{"id":484,"date":"2025-07-01T17:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/?p=484"},"modified":"2025-10-09T09:58:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T09:58:44","slug":"conflict-of-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/?p=484","title":{"rendered":"Conflict of Interest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Friends of Vermont Public Education<\/a> have accused<\/a> Senators Seth Bongartz <\/a>of Bennington County, and Scott Beck<\/a> of Caledonia, of violating Vermont\u2019s ethics laws in their work on the education reform bill. Bongartz is closely connected with the Burr & Burton Seminary<\/a> of Manchester, and Beck is an employee of the St. Johnsbury Academy,<\/a> both private schools that will benefit mightily from the amendments that the two Senators attached to the bill in its final hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a conflict of interest?<\/strong>
Under Vermont law,<\/a> a conflict of interest means \u201ca direct or indirect interest of a public servant \u2026 in the outcome of a particular matter pending before the public servant\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When faced with a possible conflict of interest\u2026<\/strong>
The ethics law<\/a> states, \u201cIn the public servant\u2019s official capacity, the public servant shall avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest\u2026public servants faced with a conflict, or the appearance of a conflict, shall publicly recuse themselves from the matter in question.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Senators Bongartz and Beck recuse themselves?<\/strong>
No. They did the opposite, requesting seats on the Committee of Conference for H.454, the education reform bill, that contained several provisions for sending public taxpayer money to private schools<\/a> such as theirs. Both actively participated<\/a> in altering the language of the bill so as to benefit private schools in general, and their two private schools in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is the ethics law enforced?<\/strong>
By the State Ethics Commission<\/a>, which \u201cshall accept complaints from any source regarding governmental ethics in any of the three branches of State government\u2026\u201d In this case, \u201cIf the complaint is in regard to conduct committed by a State Senator, the Executive Director shall refer the complaint to the Senate Ethics Panel and shall request a report back from the Panel regarding the final disposition of the complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate Ethics Panel<\/a> shall \u201creceive and investigate allegations of ethical violations of senators\u2026and\u2026recommend to the Senate any disciplinary action against a senator for an ethical or discriminatory violation\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the punishment?<\/strong>
The Ethics Commission \u201cmay issue warnings, reprimands, and recommended actions\u2026 if it finds that, by a preponderance of the evidence, the public servant committed unethical conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Many Vermonters will be watching closely as the complaint from the Friends of Vermont Public Education works its way through the State Ethics Commission and the Senate Ethics Panel.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Friends of Vermont Public Education have accused Senators Seth Bongartz of Bennington County, and Scott Beck of Caledonia, of violating Vermont\u2019s ethics laws in their work on the education reform bill. Bongartz is closely connected with the Burr & Burton Seminary of Manchester, and Beck is an employee of the St. Johnsbury Academy, both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vermontdesign.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}