims told Winkelman a brief overview of his own story and the LGBT advocacy he was doing prior to his election. - Sims, 17-003 age 61 3. Winkelman testified, "And I told him that so long as he stayed within those parameters and he was not being asked as a primary focus of his presentation to talk about legislation he was actually sponsoring or opposing on - in House." Jr. at 439). b. Later in time, Keller contacted Winkelman by email asking Winkelman ha whether she d given an opinion on the subject of Sims' paid speaking engagements. I . ID 20-1 — ID 20-2 sets forth Winkelman's response to Keller's inquiry. C. Winkelman testified that she has had occasion to seek an advisory opinion from the Commission or its Chief Counsel on behalf of a client. 1. Winkelman testified that she makes sure that a client understands the ramifications of seeking an advisory opinion, and in particular, that the client's conduct will be bound by the advisory opinion. 217. Theodore Samuel Martin ("Martin") is employed by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development as the Deputy Director of the Governor's Center for Local Government Services. a. Martin is a former executive director of Equality Pennsylvania. 1. Equality Pennsylvania is a statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political advocacy organization. b. Martin has been involved with LGBTQ issues for 15-20 years. C. Martin has known Sims since 2009. d. Martin as executive director of Equality Pennsylvania and Sims as a director/board president of Equality Pennsylvania worked together to find board members for the organization and to take it in a new direction. e. Prior to becoming a public official, Sims was giving presentations involving issues relevant and important to the LGBT community. f. A large part of Martin's and Sims' work at Equality Pennsylvania was making sure that there were protections in place for the LGBT community. 1. One of the issues that Martin and Sims dealt with a lot at Equality Pennsylvania was the lack of antidiscrimination protections in Pennsylvania for the LGBT community. g. After Sims was elected, Martin and Sims worked on a nondiscrimination bill to prohibit discrimination against LGBT people in employment, housing, and public accommodations, which bill was introduced by Representative Frankel and Senator Brown. h. After Sims was elected, Martin and Sims discussed introducing legislation involving bullying. i. Martin was never in contact with anyone from Sims' legislative office about any speeches or events Sims gave after his election. Sims, 17-003 FTage 62 218. Dana Brown ("Brown") is employed at Chatham University as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics ("PCWP"). a. Sims spoke at PCWP in October 2013. b. ID 26 is a copy of the content of the letter by which Brown invited Sims to speak at PCWP` in October 2013. 1. Brown testified that she believes she found Sims' Commonwealth address at which to send the letter by looking online. 2. The letter states, in part: "We invite you to speak on your recent introduction of anti -discrimination legislation, the impact of the recent Supreme Court ruling on DOMA, and additional policy and legal challenges facing the LGBT civil rights movement." (ID 26, at paragraph 2). (a) The acronym "DOMA" stands for "Defense of Marriage Act." C. Anne Guadagnino, PCWP's program coordinator, was responsible for the logistics of bringing Sims to the Chatham University campus. d. ID 27-2 -- ID 27-4 consists of promotional material for the Sims speaking event and emails between Brown and Anne Guadagnino regarding the promotional material. 1. ID 27-3 includes the following statement: "The Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University invite you to join us for a public lecture given by Representative Brian Sims on current anti -discrimination legislation and marriage equality." (ID 27-3). e. Prior to Sims coming to PCWP, Brown did not speak with him or any members of his staff. f. Sims was the keynote speaker at the PCWP event. g. Although Brown was present at Sims' speaking event and moderated the question -and -answer period, Brown does not have a clear memory of the whole talk. h.. Sims was paid for his presentation at PCWP/Chatham University. i. Representative Frankel represents the district in which Chatham University is located. j. Brown testified that she believes Representative Frankel provided remarks at the PCWP event. 1. Brown did not believe that Representative Frankel was paid by PCWP for participating in the event. 219. Anne Guadagnino ("Guadagvino") is employed by Chatham University as the program coordinator for PCWP. a. Guadagnino coordinates and handles logistics for programs at PCWP. b. Sims spoke at Chatham University in October 2013. Sims, 17-003 age 63 C. Guadagnino spoke with Lane and/or Keller regarding logistics for Sims' speaking event at PCWP. 1. Guadagnino discussed with LanelKeller the payment to Sims for Sims' speech at PCWP. d. Guadagnino did not speak with Sims until he arrived at the PCWP speaking event. e. Guadagnino testified that she believes ID 28-3 — ID 28-4 is a press release issued by Chatham University about the Sims speaking evenf. f. ID 31 is the Independent Contractor Agreement with Sims that Chatham University requested in order to process payment to Sims. 220. Brian Sims ("Sims") is a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, House of Representatives ("House"). a. Sims represents the 182nd legislative district, which is Center City Philadelphia. b. Sims has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Bloomsburg University and a J.D. degree in international and comparative law from Michigan State University. 1. Sims has been a post -graduate fellow at Harvard and Stanford Universities. 2. Sims is an attorney by trade. C. Sims' life experiences include coming out as a gay NCAA football captain while attending Bloomsburg University. ` d. In 2009 Sims was serving as in-house'staff Counsel for the Philadelphia Bar Association. 1. At the Philadelphia Bar Association, Sims used his legal background to implicate policy with respect to LGBT rights, nondiscrimination, hate crimes, and anti -bullying. e. In April 2009, while Sims was working as in-house staff Counsel for the Philadelphia Bar Association, the story of Sims experience coming out as a gay NCAA college football captain was reported in Outsporfs magazine, which led to other media publications and contacts (R-08). f. In the fall of 2009, a representative of the Pennsylvania State University ("Penn State") asked Sims to speak with Penn State athletes about his experience. 1. This was the first time the opportunity for a paid speaking engagement was broached with Sims. g. Beginning in the fall of 2009, Sims provided paid speaking engagements at colleges and universities. 1. Sims testified that he was already doing a lot of advocacy at that time. Sims, 17-003 rage 64 2. Sims' goal with his speaking engagements was to use his life experiences, including how his community (college football team) had responded to him, to relate to and teach others that their community would respond to them similarly. h. R-10 is the first outline of the LGBT "Athletes & Allies" speech Sims prepared. 1. This outline was prepared in 2009, 2. In his early speeches, Sims would note that he was not a professional speaker, that he had a full-time job, and that he was speaking because the topic was so critically important. 3. Sims would detail his own background according to the makeup of the audience. 4. After palling the audience, explaining the LGBTQ spectrum, and discussing various demographic data, Sims would address the specifics of LGBT issues. 5. Sims would state that despite the age group of the audience being supportive of LGBT civil rights, nondiscrimination policies in housing and employment, lifting the LGBT military service ban, hate crimes bills, adoption rights, and inheritance rights at significantly hi her numbers than everybodyelse, that age group only, believed that 30% of their peers supportedequalityas well, which Sims stated was not true. 6. Sims' goal with this speech was: (a) to get everybody in the room who was either "in the closet" or on the cusp of coming out to look at a room full of people saying they want to support them; and (b) to demonstrate to those in the audience who did not like gay people or LGBT issues a room full of people making their feelings known as well. 7. Sims testified that his story is an ally -building story, and that the only way LGBT people will achieve full equality is with the addition of allies to their cause. 8. Sims would encourage the audience to talk with their peers about the session, as data indicated that the more people talked about LGBT rights, the more it helped advance the cause. 9. Sims gave a version of this speech from 2009 up until the last speech he gave. (a) Sims testified that he has not been giving speeches during the pendency of this case. After leaving his position as in-house staff Counsel for the Philadelphia Bar Association, Sims worked full-time as a professional lecturer and speaker prior to running for office. Sims testified that in the years prior to his election to office, he became the leading LGBTQ policy voice in Pennsylvania. Sires, 17-003 �e 65 1. During this time period, Sims ran Equality Pennsylvania (formerly known as Equality Advocates), served as president of the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia, was a board member at the National Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, was a board member for the Liberty City Democratic Club, and was a fellow and subsequently a faculty member of the Center for Progressive Leadership. 2. Sims spoke about anti -bullying efforts, nondiscrimination, reparative therapy, and the economic impact of equality. k. Sims rebuilt Equality Pennsylvania with new board members and a focus on LGBT advocacy work. 1. A political action committee was also formed. R-12 is a vision/mission statement that Sims prepared in 2008 for Equality Pennsylvania. 1. The stated vision for Equality Pennsylvania was for the organization to be the preeminent advocacy organization for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 2. The stated mission for Equality Pennsylvania was for the organization to establish and cooperatively work with a network of individuals and organizations to secure equal rights for the LGBT community. 3. One of the stated objectives for the organization was to establish a strong legislative agenda and strategy leading to successful timely passage of laws at the local, regional, and state-wide level of Pennsylvania. 4. R-12 specifically references HB 300 (nondiscrimination), hate crimes, anti -bullying, and domestic partnership recognition and protection as part of Equality Pennsylvania's legislative agenda. 5. R-12 included establishing a polling plan to support the legislative agenda in legislative districts. 6. R-12 included establishing a plan for participation in the 2012 election to put people in office who were supportive of equality. 7. The end of R-12 consists of Sims' own notes with specifics about the legislative agenda of Equality Pennsylvania involving hate crimes, non-discrimination, anti --bullying, and relationship recognition. M. R-11 is an outline of a speech Sims prepared entitled "Pennsylvania in the Next 10 Years: The Economic Rationale for Diversity." Sims gave this speech in 2010 before the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's LGBTQ caucus, which consisted primarily of staff, administrators, and professors of the various colleges in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. 2. Sims explained about the LGBTQ spectrum and discussed LBTG issues. Sias, 17-003 Page 66 3. Sims explained how confusing the polling of young people was, and that as a whole, young, people support LGBT civil rights, nondiscrimination, ending `don't ask don t tell," hate crimes bills, adoption rights, and inheritance rights. 4. Sims explained the legislative roadblocks in Pennsylvania for equality. 5. Sims explained the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and issues involving housing, employment, public accommodations, and hate crimes legislation. 6. Sims explained that the top grossing companies in the United States all have LGBT inclusive nondiscrimination policies. 7. Sims discussed nondiscrimination policies at the municipal level and that a lot of the early policies happened in college towns. 8. Sims discussed how the number of college students was dropping and the need for colleges to adjust to appeal to the needs of the new type of college student. 9. Sims ended this speech with the following five points: (a) that those in the room advocate for LGBT inclusive nondiscrimination clauses in their own towns; (b) that they promote LGBT studies programs; (c) that colleges create safe spaces and programs for gay straight alliances; (d) that they lobby for domestic partnership. benefits for other college employees; and (e) that they advertise their campuses LGBT-inclusive efforts. 10. Sims was paid for giving this speech. n. During the time period from 2009 until Sims was elected, many organizations reached out to Sims for speaking engagements. 1. Sims testified that what colleges were looking for from him was to explain his experience and the lessons that he learned in a way that others could learn some of those lessons. 2. Prior to his election; Sims did not have paid staff helping him with the logistics of these speeches. o. In 2010 Sims informed the board of Equality Pennsylvania that he was going to be running for office. P. Sims' candidacy attracted media attention. 1. R-13 consists of news articles illustrating the national media attention Sims received before he was sworn into office. q. Sims won the election for State Representative, defeating the incumbent by 233 votes. r. The signature line of Sims' private email address includes the fact that Sims is a State Representative. Sims testified, "It's my personal e-mail address, but yeah, it's kind of who 1 am. It's what I do." (Tr. at 634). Sims, 17-003 'T age 67 S. Prior to being sworn into office, and as a result of attending an orientation for incoming House Members Sims asked Winkelman if he could continue to make speeches and get paid for them. 1. Sims testified that Winkelman verbally told Sims as long as he continued to speak about the things he had spoken about before and didn't change the subject of his speeches to politics, and as long as he reported them on his Statements of Financial Interests, he could continue in his (speaking) profession. (Tr. at 611-612). 2. Sims testified that he followed Winkelman's advice. t. Following his election, Sims continued to make speeches and presentations at colleges, universities, or other places for which he was paid. 1. Providing paid speaking events is one of Sims' jobs by which Sims has paid his bills. (ID 32-1 -- ID 32-3; ID 33; ID 5-1 — ID 5-2). U. Durinq Sims' first couple of years in office, Sims' legislative office handled a significantly large number of constituent contacts and services. 1. As the only out LGBT person in the State Legislature at that time, Sims' office was frequently contacted by LGBT people in other districts. 2. R--01 consists of casework summary reports tracking constituent service(s) provided by Sims' office in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. 3. Towards the end of Sims' second year in office, Sims' office was providing eleven times as many services as his predecessor to nine times as many people. V. Sims' office staff consisted of three or four people at a given time, with the bottom position always responsible for scheduling, the next highest position(s) handling constituent/community relations, and the highest position being the Chief of Staff, who reported to Sims. W. Sims' scheduler needed to know where he was at all times. 1. Sims' scheduler would identify any obvious conflicts among invitations Sims received and events on Sims' calendar. 2. Sims' Chief of Staff would hand over to Sims events that appeared to be paid speaking engagements. 3. Paid speaking engagements were not always obvious because sometimes people were hoping they would not have to pay, and because Sims spoke at some colleges in his capacity as a legislator. 4. Determining whether an event was a paid speaking event or a legislative event often required communications back and forth with the requester. X. Sims was not paid for legislative events. Y. Some of Sims' legislative events were at colleges and universities. Sims, 17-003 Page 68 Z. Sims testified that he has never used his legislative staff to facilitate a paid eve ntlnon-legislative event. 1. Sims' legislative staff did help him with speeches or presentations that he was to make at legislative events. aa. Sims testified that until the hearing process in this matter, he was not aware of the extent of Keller's emails with Chatham UniversitylPCWP regarding Sims' speaking event there. 1. Sims testified that he thought the Chatham UniversityyIPCWP event could be handled "in-house" by his legislative stafF because he thought he was going to do this event without charge by donating the money back. 2. At some point, Sims instructed Keller to tell the Chatham UniversitylPCWP representative(s) that he would do the event for free. 3. Sims was aware that Chatham UniversitylPCWP subsequently forwarded to Keller two payment options for Sims to consider. 4. Keller forwarded to Sims the email from Chatham UniversitylPCWP with the two payment options, and Sims sent an email back to Keller selecting one of the payment options. 5. Sims testified that he believes he was handed the Chatham UniversitylPCWP Independent Contractor Agreement in evidence as ID 31 at the speaking event. bb. Shane Windmeyer ("Windmeyer") was among the chief LGBT lecturers at colleges in the United States during the approximately ten years before Sims started lecturing at schools. cc. Windmeyer's organization, Campus Pride, helped facilitate speaking events for Sims. 1. Sometimes organizations paid Sims directly for speaking engagements, and sometimes they paid Campus Pride directly, but either way, for speaking engagements that Campus Pride helped facilitate, Campus Pride would get part of the payment for the engagement. 2. Sims testified that he never signed a formal arrangement with Windmeyer/Campus Pride. 3. Sims stopped using Cam us Pride to facilitate his paid speaking engagements around 201T dd. Sims worked directly with CNA representatives regarding speaking at CNA's Chicago office. 1. ID 1-1 includes an email from David Wagner of CNA to Sims through Lane's campaign email address. 2. Sims testified that it was likely that he completed and sent to Rita Wilmes the W-9 CNA requested, based upon the email in evidence at ID 1-3. Sims, 17-003 5 age fig ee. Sims communicated with Amron regarding the York College presentation in 2015. ff. Sims copied Lane on the email in evidence as ID 2-2, regarding a sppeaking engagement at Rutgers, solely for the purpose of finding an available date on Sims' calendar from among the potential dates Sims had selected. gg. ID 9-1-- ID 9-2 includes an email from a student at Michigan State University to Sims at Sims' personal email address inviting Sims to speak at Michigan State University. 1. Sims is an alumnus of the law school at Michigan State University. hh. ID 11-1 -- ID 11-2 consists of an email exchange between Sims and Doctor David Chase, an Associate Professor with the English Department of Raritan Valley Community College, regarding a speaking engagement for Sims. 1. None of Sims' legislative staff members are included on these emails. 2. Sims' personal email account was used for these emails. ii. ID 13 is an email from Rabot to Sims dated October 9, 2015, which pertains to the 2015 OUT for Work Program in Dallas, Texas. 1. Sims does not remember attending or being paid for this event. 2. This event is not included in the stipulated list of events at issue in this case. (Stipulation/Fact Finding No. 27). 3. Sims testified that since this event is not included in Stipulation/Fact Finding No. 27, Sims did not get paid for this event even if he attended it. jj. ID 8-1 includes an email from Sims regarding a speaking engagement he was invited to give at Wawa. 1. It was Sims' view that Wawa was trying to take advantage of the fact that Sims was an expert in the business needs Wawa had (regarding LGBTQ issues) and guilt him into speaking at no cost to Wawa and. at a cost to the State. 2. Sims testified that he did not feel that what Wawa was asking him to speak about was the type of thing that he could be speaking to as a legislator for free. 3. Sims does not represent the legislative: district where the Wawa headquarters is located. kk. When Sims spoke at Chatham University, Dan Frankel, not Sims, was the prime sponsor.of antidiscrimination legislation that Sims had been working on for years prior to becoming a State Representative. 1. Dan Frankel was the representative of the legislative district in which Chatham was located. Sims, 17-003 fa 70 II. Sims testified that when his speeches discussed his experiences at the Capitol, it was in the context of his overcoming obstacles and handling marginalization in contemporary experiences. mm. Sims testified that the information on his Statements of Financial Interests was true and correct to the best of his knowledge. nn. Sims prepared and filed the original and amended Statements of Financial Interests for calendar year 2013 that are in evidence at ID 39-1 — ID 41-2. 1. In 2013 Sims was doing his speaking engagements through Campus Pride. 2. Sims testified that he did not list Old Dominion University, CNA, and Amherst College as sources of income because Campus Pride was managing his speaking engagements at that time and it facilitated those events. 3. Sims testified that he did not intentionally fail to list his board directorship with Campus Pride, but rather, was not aware that he was a board director of Campus Pride at that time. (a) Sims testified that the only Campus Pride board meeting he is aware of is one he attended where he does not recall any formal board process or making or taking any votes. oo. Sims prepared and filed the Statement of Financial Interests for calendar year 2014 that is in evidence at 1D 42-1 — ID 42-5. 1. Sims testified that he did not intentionally fail to list his board directorship with Campus Pride, but rather, was not aware that he was a board director of Campus Pride at that time. pp. Sims prepared and filed the original and amended Statements of Financial Interests for calendar year 2015 that are in evidence at ID 43-1 — ID 45-2. 1. Sims testified that even though he received a check from Campus Pride for the speech he gave at Northern Michigan University in 2015, he did not list Campus Pride as a source of income on his Statements of Financial Interests for calendar year 2015 because Campus Pride had nothing to do with that speech. 2. Sims testified that Doran —not Campus Pride facilitated his 2015 speech at Northern Michigan University. 3. Sims testified that he received 100% of the payment for his speaking engagement at Northern Michigan University. qq. Sims testified that he did not intentionally fail to include the aforesaid information in his 2013, 2014, or 2015 Statements of Financial Interests so that he could deceive the public. D. Exhibits 221. ID 1-1 — ID 1-2 consists of emails pertaining to a paid speaking engagement Sims was invited to provide for CNA in Chicago. Sims, 17-003 T5-a-ge 71 a. The initial email was sent on March 7, 2013, from David Wagner to Sims through Lane at a campaign email address and was forwarded that same day by Lane to Sims at both Sims' personal and Commonwealth/House email addresses. 222. ID 1-3 is an email sent May 31, 2013, at 11:59 a.m. from Lane to Sims regarding the paid speaking engagement Sims was going to provide for CNA in Chicago on June 20, 2013. a. The email was sent from Lane's Commonwealth/House email address to Sims' personal email address. b. The email states, in part: Hi Brian, Rita Wilmes called from CNA in Chicago. She needs a W-9 from you in order to send you a check for your speaking engagement in Chicago on June 20th. You can send it to her at [email address redacted]. You can call her at (telephone number redacted] if you have any questions.' ID 1-3; See, Fact Finding 89 a. 223. 1D 2-2 includes an email sent April 11, 2013, from Sims to individuals named Mark Schuster and Jenny Kurtz, which is copied to Lane at his CommonwealthlHouse email address and to Sims' district office director, Anna Aagenes, at a Commonwealth/House email address, and which email states, in part: "I've CCd Mason Lane, my Chief of Staff on this email in the hopes that he can try and schedule a time very soon for me to come [to Rutggers]. It's going to be tight but I'm tentatively looking at the evening of the 17kh or Nth, or 25t ?" 224. ID 3-1 — ID 3-3 and ID 3-5 — ID 3-8 include emails pertaining to Sims' 2013 speech at Chatham University/PCWP. a. Sims' Commonwealth staff, including Lane, Aagenes, and Keller, participated in the emails pertaining to scheduling this speaking engagement. b. The emails indicate that on August 12, 2013, Sims informed Lane, Keller, and Aagenes that Sims wanted to provide this speaking engagement free - of -charge (ID 3-3). G. Emails between Aagenes and Lane on September 4, 2013, indicate that staff originally thought the Chatham speaking engagement needed to be taken care of outside of the office but that it was fine to do in-house. (ID 3- 1). d. Later emails sent on October 11, 2013 (ID 3-7 — 3-8) indicate that a W-9 form and an independent contractor form would be mailed to Chatham University representatives that day so that the Chatham University representatives could process a payment for Sims for his speech. 225. ID 4 is an email sent January 13, 2015, from Troup B. Coronado ("Coronado") to Sims at Sims' personal email address, copied to Lane at Lane's campaign email address, regarding scheduling speaking engagements for Sims at Microsoft and University of Washington. Sims, 17-003 lsage 72 a. The email states in park: Please let me know which date works best with your schedule. The plan is to schedule your University of Washington visit the day after MS (4117 or 4/24). MS is covering your air fare, hotel, and a $500 honorarium. University of Washington is working on an honorarium as well. ID 4. 226. ID 5-1 -- ID 5-2 consists of emails pertaining to Sims' unpaid fee for speaking at the University of Washington. a. The emails in ID 5 did not involve legislative staff using a Commonwealth/House email address. b. The emails in ID 5 that were copied to Lane were copied to his campaign email address. c. Sean Schmidt's June 23, 2015, email to Sims stated, in part, that an honorarium through the University of Washington was no longer possible due to budget debates/cuts and a possible shutdown. d. Sims' June 23, 2015, email to Sean Schmidt states: Hi Sean, I have to say I'm pretty frustrated by this. I suppose I made the mistake of agreeing to an engagement without knowing that a contract had not been signed. Like every other professional, I pay my bills and my rent by working and earning a living and thought that's what I was doing here. I'm very proud to do work that I believe in ideologically but it doesn't mean that I work for free, let alone spend an extra day on the opposite side of the country working for free. I'm not sure how else to feel about this. Campaign contributions help pay a campaign staff to run a campaign. Pay checks pay for me to live. I agreed to do this engagement at about 20-25% of what I normally charge because I felt like it was the right thing to do. Again, I find this pretty frustrating. D 5-1 -- ID 5-2. 227. ID 6-3 consists of emails pertaining to arrangements for Sims to speak at York College in 2015. a. The emails in ID 6-3 that were to or from Lane used Lane's campaign email address. b. The only email in ID 6-3 that was from Lane was sent on Friday, June 12, 2015, at 10:19:06 a.m. 228. ID 8-1 -- ID 8-3 consist of emails pertaining to a speaking engagement Sims was invited to provide at Wawa. Sims 17-003 fsa 73 a. ID 8-1 -- ID 8-3 includes emails between Doran and Jeanne Eichinger ("Eichinger"), a Wawa representative, regarding the fee that Sims would charge for speaking and Eichinger's questions about such a fee. See, Fact Finding 114. b. ID 8-1 includes an email from Sims regarding the Wawa speaking engagement. See, Fact Finding 115. 1. it was Sims' view that Wawa was trying to take advantage of the fact that Sims was an expert in the business needs Wawa had (regarding LGBTQ issues) and guilt him into speaking at no cost to Wawa and at a cost to the State. (Fact Finding 220 jl 1). 2. Sims does not represent the legislative district where the Wawa headquarters is located. (Fact Finding 220 jj 3). C. ID 8-1 includes an email from Lane responding to Sims' email, copied to Rachel Doran, using Lane's campaign email address. See, Fact Finding 115 a. 229. ID 9-1 — ID 9-2 includes an email from a student at Michigan State University to Sims at Sims' personal email address inviting Sims to speak at Michigan State University. a. Sims is an alumnus of the law school at Michigan State University. b. Sims forwarded this email to Doran using his personal email account. 230. ID 10 includes an email sent January 15, 2015, from Pavlick of Gettysburg College to Doran, which states, in part: "I m attaching a speaker's agreement for Rep. Sims .... I'll work with Sarah on the logistics and itinerary." ID 10. a. Doran forwarded Pavlick's email to Sims at Sims' personal email address. 231. ID 11-1 — ID 11-2 includes an email exchange that occurred in February 2015 between Sims and Doctor David Chase ("Chase"), an Associate Professor with the English Department of Raritan Valley Community College, regarding a speaking engagement for Sims. a. None of Sims' legislative staff members are copied on these emails. b. Sims' personal email account was used for these emails. 232. ID 11-3 -- ID 11-4 includes an email sent March 6, 2015, from Doran to Chase at Raritan Valley Community College forwarding a photograph of Sims and stating, in part: "The name of the talk can be "A Conversation with Representative Sims." 233. ID 13 is an email from Rabot to Sims sent Friday, October 9, 2015, at 10:04 a.m. a. This email was sent from Rabot's Commonwealth/House email address to Sims' personal email address. b. Lane is cc'd on this email at Lane's Commonwealth/House address. c. This email pertains to the program for the 2015 OUT for Work Conference in Dallas, Texas. Sims17-003 , 74 234. ID 14-1 -- ID 14-2 includes an email sent Monday, May 18, 2015, at 2:47 p.m. from a Wawa Public Relations Manager to Rabot. See, Fact Finding 117. a. On Wednesday, May 20, 2015, at 2:06 p.m., Rabot forwarded this email to Sims at Sims' personal email address. 235. ID 16 includes an email sent on Friday, September 6, 2013, at 10:31 a.m. from Keller to Guadagnino of Chatham University/PCWP forwarding a high resolution headshot of Sims per Guadagnino's request. See, Fact Finding 77 b. 236. ID 17-1 -- ID 17-2 consists of an email exchange that occurred on Tuesday, September 24, 2013, between Keller and Sims regarding the Chatham University/PCWP speaking engagement. a. These emails occurred between 12:56 p.m. and 1:32 p.m. b. These emails used Keller's Commonwealth/House email account. G. These emails indicate Sims' intent to "charge" a $2,000 payment for Sims' presentation and subsequently donate that amount back to an LGBT Center and PCWP. d. When Keller told Sims that the Chatham representatives "kind of balked at the 2K," and that Keller was waiting for a further response from them, Sims' directed Keller to tell the Chatham representatives that the whole payment would be waived. 237. ID 18-1 includes an email sent Thursday, September 26, 2013, at 5:16 p.m. from Guadagnino to Keller proposing the following two payment options for Sims to consider: Option 1—a $1,000 payment plus travel reimbursement; or Option 2— a $1,250 payment. See, Fact Finding 78. a. Keller forwarded this email to Sims on Friday, September 27, 2013, at 9:10 a.m. using Keller's Commonwealth/House email account. b. Sims replied to Keller's email on Friday, September 27, 2013, at 9:24 a.m. stating: "Option 2." 238. [D 18-9 consists of an email exchange between Keller and Guadagnino on Wednesday, October 30, 2013, between 10:51 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. a. Keller initiated this email exchange by emailing Guadagnino and stating, in part: "I'm just clearing some old mail and resolving some outstanding matters, and wanted to confirm that you had received the necessary documents to process Rep. Sims' honorarium." ID 18-9. b. Guadagnino replied to Keller's email, indicating that the check was being processed that week. 239. ID 20-1 — ID 20-3 is an email exchange between Keller and Nora Winkelman, Esquire, Chief Counsel, House Democratic Caucus. a. Keller asked Winkelman for a copy of her opinion regarding Sims continuing with paid speaking engagements while serving as a Legislator. b. Winkelman's reply, emailed to Keller on October 3, 2016, is as set forth below see also, Fact Findings 70 a, 210 i -- 210 i(3)):_ : -- Sims, 17-003 i age 75 Sorry Tim this got lost in the shuffle. What I told him was that I believe he can continue speaking engagements (for which he is compensate substantially similar to those he was doing prior to his becoming elected to the House. He cannot accept compensation for speaking engagements the primary focus of which are legislation that he is working on (or working against) as a state legislator, the legislative process generally, or other topics that he only is familiar with because of his state legislative job. The idea here is that he cannot benefit financially from the work he does as a legislator, other than by the wages (and per diems or other expense reimbursements) he receives from the House. I gave him this advice based on his characterization of the speaking engagements as basically what he did for a living prior to being elected and has chosen to continue to do because there is no prohibition to a state legislator having outside employment. And, of course, he needs to report any compensation he does receive on his annual Statement ofFinancial Information as well as any travel reimbursements he receives that are in excess of the $650.00 threshold. Let me know if you have any questions. Nora ID 20-1 — ID 20-2. On October 4, 2016, Keller forwarded to Sims Winkelman's above October 3, 2016, email providing advice regarding "Sims Speaking Engagements." ID 36-3; See, Fact Finding 210 i 3. 240. ID 25-6 is an Engagement Agreement between Sims and York College providing for Sims to be paid $2,000.00 for a presentation on August 30, 2015, on the subject of "Diversity from Day One." 241, ID 26 is an unsigned copy of a letter by which Brown of Chatham University/PCWP invited Sims to speak at PCWP in October 2013. a. The letter states in part: "We invite you to speak on your recent introduction of anti -discrimination legislation, the impact of the recent Supreme Court ruling on DOMA, and additional policy and legal challenges facing the LGBT civil rights movement." ID 26; See, Fact Finding 218 b 2. 242. 1D 27-2— ID 27-4 consists of ppromotional material for the Sims speaking event and emails between Brown and Guadagnino regarding the promotional material. See, Fact Finding 218 d. a. ID 27-3 includes the following statement: "The Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University invite you to join us for a public lecture given by Representative Brian Sims on current anti -discrimination legislation and marriage equality." (ID 27-3). See, Fact Finding 218 d 1. Sims 17-003 'age 76 243. ID 31 is the Independent Contractor Agreement between Sims and Chatham University. a. The signature dates for Sims (October 11, 2013) and a representative of Chatham University (October 28, 2013) are later in time than the date of Sims' presentation (October 9, 2013). 244. Sims followed op with Bloomsburg University in order to get paid for a speaking engagement. (ID 32-1 — ID 32-3). a. Sims used his personal email account for this email exchange. 245. ID 33 consists of an email exchange between Sims and Coronado regarding payments for Sims' speaking engagements at Microsoft and the University of Washington. a. On April 29, 2015, at 6:31 a.m., Sims emailed Coronado using Sims' personal email address and stating: Troup, we gotta figure out the Washington thing. I can't have flown across the country for two days of speaking and have you get paid $1,000 for it and me "maybe" getting paid $500." ID 33. 246. ID 37 is a DVD that includes the presentation given by Brian Sims for the CNA Celebrates Pride Week in 2013. a. The following is a partial transcript of the presentation that was given by Brian Sims, including an introduction by Kenn Plebanek. EXCERPT OF BRIAN SIMS SPEECH FOR CNA CELEBRATES PRIDE WEEK JUNE 20, 2013 Kenn Plebanek Introduction: In November 2012, he was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and became the first openly LGBT person ever elected in the Pennsylvania legislature. It is my ... yes ... hopefully the first of many. It is my privilege and honor to introduce Pennsylvania State Representative Brian Sims. Brian Sims (approximately 30 minutes into his speech): I live in the... the... the most liberal most progressive district in ... in Pennsylvania history. My district is 83% democrat umm it includes Philadelphia's gayborhood and umm you know it's the wealthiest district in the history of the state, it's the most formally educated, it's the gayest I think it's the best looking umm and I was really, rea I frustrated that Pennsylvania doesn't have a single statewide LGBT civil right, not one, and I knew that no state that had ever passed any type of LGBT relationship recognition had done so without first having an °out" legislator. Well we didn't have any, had a lot in the closet let me tell you but not a single "out" legislator, and so what -rive- - -- Sims 17-003 ' a 77 had was allies and my representative was one of the leading allies and she...she had been in the legislature for 28 years, the longest serving female incumbent in the legislature. But she was as mean as a snake and I ... I actually didn't ... it's not that I didn't know. I didn't mind for a long time, she was in her early 70's, she was like yay big, and you know she wore a little fanny pack and stonewashed jeans and she had a mouth on her like a truck driver and I loved that. She was this kind of old school, bra burning, liberal. Everything that kind of got me into politics. But I didn't know what she was like in the Capitol, and I learned as I started to advocate for Equality Pennsylvania that she was one of the most divisive people in the building. Umm you don't tend to think about, you know some crazy little liberal being really mean spirited but she was mean spirited, she was nasty to everybody and as a result all the legislation that I thought was just common sense that she was allowed to sort of carry because of her seniority was going nowhere. Umm and nowhere pretty fast and I got very angry about it. Uh very angry about it and for about a year I just stewed on it. I had spent uh the previous three years trying to find, fund and train `but" people to run for office in Pennsylvania. There was a woman out in Montgomery County Pennsylvania who really should have been the first "out" elected statewide official in Pennsylvania but she kept losing by about two or three points and so I ran and when I went and told the —the ... the incumbent that I was running against her; and I can't use the words that she used because I'm being recorded umm she told me a couple places that I could go umm I actually even kind of liked it. There's something about being cursed out by a little old lady that I ... I ... I remember thinking like you really do have a lot of spirit you're just you know aiming it in the wrong place and 1...1 mounted what became the largest campaign of its kind ever run in my district. I raised more money than anybody in the history of the race. I knocked on more doors than anybody in the history of the race and I won by 233 votes. 233 votes. Just outside of the margin for a recount. Hoo hoo. It took her 11 days to call me and congratulate me and the congratulation was "Mr. Representative Elect, this is your state representative. Call me so I can congratulate you properly, you're in the shark tank." Click. Umm I called a couple of times, I never was able to reach her, oh darn. Umm and, and I started in January. Umm Pennsylvania had, you know we were the second largest state in the country that had never elected somebody who was openly LGBT. In our 225 year history we had never had somebody openly gay in our legislature and I wasn't exactly sure what it was going to be like. And I had a really Cood indication the day before I qot sworn in. I'm up at the apitol and I... Pennsylvania's Capitol is incredible. The building's insane and 1 describe it as Liberace's bathroom. Everything's marbled and gilded and you know walnut and mahogany, it's really ostentatious and 1... I was supposed to be meeting. with my ... my brand-new leadership. I m really nervous. I m in some back room kind of pacing up and down. and this 800 year old man walks up to me and he goes "you're Sims, 17-003 gage 78 the new ay gu from Philly aren't ya?" ha ha and l kind of did this "oh God uh "well yeah of course" umm and he tells me he's a senator from the northwestern part of the state and he goes "I got to tell ya a third of my party is gang to fin hate you" and I look at him and he goes 'but don t worry a quarter of your party is going to hate you too but it will be a blast watching it happen" and he smacks me on the butt football style and walks out of the room. And I was just ... I was just stunned like ha like what just happened. Legislatively what I've done, umm my entire office is LGBT right now. Every single person that works for me is LGBT and the truth is every single person that works for anybody in the Capitol is pretty much mostly gay: Umm our Capitol is just, I'm guessing like your Capitol, just like Washington DC, there's a massive, f call it the "Pink Underground" umm you know we ... we ... we tend to have better angels that we use a lot, we are you know geared towards advocacy, higher rates of higher education sometimes. I'm not surprised that the Capitol is so gay umm but we had no statewide civil rights. So what I've introduced this year is a package of bills, along with... along with some of my colleagues. Umm the first is a non-discrimination law umm this is the most basic civil rights bill in any given state. Every state protects certain types of people from certain types of discrimination and we all know it. You re protected because of your race, your religion, your gender, umm disability, use of a guide dog, ethnicity, national origin, those things, and you're usually protected in three areas, sometimes a fourth. The three are housing, employment, and public accommodations. The fourth sometimes is insurance. Umm you're not protected for any of those things because of your sexual orientation or your gender identity in Pennsylvania. You can actually be fired for being straight in Pennsylvania. You can be fired if your boss even thinks you're straight. in Pennsylvania. But that doesn't happen. What happens is people get fired really quite frankly not even necessarily because they re gay but because their boss thinks their gay. Umm in lot of language we always add real or perceived sexual orientation, umm as you can imagine uh you know I didn't get picked on much for being a gay kid umm but one of my best friends who was in band, who was in in choir, who happens to be straight, was picked on incessantly as a kid for being gay because he didn't fit, you know he deviated from a gender norm and a lot of what we're seeing right now in ... in ... in LGBT civil rights is getting to that real and erceived level because nobody deserves to be to be bullied, o be picked on, to be discriminated in this way and so you know technically if you're not gay and you're getting picked on for being gay do you qualify under you know the type of laws that don't have that language. Umm the other two are hate crimes and anti -bullying, and anti -bullying is a big one. Umm after Matthew Sheppard was killed you saw anti -bullying laws all across the country and they were actually pretty bad and people didn't know, they thought that they were doing as good as they could. They you know, they would lay out a_ definition_..... -- of bullying, they would say that all bullying is wrong, You know- _ Sites, 17-003 aT—ge 79 that school's need to address bullying, but they didn't really lay out much else. The good ones had data collection involved in it and what we have now are second and third generation anti -bullying bills based on that data that was collected and one of the things that we've learned is that you have to specifically enumerate the classes of people that you intend to protect in an anti -bullying bill. You have to lay out, you have to say peopidentity, are beingprotected because of their sexual orientation, their gender their gender, their race, their religion because if you don't it doesn't curb bullying against anybody except for girls. Which is a good thing, it still should and a lot of people don't think of that when they're thinking of bullying. Boys picking on girls, you know the bra snapping, the hair pulling. In the right context that is also bullying and... and these what I call `beige bullying bills" or these toothless bullying bills that's the only kind of bullying that it curbs so we're trying really hard right now to get better language. The last one is hate crimes and, and it's umm it's not a bill that I'm a prime sponsor of. I was really excited that a bunch of my colleagues came to me and they're like we found something gay that we can do. I found lots of things gay I can do but I like what you got. What I'm not doing is marriage equality and this drives everybody crazy. Marriage equality is this this sort of sexiest issue right now in LGBT civil rights and it is for me the penultimate right. Umm but as the the President right now of Equality Pennsylvania is fond of saying, if we were to go to marriage equality tomorrow without all of these other rights in place, it would be like going from a tricycle to the space shuttle. You know what what good would it be to be married if the moment your boss found out you'd gotten married to a guy you get fired for it and you go home and you're complaining to your landlord that you just got fired because you got married to a guy and he says "what you're gay, you're out tomorrow" and you're at the bar across the street complaining about how you just lost your job and the bartender takes the beer back from you that he just gave you because you're gay. Which is legal in my state. Umm the reason I'm I'm avoiding marriage equality quite frankly is that I have a completely Republican legislature. House, Senate, and Governor. And every single thing that I work on that Includes LGBT language they think is a slippery slope to marriage and I'm constantly telling them that it is not. I will secretly tell all of you that it kind of is. Right. Ha, ha, ha ha. Umm there's Just no way around this. Umm I do believe with these these Supreme Court decisions that are going to come down at the end of the month that marriage equality will become the law of the land in some places. I don't think we're going to see a a nationwide marriage uh uh equality from the Supreme Court just yet umm but it will happen soon and it will happen in Pennsylvania. Umm are they ready, they're not and I think that they are getting more and more ready every day. Everywhere I go in the Capitol people talk to me about their gay brother and his husband, or their gay daughter and the girl she's dating, everywhere I go. If I'm in a room with two,_ - people and one of them gets up to leave the other one will Sims, 17-003 Tage 80 lean over and grab my leg and go "by the way mV my sister is dating this really cool girl, you should meet her' as if I didn't meet her at the gay conference that weekend right. Umm and at first I thought it was people pandering to me, sort of the 1 have a black friend thing, that's really what I thought. Great you have a black friend. Umm it turned out what they were really doing is they were trying to make me feel comfortable. People are trying to relate to me. Umm everybody in the Capitol has gay friends and gay families and for, you know, up until this point I don't think they felt like they could talk about them there. You know, the water cooler talk and you're talking about baseball games and and fancy dinners and whatever. I think all these people didn't feel like they could also be bragging about their LGBT friends and family and now, now it's one of those "hey, there goes that gay guy" oh, you know what I've got a gay brother and the conversation is happening. And so I think this is going to all happen very, very, quick umm I...I don't know what my future is in politics. I...I don't have, quite frankly, an interest in higher office. That confuses a lot of people. It's a hard narrative sometimes when you're running for office you're trying to tell people, that you know especially for me, I'd never run for anything in my life, get in on the ground floor. Here's what I'm going to do, I'm gonna, you know these are the bills I'm going to introduce, this is the work I want to do, these are the values I have, you know these are my better angels and they are loud. That's what you're saying to people and I have a lot of people that you know lit a fire under me, kind of kicked me in the butt and 1 m very inertia based, you know inertia, when you you keep moving you keep moving, when you slow down you slow down and I don't feel like slowing down anytime soon. But I also don't have this sort of megalomaniacal path to the residency and I, 1 , I would never want to be an executive, Ipdon't want to be a mayor or a governor. Umm the idea of being the president just sounds thankless to me other than the really cool digs umm and know that my state needs a lot of help. If if there were openings. If I thought that, you know, that a gay voice in my senate was necessary and I could do it, I probably would umm but right now I am exactly where I want to be doing exactly the work that I want to do. Umm I was in in Portland Oregon over the weekend meeting with leaders of Nike. Nike brought in a group of us that specialize in LGBT athletics at the k-12, college, and professional level. And we're helping them build a plan on how they can endorse out athletes. How they can go to teams, and leagues and ownership and say you've been so scared that if one of your athletes came out that everyone would run from them. Now we're telling you if one of yyour athletes comes comes out that we're going to be tf�ere endorsing them, that we're going to support them. You know, getting corporate dollars, gettin corporate dollars behind equalEty is really the answer. There are 26 Fortune 500 companies in Pennsylvania and every single one of them has an LGBT inclusive non-discrimination policy. You can bet your backside that when I'm advocating for this stuff in the Capitol I'm going to them and I'm having them go to Chambers of Commerce and when we are passing these things -at the __ Sires, 17-003 Page 81 municipal level which we tend to do, it really is because of business. Small businesses and largge businesses and the idea that somehow opponents of LGBT civil rights umm can't also be umm big large corporations that put their heft behind them I think is changing every day. Umm for better or worse mostly the Democratic party throughout the 90's vilified big business. You know, if you have a bottom line you also can t have a sort of a corporate mentality or you can't have a community mentality and I think everyday we're seeing that proven wrong and where we have corporate partners in this fight is where we are gaining really, really, solid ground and we aining it fast. LGBT civil rights have advanced in the last 2 ears what took the traditional civil rights movement almost years to do. Some of it is because of what we learned. Most of it is because of allies. Up until just maybe 15-20 years ago umm it was really hard to be an ally. You know you were subject to the same crap that we're subject to everyday. Hey, I saw you hanging out with Sims you gay too? Umm but that has changed and it's changed really fast. I actually, I think Dennis Rodman of all people is sort of responsible for some of this. Remember Dennis Rodman, of course you all do, I don't even know if he's still around. Umm he was on Celebrity Rehab a couple of years ago and didn't look very good. Umm Dennis Rodman, you know at the height of his career was showing up at places in wedding dresses and in high heels and nobody knew if he was gay and they didn't know how to ask him you know they would always report on how colorful and quirky Dennis was getting but nobody knew how to ask him and I think it was Keith Olbermann when he was on ESPN that finally pulled him aside at some award ceremony and said Dennis you're in size 15 heels and a Vera Wang gown. That's how gay I am, I knew what kind of gown. And a Vera Wang gown, what gives, is this your way of coming out. And he had a great answer, and I'll paraphrase he said I'm a secure, confident, heterosexual freak and I'm sleeping with Madonna. And what he said is maybe you focusing on so much on my sexuality has more to do with you than it does with me. He said and he sort of kind of turned that paradigm on its head and and being.okay around LGBT people, let alone being supportive was a sign of how confident and how comfortable he was and that's really taken hold. Now when you see our allies and there are many, man yy of them. Many more than opponents and I want to be really clear about this. The the march for civil rights crested this hill. We've crested the hill. We're sliding into home plate and it's because of the work of allies. It just is. I, I, as a proud gay man that does a lot of LGBT civil rights work, the average ally being vocal about their support does more on a given day than I will ever be able to do in a legislature. So, I am glad that CNA is an ally and I am really, really pleased that I got to address everybody. So, thank you all very, very much. 247. ID 38-3 consists of promotional material announcing Sims' presentation at Raritan Valley Community College on Thursday, April 16, 2015,.an the subject of: "_LGBT Civil Rights and the Power of Allies: A Conversation with Rep. Brian Sims." Sims, 17-003 P-age 82 248, 1D 39-1 — ID 41-2 consist of the original and amended Statements of Financial Interests Sims prepared and filed for calendar year 2013. 249. ID 42-1 --- ID 42-6 consist of the Statement of Financial Interests Sims prepared and filed for calendar year 2014. 250. ID 43-1 — 1D 45-2 consist of the original and amended Statements of Financial Interests Sims prepared and filed for calendar year 2015. 251. Campus Pride Inc.'s IRS 990 tax forms list Sims as a board memberldirector of the organization in 2013 and 2014. (iD 46-2, ID 47-2). See, Fact Finding 209 1. 252. ID 48-1 — ID 48-31R 04-1 — R 04-3 consist of three checks that Lane wrote to Sims. a. The dates of these checks are 12/9114, 815115, and 2/18/16. b. The dates of these checks are within a time period when Pennsylvania's budget was at an impasse and paper checks were being issued to State Representatives. Tr. at 118, 122. c. The amounts of these checks are $4,521.86, $4,500.00, and $3,750.00 respectively. 253. R-01 consists of casework summary reports tracking constituent service(s) provided by Sims' office in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. See, Fact Finding 220 u 2. a. The casework summary report for 2013 reports a casework grand total of 5,529 and a services grand total of 8,219. b. The casework summary report for 2014 reports a casework grand total of 5,850 and a services grand total of 7,421. C. The casework summary report for 2015 reports a casework grand total of 5,358 and a services grand total of 7,230. d. The casework summary report for 2016 reports a casework grand total of 3,245 and a services grand total of 4,250. 254. R-02 is a report indicating that in 2013—which is the year the Chatham University presentation occurred ---Keller sent and received more than 6,161 emails using his Commonwealth/House email. See, Fact Finding 210 h. 255. R-03 consists of emails from 2010 involving the efforts of Equality Pennsylvania and others to get legislation passed on LGBT issues. a. Sims was a participant in these emails. 256. R-08 consists of the April 2009 article in Outsports magazine and subsequent media publications regarding Sims' experience coming out as a gay NCAA college football captain. See, Fact Finding 220 e. 257. R-10 is the first outline of the LGBT "Athletes & Allies" speech Sims prepared. See, Fact Finding 220 h. 253. R-11 is an outline of a speech Sims prepared_ entitled "Pennsylvania in the Next 10 Years: The Economic Rationale for Diversity. See-, Fact Finding 220 m. - Sims, 17-003 Fage 83 259. R-12 is a vision/mission statement that Sims prepared in 2008 for Equality Pennsylvania. See, Fact Finding 220 I. 260. R-13 consists of news articles illustrating the national media attention Sims received before he was sworn into office. See, Fact Finding 220 p 1. I[I. DISCUSSION: As a Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives ("House"), Respondent Brian K. Sims, also referred to herein as "Respondent," "Respondent Sims," and "Sims," is a public official subject to the provisions of the Public Official' and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seg. The allegations as set forth in the Investigative Complaint/Findings Report are that Respondent Sims violated Sections 1103(a), 1103(d), 1104(a), 1104(d), 1101b) 5 , 1105 b (7), and 1105(b)((8) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ '1103(a), 1103(d), 1104 a�, 1104�d�, 1105(b)(5), 1105(b)((7), and 1105(b)(8), when he solicited and/or accep ed honorarium in association with appearances/presentations/speeches; when he utilized staff, office space, equipment and materials of his Legislative District Office and/or his Capitol Office to coordinate, confirm, finalize, etc. appearances/presentations/speeches, resulting in his receipt of payment and/or honorarium; and when he intentionally filed deficient Statements of Financial Interests for the 2013, 2014, and 2015 calendar years, by failing to disclose the names and addresses of any and all direct or indirect sources of income totaling in the aggregate $1,300 or more; when he failed to disclose any and all names, addresses, sources, and amounts received for transportation, lodging, and hospitality received in connection with his public office or employment; and when he failed to disclose any and all offices, directorships or employment of any nature whatsoever in any business entity. Pursuant to Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act, a public official/public employee is prohibited from engaging in conduct that constitutes a conflict of interest: § 1103. Restricted activities (a) Conflict of interest. —No public official or public employee shall engage in conduct that constitutes a conflict of interest. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a). The term "conflict" or "conflict of interest" is defined in the Ethics Act as follows: § 1102. Definitions "Conflict" or "conflict of interest." Use by a public official or public employee of the authority of his office or employment or any confidential information received through his holding public office or employment for the private pecuniary benefit of himself, a member of his immediate family or a business with which he or a member of his immediate family is associated. The term does not include an action havingg a de minimis economic impact or which affects to the same de ree a class consisting of the general public or a subclass consisting of an industry, occupation or other group which includes the public official or public employee, a member of his immediate family or a business with which he or a member., - of his immediate family is associated. Sims, 17-003 gage 84 65 Pa.C.S. § 1102. Subject to the statutory exclusions to the Ethics Act's definition of the term "conflict" or conflict of interest, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1102, pursuant to Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act, a public official/public employee is prohibited from using the authority of public officelemployment or confidential information received by holding such a public position for the private pecuniary benefit of the public official/public employee himself, any member of his immediate family, or a business with which he or a member of his immediate family is associated. To the extent the activities of a state legislator relate to legislative actions introducing, considering, debating, voting, enacting, adopting, or approving legislation, they are constitutional] y controlled and are exempt from the purview of the Ethics Act and this Commission. See, Mann, Opinion 07-005; Confidential Opinion, 05-002; Corrigan, Opinion 87-001. Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act prohibits a public official/public employee from accepting an honorarium: § 1103. Restricted activities. (d) Honorarium. --No public official or public employee shall accept an honorarium. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(d). The Ethics Act defines the term "honorarium" as follows: § 1102. Definitions "Honorarium," Payment made in recognition of published works, appearances, speeches and presentations and which is not intended as consideration for the value of such services which are nonpublic occupational or professional in nature. The term does not include tokens presented or provided which are of de minimis economic impact. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1102. The question of whether a given payment is an honorarium prohibited by Section 1103(d) is determined by an application of the statutory definition set forth in the Ethics Act, not by the mere label that may have been attached to the payment. Fiorello, Order No. 1363; Confidential Opinion, 14-007; Confidential Opinion, 01-001. The statutory definition of "honorarium" generally includes payments that are made in recognition of speaking engagements/presentations, appearances, and published works, but excludes such payments if: (1) they are legitimately intended as consideration for the value of such services; and (2) they are undertaken in the public official'slpublic employee's private professions or occupational capacity and are not related to the public position. Fiorello, supra; Confidential Opinion, 14-007; Confidential Opinion, 01-001. In Baker, Opinion 91-004, we set forth criteria for determining. whether the exclusion in the statutory definition of the term "honorarium" applies in any given instance, which criteria include the followingg: the private occupation of the public official/public employee; the expertise of the public official/public employee in the area; the history of activity in the occupation prior to public service; the purpose for the invitation; the capacity in which the public official/public employee is invited; the subject_ of the. speech, work or presentation; the group spoken to and the composition as to members or non-members-- Sims, 17-003 age 85 of the group; the purpose for gathering the group; the amount of the fee relative to the services performed; the source of the invitation; the event at which the speech is given; the subject matter of the speech or published work as compared to the normal subject matter dealt with by the occupationallprofessional group; and any other relevant factors. In applying these criteria in Baker, we held that a Senator with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science as well as a Master degree and Ph.D. in Government, who was an assistant professor and faculty associate, taught political science at Temple University, authored/co-authored numerous publications involving political science and government, and had previously served as a panelist or speaker at several professional and civic meetings and conferences, would not be prohibited from accepting a $500 fee for speaking as an academic expert to marketing representatives on the subject of legislative priorities for local government at a seminar where the marketing representatives were meeting with academics, state and local officials, and private sector executives. We determined that under the factual circumstances, the payment would be nonpublic occupational or professional in nature and not an honorarium. Baker, supra. In Confidential Opinion, 14-007, we held that --subject to the condition that the transaction in question in that Opinion would be an "arms -length" marketplace transaction for commercially reasonable terms --the compensation a State Legislator would receive from a publisher for authoring a book about his public and private life would not constitute an honorarium where the relevant facts included, inter alia, that: (1) portion(s) of the State Legislator's proposed book would relate to his experiences as a State Legislator but would not include any confidential information received through his holding public office; and (2) the portions of the book relating to the State Legislator's experiences as a State Legislator would be only a fraction of the overall work encompassing both his public and private life, and in those portions, the General Assembly would be more like a ' backdrop" against which he would describe his interactions with Members of the General Assembly and staff on a personal and professional level than the story itself. In contrast, in Confidential O ip nion, 18-004, we found a connection/nexus between a State Legislator's I5 posed book and the State Legislator's public position as a State Legislator where: (1) the subject matter of the proposed book was a legislative topiciconcern; (2) the proposed book would contain the State Legislator's proposal(s) and his suggestions for potential legislative changes that would aid in improving the subject topiciconcern; and (3) the proposed book would likely discuss pieces of legislation authored by the State Legislator or other State Legislators. We held that any payment(s) to the State Legislator in recognition of the book --including but not limited to royalties from sale(s) of the book —would constitute prohibited honoraria pursuant to Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act. Turning to the relevant Sections of the Ethics Act pertaining to Statements of Financial Interests, hereinafter also referred to in the singular as "SFI" and in the plural as "SFIs," Section 1104(a) of the Ethics Act provides that each public official/public employee must file an SFI for the preceding calendar year, each year that he holds the position and the year after he leaves it. Section 1104(d) of the Ethics Act provides that no public official shall be allowed to take the oath of office, or enter or continue upon his duties, nor shall he receive compensation from public funds, unless he has filed an SFI as required by the Ethics Act. Section 1105(b) of the Ethics Act and its subsections detail the financial disclosure that a person required to file the SFI form must provide. Subject to certain statutory exceptions not applicable to this matter, Section 1105(b)(5) of the Ethics Act requires the filer to disclose on the SFI the name and address of any direct or indirect source of income totaling in the aggregate $1,300 or_more. -. Sims, 17-003 lsage 86 Subject to certain statutory exceptions not applicable to this matter, Section 1105(b)(7) of the Ethics Act requires the filer to disclose on the SFI the name and address of the source and the amount of any payment for or reimbursement of actual expenses for transportation and lodging or hospitality received in connection with public office or employment where such actual expenses exceed $650 in an aggregate amount per year. Section 1105(b)(8) of the Ethics Act requires the filer to disclose on the SFI any office, directorship or employment in any business entity. We shall now summarize the relevant facts. Regarding Sims' Activities Prior to Becominq a State Legislator: Sims has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Bloomsburg University and a J.D. degree in international and comparative law from Michigan State University. Sims has been a post -graduate fellow at Harvard and Stanford Universities. Sims is an attorney by trade. Sims' prominence as an LGBT civil rights advocate had its genesis in his unique experience of coming out as a gay NCAA football captain while attending Bloomsburg University. Later, after attending law school at Michigan State University and becoming an attorney, Sims worked as in-house Staff Counsel for Policy and Planning with the Philadelphia Bar Association, where he used his legal background to implicate policy with respect to LGBT rights, nondiscrimination, hate crimes, and anti -bullying. In April 2009, while Sims was working as in-house Staff Counsel for Policy and Planning with the Philadelphia Bar Association, the story of Sims' experience coming out as a gay NCAA college football captain was reported in Outsports magazine, which led to other media publications and contacts (R-08) In the fall of 2009, a representative of the Pennsylvania State University ("Penn State") asked Sims to speak with Penn State athletes about his experience. This was the first time the opportunity for a paid speaking engagement was broached with Sims. Beginning in the fall of 2009, Sims —who was already doing a lot of advocacy — provided paid speaking engagements at colleges and universities. Sims spoke/lectured on the topic "Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender Athletes & Allies. R-10 is the first outline of the LGBT `Athletes & Allies" speech Sims prepared. This outline was prepared in 2009. Sims gave a version of this speech from 2009 up until the last speech he gave. (Sims testified that he has not been giving speeches during the pendency of this case.) Sims' goal with his speaking engagements was to use his life experiences, including how his community (college football team) had responded to him, to relate to and teach others that their community would respond to them similarly. Sims would detail his own background according to the makeup of the audience. After polling the audience, explaining the LGBTQ spectrum, and discussing various demographic data, Sims would address the specifics of LGBT issues. Sims would state that despite the age group of the audience being supportive of LGBT civil rights, nondiscrimination policies in housing and employment, lifting the LGBT military service ban, hate crimes bills, adoption rights, and inheritance rights at significantly higher numbers than everybody else, that age group only believed that 30% of their peers supported equality as well, which Sims stated was not true. Sims goal with this speech was: (a) to get everybody in the room who was either "in the closet" or on the cusp of coming out to look at a room full of people saying they want to support them; and (b) to demonstrate to those in the audience who did not like gay people or LGBT issues a room full of people makingaheir-feelings known _as -well. - Sims would encourage the audience to talk with their peers about the session, as data Sims, 17-003 'age 87 indicated that the more people talked about LGBT rights, the more it helped advance the cause. Sims testified that what colleges were looking for from him was to explain his experience and the lessons that he learned in a way that others could learn some of those lessons. After leaving his position as in-house staff Counsel for the Philadelphia Bar Association, Sims worked full-time as a professional lecturer and speaker prior to running for office. During the time period from 2009 until Sims was elected, many orgganizations reached out to Sims for speaking engagements. As a speakerllecturer for LGBT Athletes and Allies, Sims received payment as consideration for the value of his time and expertise regarding the topic(s) for which he presented. Fees paid to Sims for his appearances/speaking enggaggements were a primary source of income for Sims in at least 2011 and 2012. Between 2011 and 2012, Sims received payments totaling approximately $60,000.00 from entities, institutions, and collegesluniversities as payment in consideration for his presentation(s)lappearance(s)l speech(es) and/or reimbursement of travel, lodging and meal expenses. One example of a paid presentation Sims provided shortly before taking office occurred in October 2012, when Sims served as the Keynote Speaker at an event held at Yale University. Sims was paid $2,000.00 for that speaking engagement. Sims testified that in the years prior to his election to office, he became the leading LGBTQ policy voice in Pennsylvania. During this time period, Sims ran an organization named "Equality Pennsylvania" (formerly known as Equality Advocates) discussed more fully below, served as president of the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia, was a board member at the National Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, was a board member for the Liberty City Democratic Club, and was a fellow and subsequently a faculty member of the Center for Progressive Leadership. Mason Lane ("Lane"), who ultimately became Sims' Chief of Staff when Sims took office in 2012, first met Sims in 2009 when Lane was an employee of Equality Pennsylvania and Sims was chairman of the board of directors of the organization. Lane testified that Equality Pennsylvania was a political advocacy organization that provided education, training, and outreach to Pennsylvanians on issues of LGBT equality. Sims worked with Lane on Equality Pennsylvania's legislative agenda. Lane testified that for awhile, Sims was "the face" of Equality Pennsylvania and provided speaking engagements regarding the efforts of the organization. Sims' speeches for Equality Pennsylvania included LGBT legislative issues. Theodore Samuel Martin ("Martin"), a former executive director of Equality Pennsylvania who has known Sims since 2009, testified that Martin as executive director of Equality Pennsylvania and Sims as a directo"board president of Equality Pennsylvania worked together to find board members for the organization and to take it in a new direction. Martin testified that prior to becoming a public official, Sims was giving presentations involving issues relevant and important to the LGBT community. One of the issues that Martin and Sims dealt with a lot at Equality Pennsylvania was the lack of antidiscrimination protections in Pennsylvania for the LGBT community. Sims testified that he rebuilt Equality Pennsylvania with new board members and a focus on LGBT advocacy work. A political action committee was also formed. R-12 is a vision/mission statement that Sims prepared in 2008 for Equality Pennsylvania. The stated vision for Equality Pennsylvania was for the organization to be the preeminent advocacy organization for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The staffed mission for Equality Pennsylvania was for the organization to establish and cooperatively work with a network of individuals and organizations to secure equal rights for the LGBT community. One of the stated objectives for the organization was to establish a strong legislative Sims, 17-003 gage 88 agenda and strategy leading to successful timely passage of laws at the local, regional, and state-wide level of Pennsylvania. R-12 specifically references HB 300 (regarding nondiscrimination), hate crimes, anti -bullying, and domestic partnership recoggnition and protection as part of Equality Pennsylvania's legislative agenda. R-12 included establishing a polling plan to support the legislative agenda in legislative districts. R-12 included establishing a plan for participation in the 2012 election to put people in office who were supportive of equality. R-12 also included Sims' own notes with specifics about the legislative agenda of Equality Pennsylvania involving hate crimes, non-discrimination, anti -bullying, and relationship recognition. R-11 is an outline of a speech Sims prepared entitled "Pennsylvania in the Next 10 Years: The Economic Rationale for Diversity." Sims gave this speech in 2010 before the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education's LGBTQ caucus, which consisted primarily of staff, administrators, and professors of the various colleges in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Sims explained about the LGBTQ spectrum and discussed LBTG issues. Sims explained that as a whole, young people support LGBT civil rights, nondiscrimination, ending "don't ask don't tell," hate crimes bills, adoption rights, and inheritance rights. Sims explained the legislative roadblocks in Pennsylvania for equality. Sims explained the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and issues involving housing, employment, public accommodations, and hate crimes legislation. Sims explained that the top grossing companies in the United States all have LGBT inclusive nondiscrimination policies. Sims discussed nondiscrimination policies at the municipal level and that a lot of the early policies happened in college towns. Sims discussed how the number of college students was droppin and the need for colleges to adJJ!ust to appeal to the needs of the new type of college student. Sims ended this speech wi#h the following five points: (a) that those in the room advocate for LGBT inclusive nondiscrimination clauses in their own towns; (b) that they promote LGBT studies programs; (c)) that colleges create safe spaces and programs for gay straight alliances; (d) that they lobby for domestic partnership benefits for other college employees; and (e) that they advertise their campuses' LGBT-inclusive efforts. Sims was paid for giving this speech. In 2010 Sims informed the board of Equality Pennsylvania that he was going to be running for office. Sims' candidacy attracted media attention. R-13 consists of news articles illustrating the national media attention Sims received before he was sworn into office. In November 2012 Sims won the election for Pennsylvania State Representative of the 182nd District, defeating the incumbent by 233 votes. Following his election, Sims' signature line in his private email address has included the fact that Sims is a State Representative. Sims testified, "It's my personal e- mail address, but yeah, it's kind of who I am. It's what I do." jr. at 634). Prior to being sworn into office, and as a result of attending an orientation for incoming House Members which addressed topics including the Ethics Act, Sims asked Nora Winkeiman, Esquire, Chief Counsel for the House Democratic Caucus, if he could continue to make speeches and get paid for them. Sims testified that Winkelman verbally told Sims as long as he continued to speak about the things he had spoken about before and didn't change the subject of his speeches to politics, and as long as he reported "them" on his SFIs, he could continue in his speaking profession. (Tr. at 611-612). The topic of Sims' paid speaking enggaggements was not addressed by Winkelman a ain until 2016. Timothy G. Keller, Jr. ("Kellers'), who at that time was Sims' Chief of Saff, emailed Winkelman asking for a copy of her opinion regarding Sims continuing with ppaid speaking engagements while serving as a Legislator. Winkelman's reply, emailed to Keller on October 3, 2016, is as set forth below: Sorry Tim this got lost in the shuffle. What I told him was that believe he can continue speaking engagements (for which Sims, 17-003 aF�ge s9 he is compensated) substantially similar to those he was doing prior to his becoming elected to the House. He cannot accept compensation for speaking engagements the primary focus of which are legislation that he is working on (or working against) as a state legislator, the legislative process generally, or other topics that he only is familiar with because of his state legislative ob. The idea here is that he cannot benefit financially from the work he does as a legislator, other than b the wages (and per diems or other expense reimbursements he receives from the House. I gave him this advice based on his characterization of the speaking engagements as basically what he did for a living prior to being glected and has chosen to continue to do because there is no prohibition to a state legislator having outside employment. And, of course, he needs to report any compensation he does receive on his annual Statement of Financial Information as well as any travel reimbursements he receives that are in excess of the $650.00 threshold. Let me know if you have any questions. Nora ID 20-1 -- ID 20-2. Sims testified that he followed Winkelman's advice. Sims did not seek an advisory opinion from this Commission regarding his ability to receive payment for speecheslappearances while serving as a State Legislator. Re ardin Sims' Speech es/Presentations After Becominq a State Legislator. Following his election, Sims continued to make paid speeches and presentations at colleges, universities, and other places. Sims received payments for presentations that included background descriptions about his experiences as a State Legislator, including legislation he was sponsoring and supporting. (See, Fact Finding.75). Providing paid speaking events continued to be one of Sims' jobs by which Sims paid his bills. See, Fact Finding 220 t 1; ID 32-1 -- ID 32-3; ID 33; ID 5-1 -- ID 5-2). Sims' paid speeches and presentations that are at issue in this case are listed in Fact Findings 27 and 43. Sims does not represent, as a State Legislator, any of the places where any of these presentations occurred. Fact Finding 44. As detailed in Fact Finding 27, Sims received the following total amounts for $gpearanceslspeeches between 2013 and 2017: (1) in 2013, payments totaling $25,150.00 received from nine entities; (2) in 2014, $500 plus expenses for appearing at the New Orleans Pride Festival; (3) in 2015, payments totaling $22,950.00 received from eight entities; (4) in 2016, payments totaling $16,776.00 received from six entities; and Tin 2017, payments totaling $8,950.00 received from three entities. The payments ms received for these events individually ranged from $500.00 to $6,680.00. The evidence of record includes transcripts and a DVD with content of Sims" speeches at the following three events: 2013 CNA Event.- Sirs 17 003 Ta-T90 On June 20, 2013, Sims spoke at CNA Financial Corporation ("CNA") in Chicago Illinois. CNA paid Sims $2,500.00 for the presentation and additionally paid $318.80 for Sims' airfare. A transcript of a portion of that speech is set forth at Fact Finding 246. 2013 Millersville University Event., On September 27, 2013, Sims spoke at Millersville University, a public university of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A 2013 Form 1099 was issued to Sims, identifying the non -employee payment made to him in the amount of $1,000.00. A transcript of a portion of that speech is set forth at Fact Finding 84. 2015 Raritan Valley Community College Event: On April 16, 2015, Sims gave a speech at Raritan Valley Community College in New Jersey, for which he was paid $3,000.00. A transcript of a portion of that speech is set forth at Fact Finding 108. The evidence of record includes various materials referencing what Sims was invited to speak about at various venues. However, the only evidence of the actual content of Sims' speeches are: (1) the transcripts and DVD for the three events above at CNA, Millersville University, and Raritan Valley Community College (Fact Finding 24611D 37; Fact Finding 84; Fact Finding 108); and (2) a few general references to topics, such as that Sims spoke about LGBT athletes and advocates/allies (Fact Findings 131 a, 161 b, and 171 b); gender and LGBTQ equality (Fact Finding 169 b); and his "time as an openly LGBTQ college football player, his successful political career as the President of Eqquality Pa and his election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives" (Fact Finding 173 a 4). Sims testified that when his speeches discussed his experiences at the Capitol,.it was in the context of his overcoming obstacles and handling marginalization in contemporary experiences. Facilitation of Sims' Presentations/Events: Some of the payments for Sims' speaking engagements were received by Sims through an organization named "Campus Pride, Inc." ("Campus Pride"). Campus Pride's mission is to serve LGBTQ and ally student leaders and campus organizations in the areas of leadership development, support programs and services to create safer, more inclusive LGBTQ-friendly colleges and universities. Shane Windmeyer ("Windmeyer"), the Executive Director of Campus Pride, was among the chief LGBT lecturers at colleges in the United States during the approximately ten years before Sims started lecturing at schools. In or around December 2012, Campus Pride began facilitating presentations at institutions around the country on Sims' behalf. Sometimes organizations paid Sims directly for speaking engagements, and sometimes they paid Campus Pride directly, but either way, for speaking engagements that Campus Pride helped facilitate, Campus Pride would get part of the payment for the engagement. Sims testified that he never signed a formal arrangement with WindmeyerlCampus Pride. Sims stopped using Campus Pride to facilitate his paid speaking engagements around 2014. Beginning in or about the fall of 2014, a fundraising consultant named Rachel Doran ("Doran") volunteered her time to help facilitate Sims' paid speaking engagements. Sims stated to Doran that he could not use government staff for this work. Facilitating Sims' speaking engagements required more time than Doran thought it would take. In the spring of 2015, Doran stopped facilitating speaking engagements for Sims. Sims, 17-003 'age 91 Requests were received at Sims' legislative district office for Sims to provide paid speaking events as well as unpaid speaking events in his capacity as a State Representative. Requests for Sims to provide speaking events were discussed among Mason Lane ("Lane") --who was Sims' Chief of Staff from December 2012 to 2016--and Sims' district director and scheduler at weekly or semi -weekly scheduling meetings. Lane testified that requests for Sims to provide paid speaking events were passed on to Sims, and that Sims handled the majority of them himself. Sims testified that he has never used his legislative staff to facilitate a paid event/non-legislative event. Sims' legislative staff did help him with unpaid speechesor presentations that he was to make at legislative events. Sims testified that paid speaking engagements were not always obvious, in part because Sims spoke at some colleges in his capacity as a legislator. Determining whether an event was a paid speaking event or a legislative event for which Sims would not be paid often required communications back and forth with the requester. Sims' office staff consisted of three or four people at a given time, with the bottom position always responsible for scheduling, the next highest position(s) handling constituent/community relations, and the highest position being the Chief of Staff, who reported to Sims. As detailed in the Fact Findings, various members of Sims' legislative staff testified to performing limited tasks with regard to Sims' paid speaking engagements. Sarah Rabot ("Rabot"), Sims' district coordinator/legislative aide from 2014 to 2015, served as Sims' scheduler. Sims' scheduler needed to know where he was at all times. Sims' scheduler would identify any obvious conflicts among invitations Sims received and events on Sims' calendar. Part of the scheduler's responsibility was to make sure that speaking events did not conflict with other commitments on Sims' schedule. Rabot was told that for Sims' paid speaking events, she could help with scheduling dates and times. Rabot testified that she would just do the scheduling part and then hand it over" to Sims or someone working on his campaign. Tr. at 192. Rabot rarely booked travel for Sims but might look up flights for him. Rabot testified that there were times she was asked to submit a W-9 form for a speaking engagement provided by Sims even though Sims was not going to be receiving a fee. These requests came from the persons requesting Sims' attendance, not from Sims or Lane. Rabot used her Commonwealth/ House email to provide photographs and Sims' biography for Sims' speaking engagements. Rabot did the scheduling for a paid speaking engagement Sims had at Wawa for which Sims was paid $2,500.00. Wawa contacted Rabot at Sims' district office during normal office hours. Wawa provided a media article to Rabot at Rabot's Commonwealth/House email address to forward to Sims. Rabot forwarded the media article to Sims at Sims' personal email address. On October 9, 2013, Sims gave a speech at Chatham University located . in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Chatham University paid Sims $1,250.00 for this speaking engagement. However, prior to accepting payment, Sims had planned to donate the money back for this speaking engagement or waive a fee, and Sims' legislative staff believed they could work on this event "in --house" because it was to be an unpaid, legislative event. ID 3-1 — ID 3-3. Keller, who worked as Sims' district coordinator, then as district director, and ultimately as Sims' Chief of Staff, testified that for a paid presentation, he usually just passed the event on to Sims or forwarded it to his (Keller's) superior. However, there were a couple of Sims' paid speaking events for. which . K, eller performed; scheduling duties, including the event at Chatham University. Keller testified that -for -Sims' Chatham Sims, 17-003 �E a 92 University presentation, there was internal deliberation at Sims' office as to whether this would be a legislative function or a "personal capacity" type of event. Keller engaged in the following activities for Sims' Chatham University presentation. Keller used his Commonwealth/House email to forward a high resolution head shot of Sims to Anne Guadagnino ("Guadagnino"), Program Coordinator of Chatham University's Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics, per her request. (11316). Keller testified that if someone could not figure out how to download the high resolution head shot from the web site, he would send it to them. Keller testified that he would send a high resolution head shot of Sims to anybody who asked for one. Keller testified, "...there was a lot of communication back and forth between me and [Guadagnino]." Tr. at 331-332. Keller engaged in a series of emails with Sims about the title of Sims' presentation, travel plans, and payment or donation or waiver of the fee. (ID 17-1 -- ID 17-2). As of September 24, 2013, Sims instructed Keller to tell Chatham University representative(s) that he (Sims) wanted to waive payment. (ID 17-1). However, a few days later, on September 27, 2013, Sims informed Keller of his (Sims') selection of a payment option offered by Chatham whereby Sims would receive a payment of $1,250.00 and would cover his own travel costs. (ID 18-1). On October 30, 2013, Keller emailed Guadagnino to confirm that she had received the necessary documents to process Sims' payment. (ID 18-9). Lane attended Sims' speakin , engagement at Chatham University but testified that he also attended another event in F iittsburgh at that time as well. Lane testified that his email dated October 11, 2013, to Guadagnino, in which Lane indicated that "we'll" complete a W-9 and independent contractor form relative to Sims' speech for Chatham University (ID 3-8), could have meant that Sims would complete and forward the forms. RegardinggSlms' SFIs: Sims testified that the information on his SFIs was true and correct to the best of his knowledge. Sims prepared and filed the original and amended SFIs for calendar year 2013 that are in evidence at ID 39-1 — ID 41-2. Sims testified that he did not list Old Dominion University, CNA, and Amherst College as sources of income because Campus Pride was managing his speaking engagements at that time and it facilitated those events. Sims did disclose Campus Pride as a source of income for calendar year 2013. Sims was a member of the board of directors of Campus Pride during 2013 but failed to disclose his board directorship with Campus Pride on his SFIs filed for calendar year 2013. Sims testified that he did not intentionally fail to list his board directorship with Campus Pride on his SFIs for calendar year 2013, but rather, was not aware that he was a board director of Campus Pride at that time. Sims testified that the only Campus Pride board meeting he is aware of is one he attended where he does not recall any formal board process or making or taking any votes. Sims prepared and filed the SFI for calendar year 2014 that is in evidence at ID 42-1 -- ID 42-6. Sims was a member of the board of directors of Campus Pride during 2014 but failed to disclose his board directorship with Campus Pride on his SFIs filed for calendar year 2014. Sims testified that he did not intentionally fail to list his board directorship with Campus Pride on his SF[s for calendar year 2014, but rather, was not aware that he was a board director of Campus Pride at_that.time._ . Sims, 17-003 'age 93 Sims prepared and filed the original and amended SFIs for calendar year 2015 that are in evidence at ID 43-1 -- ID 45-2. Sims disclosed Northern Michigan University as the source of income for a paid speech he provided there in 2015. None of the SFIs that Sims filed for calendar year 2015 listed Campus Pride Inc. as a direct or indirect source of income. Sims testified that even though he received a check from Campus Pride for the speech he gave at Northern Michigan University in 2015, he did not list Campus Pride as a source of income on his SFIs for calendar year 2015 because Campus Pride had nothingg to do with that speech. Sims testified that Doran —not Campus Pride —facilitated his 20'15 speech at Northern Michigan University. Sims testified that he received 100% of the payment for his speaking engagement at Northern Michigan University. Sims testified that he did not intentionally fail to include the aforesaid information in his 2013, 2014, or 2015 SFIs so that he could deceive the public. Having set forth the material facts, we shall now outline the parties' respective positions/arguments. The Investigative Division asserts: That Sims violated Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act when he utilized staff, office space, equipment and materials of his legislative district office and/or his Capitol office to coordinate, confirm, finalize, etc. appearances/presentations/speeches resulting in his receipt of financial gain; That Sims' staff went beyond coordinating calendars to providing various speaking venues with Sims' head shot and biography; That for the Chatham University/PCWP speakingg enggagement, Keller was the "middle -man" in negotiations between Chatham/PCWP and Sims regarding the title of his presentation, travelllodging for the presentation, and payment for the presentation, and that Keller also followed up with Chatham/PCWP representatives to ensure that Sims was paid after the event; That Keller engaged in the aforesaid activities with Sims' knowledge that Keller was doing so using House resources and on House time; • That Sims received a pecuniary benefit consisting of both the cost savings of personnel, equipment, office space, fees, etc. associated with hiring/contracting with a speakers bureau and the financial gain of any speaker's ,fee paid directly to Sims; That Sims realized a financial gain of $9,000.00 in association with speaking engagements coordinated and/or negotiated by his legislative staff, consisting of $4, 0.00 in 2013 and $4,250.00 in 2014; • That Sims knew of the prohibitions against accepting honoraria before he was sworn into office; That Sims was told by Winkelman verbally, before Sims took office, to stay within the parameters of his prior speeches and presentations, and that he did not stay within those parameters; • That Sims violated Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act when he- ec-ive _payment _ ..._ for speeches/presentations that exceeded the scope of those he gave prior to Sims, 17-003 age 94 holding public office, specifically, the CNA speech, the Millersville University speech, and the Raritan Valley Community College speech; That Sims' CNA speech related to his position as a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly because he spoke about: (a) the district he represents; (b) his frustration that Pennsylvania did not have a sin le LGBT civil right; (c) his conversations with the incumbent he ran against; �d) his meeting at the Capitol with General Assembly leadershi ; (e) what he had done legislatively and the package of bills he had introduce dp (f) people at the Capitol and conversations he had with them; (g) his future in politics and higher office; and (h) the Supreme Court DOMA decision; That Sims' Millersville University speech related to his position as a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly because he spoke about: (a) Pennsylvania's lack of civil rights; (b) the LGBTQ equality caucus; �c) HB300, a nondiscrimination bill; (d) the Pennsylvania Voter IDbill; (e) Sims' ineractions with another Member of the General Assembly and how it "kickstarted his speaking career"; and (f) his reputation of being bipartisan; That Sims' Raritan Valley Community College speech related to his position as a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly because he spoke about: a his positi0n/public office as a Member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly; (b) his experience with the House rule and procedure of unanimous consent; (c) House rules; (d) non-discrimination bills; and (e) marriage equality; • That Chatham University/PCWP invited Sims to speak about his introduction of anti --discrimination legislation, the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on DOMA, and additional policy and legal challenges facing the LGBT civil rights movement, and marketed the event as a discussion by Sims of current anti -discrimination legislation and marriage equality"; • That the use of Sims' title in promotional materials would not in and of itself require the finding of a violation of Section 1103(d), but that the use of his title coupled with the actual content of his speech make it clear that he violated Section 1103(d) when he accepted payment after speaking at Raritan Valley Community College; • That the fact that Sims gave part of the same speech before taking public office does not negate a violation of Section 1103(d) for speeches he gave after taking public office; That although Sims may have outside employment and earn a living for himself in addition to his legislative salary, he is not permitted, under Pennsylvania law, to profit from his experiences as a public official; That any of the Baker criteria which lean more heavily towards the finding of a violation of Section 1103(d) should be deemed sufficient to find such a violation; • That there was an undeniable nexus/connection between Sims' public position and the speeches that he gave; • That a violation of Section 1103(d) should be found in this case based upon Fiorello, Order 1363 and Confidential Opinion, 18-004; Sims, 17-003 T e 95 • That Sims violated Sections 1104 and 1105(b}}(5)(8) of the Ethics Act when he filed deficient SFIs for calendar years 2013,20 14, and 2015, and that he has not amended those forms to correct the deficiencies; • That Sims failed to disclose Amherst College and Campus Pride as direct sources of income on his 2013 and 2015 SFIs respectively; • That Sims failed to list his board directorship with Campus Pride on his 2013 and 2014 calendar year SFIs; • That this Commission should impose restitution of no less than $9,000.00 to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania representing the private pecuniary benefit realized in violation of the Ethics Act for presentations/speeches at: (1) CNA on June 20, 2013, for which Sims was paid $2,500.00; (2) Millersville University on September 27, 2013, for which Sims was paid $1,000.00; (3) Chatham University on October 9, 2013, for which Sims was paid $1,250.00; (4) Bloomsburg University, Lavender Graduation on April 11, 2015, for which Sims was paid $750.00; �5� Raritan Valley Community College on April 16, 2015, for which Sims was paid,000.00; and (6) Gettysburg College in 2015, for which Sims was paid $500,00; and • That this Commission should also order Sims to disgorge his legislative salary for the years he failed to properly file an SFI in accordance with the Ethics Act. Sims has raised the following defenses/arguments: • That Sims lacked the requisite intent to violate Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act; That Sims did not use the authority of his public office in relation to his legislative staffs activities involving Sims' paid presentations; • That the evidence indicates that up until about two weeks before the Chatham University/PCWP event, there was confusion on the part of Sims, his office staff, and the organizers at Chatham University/PCWP about what the exact topic of the speech was going to be and whether Sims was going to be paid for the event; That it is the Investigative Division's burden to prove that an alleged private pecuniary benefit is not de minimis, and that the Investigative Division failed to do so either with respect to the economic impact on Sims' public office or his private pecuniary benefit; That the amount of time legislative staff spent responding to emails or phone calls relating to Sims' presentations and the amount of House resources they may have used was so insignificant that it did not result in delivery of the payments in question to Sims, did not result in a private pecuniary benefit to Sims beyond a de minimis amount, and did not have a significant impact on Commonwealth resources/finances; That the Investigative Division entered into evidence approximately 52 emails that were sent or received by three members of Sims' leg sl tiv the staff—Keller, l Lane, and Rabot and that these emails amount to less (6,161) sent and received by a single staffer (Keller) in a single year (2013); That Sims sought, received, and relied upon the advice of the Chief. Counsel for the House Democratic Caucus; - -: Sias, 17-003 fade 96 That the payments Sims received for speaking to students, faculty, employees and managers about the legal and cultural issues facing members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ("LGBT") community —cif which he is a member —and about other diversity issues (also referred to herein as the "Services") while a Member of the House did not constitute impermissible honoraria as defined in the Ethics Act, but rather, constituted compensation for non-public services rendered by Sims as a result of his LGBT rights activism which began well before he became an elected official; That it does not matter what label is attached to a payment; rather, what matters is the statutory definition of the term "honorarium" as interpreted by the Commission and the Pennsylvania courts; That the Ethics Act is a penal statute and therefore any ambiguity in the definition of "honorarium" is to be decided in favor of Sims; That the provision of the Services by Sims is not part of the day-to-day duties of a legislator and therefore is a "nonpublic" occupation or profession; That Sims` factual circumstances fall within the exclusion to the definition of "honorarium" based upon the criteria of Baker, Opinion 91-004; That just like Baker's work prior to his election to the Pennsylvania Senate, Sims' Services were merely a continuation of the work Sims did prior to becoming an elected official; That prior to being elected, Sims was a nationally -known and respected LGBT civil rights activist and was regularly asked to lecture at seminars and other events around the country for which he was compensated; That Sims' education, his life story, his extensive experience with LGBT issues, and his role in the LGBT community all provide him with as much credibility regarding LGBT affairs and political struggles as Baker's academic degrees did in the political science arena; That even if the Commission would overturn the Baker Opinion, it could not hold Sims liable for following that Opinion in the past; That the mere fact Sims included references in his presentation to legislative priorities of the LGBT community which he might be sponsoring or supporting in the State Legislature should not turn a payment made to him in consideration for the value of his presentation into a prohibited honorarium; That Sims was invited to speak at the events in question not because he was a State Representative (specifically, a rank -and -file Member of the minority party in the House) but because of his expertise in civil rig htsldiversitylLGBT issues, and because he was gay, and thus uniquely positioned to connect with his intended audiences; That the fact that third parties chose to describe Sims in their promotional materials or refer to him in their introductory remarks as an elected official, or the fact that an institution might have only learned about him when it was widely reported that he had been elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature as an openly gay man,_ are__ _ __ Sims, 17-003 age P97 not dispositive of his acceptance of impermissible honoraria as defined in the Ethics Act; That none of the appearances which are the subject of this matter occurred within the physical boundaries of Sims' legislative district and only a handful occurred in Pennsylvania; • That the Legislative Journal of the House reflects the legislative intent to allow a public official or public employee to be compensated for services for which he or she would have been paid if not in public life, notwithstanding the ban on accepting an honorarium; That Sims inadvertently neglected to include his board membership/directorship with Campus Pride on his SFIs for calendar years 2013 and 2014; • That for payments received through Campus Pride, Sims was free to disclose Campus Pride as the source of income (citing In re Paulmier, 937 A.2d 364 (Pa. 2007); • That any omissions in Sims' filed SFIs: (a) were inadvertent and non -material; (b) are not grounds for requiring Sims to disgorge the legislative salary he has received over the course of four years since becoming a House Member; and (c) may be corrected through the filing of amended forms; • That the Commission's Regulations contemplate the use of amended forms to correct deficiencies in filed SFIs; That requiring Sims to disgorge four years' worth of his legislative pay for alleged omissions of non -material information would constitute selective prosecution and the imposition of a draconian penalty; and That the Commission should adjudicate this matter in its entirety in favor of Respondent, or alternatively, that Sims should not be penalized for any filed deficient SFI beyond the remedy set forth in Section 1109(f) of the Ethics Act, specifically, a maximum penalty of $250.00 per form. Having summarized the relevant facts and the positionslarguments of the parties, we must now determine whether the actions of Respondent violated Sections 1103(a), 1103(d), 1104(a)), 1104(d) 1105(b) 5), or 1105 b)(8) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1103(a, 1103(d), . 11f04(a�, 1104(d�, 1105(b)(5), and 1105(b)(8). Based upon the Inves igative Division s dosing Statement and Brief, it appears that the Investigative Division is no longer pursuing the alleged violation of Section 1105(b)(7) of the Ethics Act, and we shall treat that allegation as having been non prossed. As we apply the facts to the remaining allegations, due process requires that we not depart from the allegations. PennsV v. Department of State, 594 A.2d 845 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1991). A violation of the Ethics Act must be based upon clear and convincing proof. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1108(g�. Clear and convincing proof is "so `clear, direct, weighty, and convincing as to enabb e the trier of fact to, come to a clear conviction, without hesitance, of the truth of the precise facts in issue. In Re: Charles E.D.M., 550 Pa. 595, 601, 708 A.2d 88, 91 (1998) (Citation omitted). Per the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision in Kistler v. State Ethics Commission, 610 Pa. 516, 22 A.3d 223 (2011), in order to violate ectian 1103 a o Ft he ics Act, a public officiallpublic employee: Sims, 17-003 'age 98 ... must act in such a way as to put his office/public position] to the purpose of obtaining for himself a private pecuniary benefit. Such directed action implies awareness on the part of the [public official/public employee] of the potential pecuniary benefit as well as the motivation to obtain that benefit for himself. Kistler, supra, 610 Pa. at 523, 22 A.3d at 227. To violate Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act, a public official/public employee "must be consciously aware of a private pecuniary benefit for himself, c stfamily, o attain tbusiness, f benefit anId then Pa at 528, 22 A.3dthe at 231. of one or more specific p _... Based upon the record before us, we find no violation of Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act as to the allegation that Sims utilized staff, office space, equipment and materials of his legislative district office and/or his Capitol office to coordinate, confirm, finalize etc, appearances/presentations/ speeches, resulting in his receipt of payment and/or konorarium. Although the use of government staff, time, equipment, facilities, or property for non -governmental purposes —including business, personal, or political purposes —is generally prohibited and may form the basis for a violation of Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act (see, etc .., Dennis, Opinion 07-003; Confidential. Opinion, 05-001), the de minimis exclusion to the statutory definition of "con list or conflict of interest' recludes a finding of conflict of interest as to an action having a de minimis (insignificant economic impact. The determination of whether the de minimis exclusion applies in a given instance is fact specific and is made on a case -by -case basis. See, Seropian v. State Ethics_ Commission, 20 A.3d 534 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2011). We reject the Investigative Division's argument that the pecuniary benefit Sims received in connection with the use of staff, office space, equipment and materials of his legislative district office and/or his Capitol office to coordinate, confirm finalize, etc. appearances/presentations/speeches would include any speaker's fee paid to Sims. Any private pecuniary benefit Sims received as a result of his limited use of legislative staff, office space, equipment and materials to facilitate his paid speaking engagements would be the value of such staff time and the value of such use of office space, equipment and materials, not the amount Sims was paid for his speaking engagements. The evidence of record in this case establishes at most a de minimis economic impact resulting from the use of legislative staff, office space, equipment or materials in furtherance of Sims' paid speaking engagements. Cf., Seropian, sutra. Accordingly, we hold that Sims did not violate Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), as to the allegation that he utilized staff, office space, equipment and materials of his legislative district office and/or his Capitol office to coordinate, confirm, finalize, etc. paid appearances/presentations/speeches, as any such actions had a de minimis economic impact. We also find no violation of Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act in this case. While a Legislator's payment for a speech or written work involvinglegislative topics and legislation can form the basis for a violation of Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act see, Confidential Opinion 18-004), Sims payments for speaking about LGBT issues and legislation fell squarely within the Baker criteria for applying an exclusion in the statutory definition of the term `honorarium" an � therefore such payments did not violate Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act. In applying the Baker criteria, Sims' private occupation was that of a paid professional speaker/lecturer on LGBT issues. Sims' _ expertise_. -..in _evil rig htsldiversitylLGBT issues was founded on his ;own story, educational background;.-- Sims, 17-003 Wage 99 knowledge, experience as an attorney, experience as a leader of LGBT organizations, and years of experience as an LGBT activist and paid speaker on LGBT issues prior to his election to public office. Sims' history of activity in the occupation prior to public service is extensive and is detailed in the Fact Findings above. The purpose for Sims' invitations to speak was to explain his own experiences and the lessons that he learned in a way that others could learn some of those lessons. The capacity in which Sims was invited to speak was as a gay, prominent civil rights activist. Sims' status as a public official was part of his title but was not the reason he was invited to speak. The subject of Sims' presentations included his own experiences and his extensive knowledge regarding LGBT issues. The status of LGBT-related legislation was only a small part of a much larger speech, and LGBT-related legislation was a significant focus of Sims' work prior to taking office. The General Assembly was a "backdrop" against which Sims described his interactions with Members of the General Assembly. Cf., Confidential Opinion, 14-007. The groups spoken to were mainly college students and members o academia. Occasionally Sims spoke to a business group such as was the case with the Microsoft, CNA and Wawa events. The purpose for gathering the group was to educate the listeners to LGBT issues. The amounts of the fees relative to the services performed ranged from $500.00 to $6,680.00, which does not appear to have been out of the ordinary. The source of Sims' invitations were people involved in arranging speakers for colleges and business groups. The events at which the speeches were given were LGBT- related events. The subject matter of the speeches was typical for college/business groups interested in LGBT issues, especially during certain times of the year when LGBT awareness was emphasized. An additional and particularly relevant fact is that none of the appearances which are the subject of this matter occurred within the physical boundaries of Sims' legislative district, and only a few occurred in Pennsylvania. Under the unique facts of this case, Sims' occupation prior to taking office was providing paid speeches on LGBT issues, which includedreferencesto related legislation. Accordin ly, we hold that Sims did not violate Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C,S. � 1103(d), as to the allegation that he solicited and/or accepted honoraria in association with appearances/presentations/speeches, as the payments he received for his appearances/presentations/speeches were consideration for the value of such services which were nonpublic occupational or professional in nature, and therefore were excluded from the Ethics Act's definition of honorarium. Sims would have been well advised to seek an advisory opinion from this Commission prior to providing paid speeches while serving as a Legislator. Had Sims' speeches been more focused on legislation or his legislative duties, the outcome of this case would have been different. See, Confidential O inion, 18-004. We hold that a technical violation of Sections 1104(a) and I I05(b)(5) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1104(a), 1105(b)(5), occurred when Sims failed to disclose Amherst College and Campus Pride as direct sources of income on his 2013 and 2015 SFIs respectively. Per Fact Finding 27, Amherst College and not Campus Pride paid Sims directly for Sims' March 26, 2013, speaking engagement at Amherst College, and therefore Amherst College should have been included as a direct source of income on Sims' SFI for calendar year 2013. Campus Pride, not Northern Michigan University, paid Sims directly for Sims January 21, 2015, speaking engagement at Northern Michigan University, and therefore Campus Pride should have been included as a direct source of income on Sims' SFI for calendar year 2015. See, Fact Findings 27, 209 r (1)-(3). We further hold that Sims violated Sections 1104(a) and 1105(b}(8) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. &§ 1104(a), 1105(b)(8), by failing to list his board membership/directorship with Campus Pride on his 2013 and 2014 calendar year SFIs. We hereby levy three maximum civil penalties against Sims in the amount of $250.00 each, for a total amount of $750.00, for Sims' deficient SFls.for calendar years 2013, 2014, and 2015. Sims shall be ordered to make payment of the aforesaid civil Sias, 17-003 Rage100 penalties in the total amount of $750.00 by no later than the thirtieth (30'h) day after the mailing date of this adjudication and Order, by forwarding to this Commission a certified check or money order in the amount of $750.00 made payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for deposit in the State Treasury. To the extent he has not already done so, Sims shall be ordered to file complete and accurate amended SFls--including all reportable direct sources of income --far calendar ears 2013, 2014, and 2015 with the Chief Clerk of the House and with this Commission by no later than the thirtieth (30th) day after the mailing date of this adjudication and Order. IV. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW: 1. As a Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Respondent Brian K. Sims ("Sims'D is a public official subject to the provisions of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seg. 2. Sims did not violate Section 1103(a) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), as to the allegation that he utilized staff, office space, equipment and materials of his legislative district office and/or his Capitol office to coordinate, confirm, finalize, etc. paid appearances/presentations/speeches, as any such actions had a de minimis economic impact. 3. Sims did not violate Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(d), as to the allegation that he solicited and/or accepted honoraria in association with appearances/presentations/speeches, as the payments he received for his appearances/presentations/speeches were consideration for the value of such services which were nonpublic occupational or professional in nature, and therefore were excluded from the Ethics Act's definition of honorarium. 4. A technical violation of Sections 1104(a) and 1105(b)(5) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1104(a), 1105(b)(5), occurred when Sims failed to disclose Amherst College and Campus Pride, Inc. ("Campus Pride") as direct sources of income on his 2013 and 2015 Statements of Financial Interests respectively. 5. Sims violated Sections 1104(a) and 1105(b}(8) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S.§ 1104(a), 1105(b)(8), by failing to list his board m am Statements dcofFinancial rship Fina l Campus Pride on his 2013 and 2014 calendar year Interests. 6. Notice of the deficiency of Sims' Statements of Financial Interests for calendar years 2013, 2014, and 2105 was previously served uppon him in accordance with Section 1107(5) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1107(5). 7. Based upon the totality of the circumstances in this case, three maximum civil penalties in the total amount of $750.00 are warranted. In Re: The Honorable Brian K. Sims, File Docket: 17-003 Respondent Date Decided: 1/22/20 Date Mailed: 1/31/20 ORDER NO. 1769 1. Brian K. Sims ("Sims"), a public official in his capacity as a Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives ("House") representing the 182nd District, did not violate Section 1103(a) of the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act ("Ethics Act"), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(a), as to the allegation that he utilized staff, office space, equipment and materials of his legislative district office and/or his Capitol office to coordinate, confirm, finalize, etc. paid appearances/presentations) speeches, as any such actions had a de minimis economic impact. 2. Sims did not violate Section 1103(d) of the Ethics Act as to the allegation that he solicited and/or accepted honoraria in association with appearances/ presentations/speeches, as the payments he received for his appearances/ presentations/speeches were consideration for the value of such services which were nonpublic occupational or professional in nature, and therefore were excluded from the Ethics Act's definition of "honorarium." 3. A technical violation of Sections 1104(a) and 1105(b)(5) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1104(a), 1105(b)(5), occurred when Sims ailed to disclose Amherst College and Campus Pride, Inc. ("Campus Pride") as direct sources of income on his 2013 and 2015 Statements of Financial Interests respectively. 4. Sims violated Sections 1104(a) and 1105(b)(8) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. 1104(a), 1105(b)(8), by failing to list his board membership/directorship with Campus Pride on his 2013 and 2014 calendar year Statements of Financial Interests. 5. We hereby levy three maximum civil ppenalties against Sims in the amount of $250.00 each, for a total amount of $750.00, for Sims' deficient Statements of Financial Interests for calendar years 2013, 2014, and 2015. 6. Sims is ordered to make payment of the aforesaid civil penalties in the total amount of $750.00 by no later than the thirtieth (30fh) day after the mailing date of this Order, by forwarding to this Commission a certified check or money order in the amount of $750.00 made payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for deposit in the State Treasury. 7. To the extent he has not already done so, Sims is ordered to file complete and accurate amended Statements of Financial Interests --including all reportable direct sources of income --for calendar years 2013, 2014, and 2015 with the Chief Clerk of the House and with the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission by no later than the thirtieth (30th) day after the mailing date of this Order. 8. Failure to comply with Paragraph 6 or 7 of this Order will result in the initiation of an appropriate enforcement action. BY THE COMMISSION, io o as o a e a, air �r-