Ethics Office Takes A Wrong Turn On Lobby Data

There’s no glory in piling on someone who has already been laid flat on the mat, but there’s good reason to excoriate Benjamin Bycel, who heads the office of state ethics as of this writing (but may not as of your reading).

And it has nothing to do with his Vermont license plates.

Bycel, who has reportedly been recommended the boot by five members of his staff, clearly has some management issues, which could be the cause of his ouster.

That news came last Monday, the very day—in a strange twist—that his office finally unveiled on its Web site three years’ worth of previously unreleased data on the lobbying industry.

This should have provided a spot of sun during an otherwise stormy week. Instead it should do the opposite, since the newly posted information, long overdue, is nearly impossible to use. Insinuations that Bycel is hard to work for are one thing; failing to perform a key mandate of the office is far worse.

Bycel’s office is charged with enforcing lobbying rules. The state, through new rules passed in the “Let’s Clean Up Our Corrupt Government” year of 2005, requires that it collect client and compensation data from everyone providing lobbying services for $2,000 or more per year, and that it provide that information to the public.

The office has been woefully slow at this, as it is implementing an entire new data system and painstakingly moving the entire registration process onto its Web site. This has left long gaps in the record on lobbyists. Until last Monday, for instance, the newest available information on lobbyists’ earnings was from the 2004 session.

Many Uses
Under the old system, whatever its faults, one could search by lobbyist or by client. Enter “General Motors” and one got a handy list of who is lobbying for the carmaker—information that could potentially connect to how, say, an auto regulation bill died.

Lobbyists themselves probably used the system as much as anyone; it was key to seeing which competitor signed what client and how much they were being paid. It was also a tool that allowed businesses and advocates who hire lobbyists to see if they were being given competitive rates, and if the firms they hire have hidden conflicts of interest.

Most importantly, though, it was a tool for the public to see how money affects the political process.

Concerns that the data had fallen completely out of date were assuaged by promises that the new system would be excellent.

Now it’s clear, however, that all the promises were empty. The office’s new computer system seems to be good at only one thing: producing gargantuan PDF files, which, though termed ‘portable document format,’ we all know to be static and unmaleable.

Moreover, the site has no search function. Want to know who buried some dumpster regulation for, say, a Danbury trash hauling firm, and how much they were paid? Click on “Lobbyist List” for the year. Out comes a 600-page PDF.

To see compensation, you will get another 306-page PDF. Not sure of the company’s name? Too bad.

Roadblock
Users will also notice that obtaining each massive, unwieldy document requires typing in a verification code, much like the sort used for online purchases. The office says this is to prevent “misuse by unscrupulous data-miners who run scripts that acquire data from these reports” or “malicious hackers who wish to attack our servers.”

But of the thousands of public documents posted by the state or country on the Internet, good luck finding any other with access that burdens users this way. Even the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t have anything like that. Neither does the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; with the FDIC, it’s just jump on and “acquire data” all you want.

The office says it plans to reintroduce data and search functions shortly, but by then another session of the General Assembly will have closed without the public knowing who is spending what to quietly fashion proposed legislation as they see fit. Meanwhile, the rest of us are waiting for the PDFs to download. Whether or not this is related to Bycel’s napping is unclear. But somebody is certainly sleeping on the job.

Jonathan O’Connell is a Hartford Business Journal Staff Writer.