Ethics Complaint Filed Against Cicilline’s Sister
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Former Narragansett Town Council President Glenna Hagopian has filed an Ethics Commission complaint against Town Council Pro-Tem and House District 33 Democratic candidate Susan Cicilline Buonanno, the sister of United States Congressman David Cicilline (D-I).
In the complaint, Hagopian said she was sent anonymous copies of political campaign emails Cicilline Buonanno allegedly sent from her Gladstone Elementary School email address, and also learned Cicilline Buonanno used her office telephone as the primary contact number on campaign finance reports, in violation of 36-14-5 (d) - Prohibited Activities.
Buonanno, who is currently on the Narragansett Town Council, is running in a special election to replace Don Lally (District 33).
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"I have no perspective on how the Commission will rule, nor do I have anything to gain or lose by having filed the complaint," said Hagopian. "My feeling is only that the rules governing Prohibited Activities of public officials are quite clear and they should apply to everyone." Hagopian has previously run for office as both a Democrat and unaffiliated.
Nature of Complaint
In the complaint, Hagopian noted that she had discovered the following.
Two separate emails printed and placed anonymously at mailbox. Both emails are sent from respondent's Cranston school email account (network and domain owned and maintained by Cranston School system) - clearly leveraging Cranston's municipal assets for use in current campaign for District 33 seat.
Respondent is also using Cranston school telephone system for political purposes (vs. primary cell phone) as evidenced by "primary contact #" provided on campaign finance reporting. These instances appeared to be in violation of 36-14-5 (d) - Prohibited Activities.
PUT COMPLAINT
John Marion Executive Director of Common Cause Rhode Island, weighed in on the issue.
"It gets to the use of resources for political office," said Marion. "This might be one of those it may be legal, but it might not be right -- most people would agree she shouldn't use public resources running for office, especially when a gmail account is free and everyone has a cell phone these days."
"That would be the closest thing in the code of ethics that would apply," said Marion of the election law referenced. "It's not nepotism, but it's a bit of a reach to say that using work email will result in financial gain. How much money does an email cost? It's a tenuous leap using work email address for financial gain."
"That doesn't mean it's not wrong to use your public resources provided to try to gain political office," said Marion. "You shouldn't be doing that. Whether you can punished for it is another thing. There can be employer policies about using work email for personal use. Whether that applies here, I don't know."
Repeated efforts to reach Cicilline Buonanno went unanswered on Monday.
Related Slideshow: Rhode Island’s History of Political Corruption
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