Projo Politics Blog

Before getting too comfortable in her new job, Jane Hayward, former health and human services secretary, decided to check in with the state Ethics Commission.

On April 3, Hayward asked the commission what she can and cannot do — under the state’s revolving door law — in her new role as president and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Center Association, a trade organization that provides management services and advocacy for 12 member health centers who, in turn, have grants and/or contracts with the two of the agencies in her former realm: the Department of Human Services and Department of Health.

The revolving-door law places restrictions on what elected and senior officials can do within a year of leaving state government.

In her letter, Hayward said she deliberately negotiated an employment contract that puts someone else — the clinical director — in charge of the management and supervision of the state department contracts until the one-year revolving door ban expires. “In her role as the president and CEO,” the letter promises, Hayward “will have no ministerial or substantive participation in these grants and/or contracts and will not appear before any of the five health and human services departments on behalf of RIHCA.”

Her question to the Ethics Commission: Is that sufficient?

A draft reply from the commission’s executive director, Kent A. Willever, said she needs “to be vigilant in insuring she does not disclose or make use of confidential information acquired during her state service.” But beyond that, Willever said, she can lobby the legislature and general officers, but not represent herself or others before the governor’s office or the Department of Administration for a year. The full Ethics Commission weighs in tomorrow.

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