Latest news with #TheMontanaSenate
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate Ethics Committee adopts final report detailing facts of Ellsworth contract
The Montana Senate is seen during the Wednesday, February 12, 2025 session. (Nathaniel Bailey for the Daily Montanan) The Senate Ethics Committee on Wednesday adopted its final report detailing the factual findings related to Sen. Jason Ellsworth's rushed attempt to procure a $170,100 contract for a friend and business associate, Bryce Eggleston. More than seven weeks after the Senate voted unanimously to convene the ethics panel to investigate allegations into impropriety by Ellsworth, the four members finalized their task with a 34-page report. The committee's findings will go to the full Senate body, which will establish its own conclusions and determine whether to punish Ellsworth, which could range from a censure to expulsion from the Senate. No timeline has yet been established for the Senate to review the findings, but Chairperson Forrest Mandeville said the committee completed a significant task. The 62 findings, an amalgamation of documents and three days of hearings, lay out a two-decade friendship and professional relationship between Ellsworth and Eggleston; reference interim committee meetings when Ellsworth proposed hiring someone to do similar work on a part-time basis, which the committee rejected; detail the six-day push by Ellsworth, legislative and Department of Administration staff to make the agreement conform to state procurement rules; and account for the numerous times when Ellsworth could have disclosed his conflict of interest due to his pre-existing relationship with Eggleston. Because the committee's task was to present facts to the Senate body to consider, the report's conclusion states that the witnesses who testified were credible, and that 'this report is an accurate findings of fact relevant to the allegation referred to the Senate Ethics Committee.' During three days this week, committee members worked through drafts, with Democrats on the committee pushing for the majority of the revisions, citing a desire to closely adhere to the committee's fact-finding mission. . 'I am unconcerned by the harshness of any statements made, I am concerned about them being factually accurate,' Sen. Laura Smith, D-Helena, said on Monday. 'That's why I keep going back to 'Let's put in the facts. Let's put in quotes from the testimony. Let's build it in a way that people can understand.'' Adam Duerk, who served as special counsel for the ethics committee, cautioned if 'they're clear and harsh but absolutely true, we consider carefully before much revision is made.' During Wednesday's meeting, the committee debated additions Smith, who is a former federal prosecutor, suggested, ultimately including statements from Eggleston's submitted video testimony that Ellsworth had no financial interest in Eggleston's company, Agile Analytics, but that the committee received no documentation to confirm or deny those statements. The committee learned Ellsworth had a close personal relationship with Eggleston, which the senator failed to disclose prior to inking the contract. Other proposed changes that prompted committee discussion revolved around the testimony of Legislative Auditor Angus Maciver, who substantiated allegations that Ellsworth's actions amounted to waste and abuse. Earlier versions of the report spent several paragraphs delving into conclusions reached by Maciver, which Smith said was outside the scope of the committee. 'I really struggle with this idea that we would include someone else's conclusion about the facts, and I think this borders the line between the questions of fact and the questions of law,' Smith said, adding that citing the auditor's testimony was better than citing his office's conclusions. Duerk pushed back, saying that since the auditor's memo 'itself is a fact,' both the testimony and memo carry 'considerable' weight. 'All of this … addresses the appearance of an impropriety,' he said. A separate criminal investigation is underway at the Department of Justice. The ethics investigation – which stretched out weeks longer than initially anticipated — created substantial additional work for the four senators assigned to the committee, as well as legislative staff, and committee members expressed satisfaction with completing their mission. Mandeville thanked the committee members and staff for their time and work ethic throughout the process before he gaveled the committee adjourned. 'That was my favorite gavel,' he said. signed Report and Findings of Fact with attachments
Associated Press
28-01-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Montana Senate convening Ethics Committee to investigate its former president
The Montana Senate will conduct an ethics investigation into a $170,100 government contract brokered late last year by former Senate President Jason Ellsworth with his business associate. The Senate voted unanimously Monday to assemble a bipartisan Ethics Committee to investigate the agreement between Ellsworth and Bryce Eggleston, of Stevensville. Senate leaders say they have questions not only for Ellsworth, a Hamilton Republican, but also state Department of Administration Director Misty Ann Giles. Giles, during an investigation by the Legislative Auditor, acknowledged that the Ellsworth contract violated state law, but DOA saw the deal through, nonetheless. The investigation, released Jan. 24, concluded that Ellsworth's actions with state funds were both wasteful and abusive. 'There are a lot of questions that I think the Department of Administration needs to answer,' Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, told the press following the Senate vote. 'In the audit they admitted to not following what is currently in the law when it comes to procurement.' At issue is the $170,100 agreement Ellsworth brokered with Eggleston at the end of December. Ellsworth, whose tenure as Senate president was expiring, entered into an agreement in which Eggleston would track how the state put into practice several would-be laws limiting the powers of Montana courts. Limiting judicial powers is a priority this legislative session for Senate Republicans, who crafted 27 bills to do so and are expected to pass several in the coming weeks. The terms of the agreement with Eggleston triggered several red flags with the Legislative Auditor. First, contracts over $100,000 undergo a more rigorous procurement process including competitive bidding. Ellsworth had divided the contract into two to keep below that threshold, a move the law specifically prohibits. The auditor's investigation concluded that dividing the contracts was an abuse of power. The Department of Administration, rather than rejecting the agreement outright, consolidated the contracts at year's end, then put Eggleston on a payment plan. The first check was to be issued Jan. 10, even though the services the contractor was expected to offer weren't to take place until months later. Regier called the work Ellsworth contracted out 'simple' and said legislative staff would do it instead. 'We're going to do this with our current staff for zero added expense,' Regier said. 'Honestly, this was like using $170,000 in taxpayer money to hire a good friend to mow your yard. … And we still don't know if that good friend even owns a lawnmower. This contract did not have work started until after the session, yet we, the Senate, have already received an invoice for over $7,000.' Regier said nothing has been paid out. Ellsworth last week said Eggleston no longer wanted the work because of the political fallout. Eggleston has not responded to phone calls or texts from Montana Free Press. On the Senate floor, several members of the Republican leadership team advocated for the Ethics Committee investigation, as did Democratic Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade. 'Government transparency and integrity is a core value for my cause and for our constituents,' Flowers told lawmakers. 'Montanans expect their government and particularly their elected representatives to act in the interest of the people of the state.' Ellsworth told the chamber he, too, supports the investigation. He said questions about the contract had become a distraction. The Senate will also replace one member of the Ethic Committee. Sen. Sue Vinton, R-Lockwood, who was committee chair, will be replaced by Sen. Forrest Mandeville, R-Columbus. Regier offered no explanation for removing Vinton, explaining that many members of the Senate were capable of doing the job. A column by Vinton had circulated through several print publications last week, in which the then-Ethics Committee chairperson disparaged Ellsworth and accused Senate Democrats of enabling Ellsworth after Republicans voted against nominating the Hamilton Republican to a second term as Senate leader. At the start of the 2025 Legislature, Ellsworth and several Democrats managed to amend the Senate rules to give themselves better committee assignments, this after being relegated to a committee that members said had no clear purpose. How the Ethics Committee hearing will play out remains unclear. Regier said Senate leadership is working through the mechanics of a proceeding that's almost unheard of the Legislature. One option to be considered is conducting the hearing with a prosecution and defense making arguments before a committee empaneled like a quasi-judicial body. Regier said the Ethics Committee would meet Wednesday. He characterized its activation as the beginning of the Senate's work on the Ellsworth matter, rather than a final action to the Legislative Auditor's investigation from a week earlier. The Montana Republican Party Chairman Don Kaltschmidt said in a statement Monday that the Legislative Audit Division's findings were disturbing. 'The report raises significant issues related to the abuse of power and mismanagement of state resources, and we believe that accountability is an essential standard that needs to be in place for all elected officials,' Katlschmidt said. 'No one is above the law.'
