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HomeMy WebLinkAbout23-534 Batula PHONE: 717-783-1610 STATE ETHICS COMMISSION FACSIMILE: 717-787-0806 FINANCE BUILDING WEBSITE: www.ethics.pa.gov TOLL FREE: 1-800-932-0936 613 NORTH STREET, ROOM 309 HARRISBURG, PA 17120-0400 ADVICE OF COUNSEL June 5, 2023 To the Requester: Melissa J. Batula 23-534 Dear Ms. Batula: This responds to your letter dated May 19, 2023, by which you requested an advisory from the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission (“Commission”), seeking guidance as to the issue presented below: Issue: Whether the Public Official and Employee Ethics Act (“Ethics Act”), 65 Pa.C.S. § 1101 et seq., would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon you following termination of your employment as the Deputy Secretary for Highway Administration for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (“PennDOT”). Brief Answer: YES. During the first year following termination of your employment with PennDOT, Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act would apply and restrict you from engaging in any activity that would involve “representation” of a “person” — including but not limited to a new employer — before your “former governmental body,” PennDOT. For a period of two years following termination of your employment with PennDOT, Section 1103(i) of the Ethics Act would restrict you from being employed by, receiving compensation from, assisting, or acting in a representative capacity for a business that you actively participated in recruiting to the Commonwealth or actively participated in inducing to open or expand a plant, facility, or branch in the Commonwealth through a grant or loan of money or a promise of a grant or loan of money from the Commonwealth. Batula, 23-534 June 5, 2023 Page 2 Facts: You request an advisory from the Commission based upon submitted facts that may be fairly summarized as follows. You began employment with PennDOT in March 2006. You served as the Deputy Secretary for Highway Administration for PennDOT from approximately January 2020 until March 2021, when you became the Acting Executive Deputy Secretary for PennDOT. You resumed serving as the Deputy Secretary for Highway Administration in February 2023. Your employment with PennDOT ended on March 31, 2023. Effective May 15, 2023, you began employment as a Principal Program Manager for HDR Engineering, Inc. (“the Firm”). You state that prior to taking this position, you informed the Firm that you would be precluded from working on any projects with PennDOT for a period of one year following termination of your employment with PennDOT. You seek guidance as to whether the Ethics Act would impose any prohibitions or restrictions upon you following termination of your Commonwealth employment. In particular, the following questions are posed by your advisory request: (1) Whether there would be any restrictions upon you with regard to doing work for agencies or other entities that receive funding from PennDOT, such as the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (“SEPTA”), Pittsburgh Regional Transit, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Cities of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or other local governments, or the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission or other planning organizations; (2) Whether there would be any restrictions upon you with regard to doing work for agencies or other entities for which PennDOT has oversight responsibilities, such as, for example, being included as part of the staff on a general engineering contract for SEPTA; (3) Whether there would be any restrictions upon you with regard to doing work on behalf of a third party where such work would ultimately be submitted to PennDOT for approval or acceptance (examples of such work would include the preparation of bridge inspection reports for a local partner, a safety audit for a transit provider, or a grant application for a planning partner); and (4) Whether there would be any restrictions upon you with regard to attending, participating in, or speaking/making presentations at national or industry conferences, informal charity events, or other engagements at which PennDOT staff may also be in attendance. Batula, 23-534 June 5, 2023 Page 3 Discussion: It is initially noted that pursuant to Sections 1107(10) and 1107(11) of the Ethics Act, 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1107(10), (11), advisories are issued to the requester based upon the facts that the requester has submitted. In issuing the advisory based upon the facts that the requester has submitted, the Commission does not engage in an independent investigation of the facts, nor does it speculate as to facts that have not been submitted. It is the burden of the requester to truthfully disclose all of the material facts relevant to the inquiry. 65 Pa.C.S. §§ 1107(10), (11). An advisory only affords a defense to the extent the requester has truthfully disclosed all of the material facts. During your employment as the Deputy Secretary for Highway Administration for PennDOT, you were considered a public official/public employee and an “executive-level State employee” subject to the provisions of the Ethics Act and the Regulations of the State Ethics Commission. See, 65 Pa.C.S. § 1102; 51 Pa. Code § 11.1. Consequently, upon termination of your employment with PennDOT, you became a former public official/public employee and former executive-level State employee subject to the restrictions of Section 1103(g) and Section 1103(i) of the Ethics Act. Section 1103(i) restricts former executive-level State employees as follows: § 1103. Restricted activities (i) Former executive-level employee.--No former executive-level State employee may for a period of two years from the time that he terminates employment with this Commonwealth be employed by, receive compensation from, assist or act in a representative capacity for a business or corporation that he actively participated in recruiting to this Commonwealth or that he actively participated in inducing to open a new plant, facility or branch in this Commonwealth or that he actively participated in inducing to expand an existent plant or facility within this Commonwealth, provided that the above prohibition shall be invoked only when the recruitment or inducement is accomplished by a grant or loan of money or a promise of a grant or loan of money from the Commonwealth to the business or corporation recruited or induced to expand. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(i). Section 1103(i) restricts the ability of a former executive-level State employee to accept employment or otherwise engage in business relationships following termination of State service, under certain narrow conditions. The restrictions of Section 1103(i) apply even where the business relationship is indirect, such as where the business in question is a client of a new employer, rather than the new employer itself. See, Confidential Opinion, 94-011. However, Section 1103(i) would not restrict you from being employed by, receiving compensation from, assisting, or acting in a Batula, 23-534 June 5, 2023 Page 4 representative capacity for a business subject to the conditions that you did not actively participate in recruiting such business to Pennsylvania, and that you did not actively participate in inducing such business to open or expand a plant, facility, or branch in Pennsylvania, through a grant or loan of money or a promise of a grant or loan of money from the Commonwealth. Unlike Section 1103(i), Section 1103(g) does not prohibit a former public official/public employee from accepting a position of employment. However, it does restrict the former public official/public employee with regard to “representing” a “person” before “the governmental body with which he has been associated.” § 1103. Restricted activities (g) Former official or employee.--No former public official or public employee shall represent a person, with promised or actual compensation, on any matter before the governmental body with which he has been associated for one year after he leaves that body. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1103(g) (Emphasis added). The following terms related to Section 1103(g) are defined in the Ethics Act as follows: § 1102. Definitions “Represent.” To act on behalf of any other person in any activity which includes, but is not limited to, the following: personal appearances, negotiations, lobbying and submitting bid or contract proposals which are signed by or contain the name of a former public official or public employee. “Person.” A business, governmental body, individual, corporation, union, association, firm, partnership, committee, club or other organization or group of persons. “Governmental body with which a public official or public employee is or has been associated.” The governmental body within State government or a political subdivision by which the public official or employee is or has been employed or to which the public official or employee is or has been appointed or elected and subdivisions and offices within that governmental body. 65 Pa.C.S. § 1102. Batula, 23-534 June 5, 2023 Page 5 The term "Person" is very broadly defined. It includes, inter alia, corporations and other businesses. It also includes the former public employee himself, Confidential Opinion, 93-005, as well as a new governmental employer. Ledebur, Opinion 95-007. The term "representation" is also broadly defined to prohibit acting on behalf of any person in any activity. Examples of prohibited representation include: (1) personal appearances before the former governmental body or bodies; (2) attempts to influence; 3) submission of bid or contract proposals which are signed by or contain the name of the former public official/public employee; (4) participating in any matters before the former governmental body as to acting on behalf of a person; and (5) lobbying. Popovich, Opinion 89-005. Listing one's name as the person who will provide technical assistance on a proposal, document, or bid, if submitted to or reviewed by the former governmental body, constitutes an attempt to influence the former governmental body. Section 1103(g) also generally prohibits the inclusion of the name of a former public official/public employee on invoices submitted by his new employer to the former governmental body, even if the invoices pertain to a contract that existed prior to termination of service with such governmental body. Shay, Opinion 91-012. However, if such a pre-existing contract does not involve the unit where the former public employee worked, the name of the former public employee may appear on routine invoices if required by the regulations of the agency to which the billing is being submitted. Abrams/Webster, Opinion 95-011. A former public official/public employee may assist in the preparation of any documents presented to his former governmental body. However, the former public official/public employee may not be identified on documents submitted to the former governmental body. The former public official/public employee may also counsel any person regarding that person's appearance before his former governmental body. Once again, however, the activity in this respect should not be revealed to the former governmental body. The Ethics Act would not prohibit or preclude making general informational inquiries to the former governmental body to secure information which is available to the general public, but this must not be done in an effort to indirectly influence the former governmental body or to otherwise make known to that body the representation of, or work for, the new employer. Section 1103(g) only restricts the former public official/public employee with regard to representation before his former governmental body. The former public official/public employee is not restricted as to representation before other agencies or entities. However, the "governmental body with which a public official/public employee is or has been associated" is not limited to the particular subdivision of the agency or other governmental body where the public official/public employee had influence or control but extends to the entire body. See, Legislative Journal of House, 1989 Session, No. 15 at 290, 291; Sirolli, Opinion 90-006; Sharp, Opinion 90-009-R. The governmental body with which you are deemed to have been associated upon termination of your employment with PennDOT is PennDOT in its entirety. Therefore, for the first year following termination of your employment with PennDOT, Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Batula, 23-534 June 5, 2023 Page 6 Act would apply and restrict you from representing a "person" — including but not limited to the Firm —before PennDOT. Having set forth the restrictions of Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act, your specific questions shall now be addressed. In response to your first and second questions, you are advised that Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act would not prohibit you from: (1) doing work for agencies or other entities that receive funding from PennDOT, such as SEPTA, Pittsburgh Regional Transit, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, the Cities of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or other local governments, or the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission or other planning organizations; or (2) doing work for agencies or other entities for which PennDOT has oversight responsibilities, subject to the condition that in performing such work, you would not engage in prohibited representation before PennDOT as set forth above. With respect to your third question, you are advised as follows. Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act would not prohibit you from doing work on behalf of a third party subject to the condition that in performing such work, you would not engage in prohibited representation before PennDOT. If work that you would perform on behalf of a third party would ultimately be submitted to PennDOT for approval or acceptance (bridge inspection reports for a local partner, a safety audit for a transit provider, a grant application for a planning partner, etc.), you would need to exercise caution to ensure that you would not engage in prohibited representation before PennDOT, such as for example, through the inclusion of your name on that work. In response to your fourth question, you are advised that Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act would not prohibit you from attending, participating in, or speaking/making presentations at national or industry conferences, informal charity events, or other engagements at which PennDOT staff may also be in attendance subject to the condition that in so doing, you would not act in such a way as to make known to PennDOT your representation of, or work for, the Firm. Cf., Valentine, Opinion 20-003; Confidential Opinion, 17-007; Koser, Advice 21-540; Healey, Advice 18-518; Anderson, Advice 16-504. Conclusion: During your employment as the Deputy Secretary for Highway Administration for PennDOT, you were considered a public official/public employee and an “executive-level State employee” subject to the Ethics Act and the Regulations of the State Ethics Commission. Upon termination of your employment with PennDOT, you became a former public official/public employee and a former executive-level State employee subject to the restrictions of Section 1103(g) and Section 1103(i) of the Ethics Act. Under Section 1103(i) of the Ethics Act, you would not be prohibited from being employed by, receiving compensation from, assisting, or acting in a representative capacity for a business subject to the conditions that you did not actively participate in recruiting such business to Pennsylvania, and that you did not actively participate in inducing such business to open or expanda plant, facility, or branch in Pennsylvania, through a grant or loan of money or a promise of a grant or loan of money from the Commonwealth. Batula,23-534 June 5, 2023 Page 7 The governmental body with which you are deemed to have been associated upon termination of your employment with PennDOT is PennDOT in its entirety. For the first year following termination of your employmentwith PennDOT, Section 1103(g) of the Ethics Act would apply and restrict you from representing a "person"—including but not limited to your new employer,the Firm —before PennDOT as delineated above. The restrictions as to representation outlined above must be followed. Pursuant to Section 1107(11) of the Ethics Act, an Advice is a complete defense in any enforcement proceeding initiated by the Commission, and evidence of good faith conduct in any other civil or criminal proceeding, provided the requester has disclosed truthfully all the material facts and committed the acts complained of in reliance on the Advice given. This letter is a publicrecord and will be made available as such. Finally, if you disagree with this Advice or if you have any reason to challenge same, you may appeal the Advice to the full Commission. A personal appearance before the Commission will be scheduled and a formal Opinion will be issued by the Commission. Any such appeal must be in writing and must be actually received at the Commission within thirty (30) days of the date of this Advice pursuant to 51 Pa. Code § 13.2(h). The appeal may be received at the Commission by hand delivery, United States mail, delivery service, or by FAX transmission (717-787-0806). Failure to file such an appeal at the Commission within thirty (30) days may result in the dismissal of the appeal. Respectfully, Bridget K. Guilfoyle Chief Counsel