Towns Are Wild West Of Lobbying Ethics

It’s a short walk from Hartford City Hall to the state capitol but in terms of lobbying, they might as well be in different countries.

While the Office of State Ethics carefully monitors and regulates every aspect of lobbying at the state level, the office has zero authority over municipal ethics.

That isn’t to say ethics are ignored by individual cities and towns, in fact many have their own ethics boards or commission. It just means lobbyists are playing two ballgames, one at the state level and one at the town level.

“On the state side, it is a much more formal process,” said William Malitsky, with Halloran & Sage. “There’s always the same number of steps that are followed the same way, from a public hearing to committee meetings, for each piece of legislation.”

Conversely, Malitsky said that each town has its own procedures to follow and it’s crucial for lobbyists to be aware of the differences.

“It’s pretty much the same in how we approach issues, in that we’re doing lots of work to educate as many folks as possible,” he said. “The difference is how you go about doing that.”

The stark contrast between state and municipal lobbying is evident by the different people, or in some cases the same people, who get involved in issues.

Family Time

Essentially, the state capitol is one big family. The same lobbyists, the same legislators and the same office staff tend to be around for a while.

“When you lobby at the state, you know that you’re going to see that person, that legislator, that staff member again when dealing with different issues,” said Kevin Reynolds, with Updike, Kelly & Spellacy. “During the course of a session, you tend to keep running into people. That whole relationship aspect is usually not there on the town side.”

Customarily, lobbyists are dealing with specific people in towns, perhaps a business manager or finance director, and do so on a very infrequent basis in some instances.

It makes for an odd transition for lobbyists to go from working with known quantities at the state to unknown question marks at the local level.

“We’ve had clients that hired us because they knew we had good relationships with board members of a particular municipality or just that we’ve worked there before,” Reynolds said.

The issues that draw lobbyists to Connecticut’s smaller towns tend to be more high-profile, at least in the town itself.

“You can have issues in the legislature that are very, very low-profile,” Reynolds said. “But the issues at the town level tend to be more known and may be more important to those in the town.”

Malitsky agreed, to a point, that municipal issues draw more attention in general but said that the attention is paid by a small group.

Focus Of A Few

“I live in Hebron, have children in the school system and I try to pay attention to what’s going on,” he said. “Mostly I just follow what [reporters] write but I can’t attend meetings. There is always that small, core group that pays attention to everything.”

There are other quirks for lobbyists to be aware of as they venture into municipalities, chief among them that not all towns require lobbyists to register as they do with the state.

“When you register, it lets the public and others know who is influencing who,” Reynolds said. “If the best friend of the mayor is hired for something, for example, you would have that public disclosure. But only certain municipalities do that.”

Another interesting twist is how lobbyists who are stuck at a crossroads locally can head to Hartford to solve their problems, especially when it comes to construction projects.

“In certain cases, there are issues because of local restrictions that you can go to the state legislature to try to get fixed,” Malitsky said. “If there are restrictions on water run-off or sewage usage, a developer can turn to the state to change the regulations.”