The Vermont Senate Ethics Panel dismissed two complaints against Sens. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, and Scott Beck, R-Caledonia, and found their conduct was not unethical under the state’s Senate rules.
The complaints were filed over the summer, after lawmakers worked overtime to craft the final form of a wide-ranging education bill, now called Act 73.
The ethics complaints allege the senators advocated for private schools they are associated with. Beck, the Senate minority leader, is employed as a teacher at St. Johnsbury Academy, while Bongartz, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, served almost two decades on the board of Burr and Burton Academy.
Bongartz and Beck both held critical positions on a conference committee charged with reconciling differences in the House and Senate versions of education reform legislation.
The Legislature passed the bill June 16 and Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill into law on July 1.
One complaint, filed by Friends of Vermont Public Education board member Geo Honigford, alleged that the two senators violated ethical standards by negotiating the reform bill and used their positions to advance provisions benefiting the private schools.
Among its many components, the bill set new limits on which independent schools would remain eligible to receive public funding in the future and how much they would be able to charge.
The other complaint, filed on July 9 by Essex-Westford school board Chair Robert Carpenter, alleged ethical violations against Beck specifically.
Carpenter, in his complaint, said he was “alarmed at the conflicts of interests we watch unfold at the state level,” and asked why Beck did not recuse himself from education reform negotiations.
Carpenter attached correspondence his board had with Beck during the state’s implementation of Act 127, a law that tweaked the state’s education finance formula. In the exchange, Carpenter asked Beck whether it was “the will of the legislature and the governor to scale back public education in Vermont?,” to which Beck replied “yes.”
In the Senate Ethics Panel letters dismissing the complaints, panel member Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale, D-Chittenden Southeast, wrote that the panel “did not find probable cause an ethical violation occurred” under Senate rules.
Senate Ethics Panel correspondence typically remains confidential but in this case was shared with VtDigger. The panel’s dismissal of the complaints was first reported by Seven Days.
In correspondence with Carpenter, Hinsdale wrote that Beck’s employment as a teacher “was no secret” at the time of his election. She wrote that he has been employed with St. Johnsbury Academy longer than he’s been a senator.
“To issue an ethical violation to a Senator solely for being an employee/member of a class, known to voters prior to his election in the body, may create constitutional challenges and undermine the sovereignty of the electorate,” Hinsdale wrote.
Bongartz said in an interview the complaint against him was “vacuous” and said he “knew from day one” it would be dismissed.
“I never lost a moment’s sleep over it,” he said. “There was absolutely nothing there.”
He called the complaint “an attempt to weaponize the ethics process, which is unfortunate.”
Beck also said he had not given the complaints much thought.
“My job in here is to represent my towns, the schools in my districts, the students in my district, and that’s what I do, and if somebody from a faraway district doesn’t want me to do that then, I’m not gonna not do what I’m supposed to do,” he said. “I’m gonna do my job.”
Honigford said he was not surprised by the panel’s dismissal. “I knew they were going to dismiss it before I even filed it,” he said.
“You basically have to get caught with your hand in a cookie jar,” he said. “And aside from that, there’s really nothing you can do to be unethical in Vermont.”
Carpenter in an interview suggested that school boards are held to higher standards than sitting senators are.
“I did believe that ethics were not being followed, and that there was private interest involved,” he said. “At the local school board level that would have zero tolerance whatsoever — our constituents would vote us out of office instantly.”
A third complaint against Beck, meanwhile, remains in process. Filed by Danville School District’s board Chair Clayton Cargill, the complaint alleges Beck “used his position and legislative influence to advance a narrative and push” the district to close high school grades at the Danville School to benefit St. Johnsbury Academy.
Beck similarly dismissed that complaint. Cargill said he has not heard back yet from the Senate Ethics Panel.
This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.