May 8, 2007 2 min read

Do you think it’s a conflict if two of Gov. Ed Rendell’s cabinet secretaries approve $4.4 million in state grants to groups that employ their spouses? The state Ethics Commission, asked to answer that question by top state Senate Republicans, said, “Yes.”

The only thing more amazing than the appropriate simplicity of that answer is that it didn’t come sooner, before Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen McGinty’s department awarded $2.4 million to an outfit that employs her husband as a consultant, and before Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBerardinis’ department gave $1.5 million to an outfit where his wife is a manager for a parks program.

The Ethics Commission nailed this one squarely on the head, in a ruling that means the cabinet officials will have to appoint a stand-in when it comes to granting state money to entities that employ their spouses. If that doesn’t occur, the Ethics Commission says the cabinet members would be violating state ethics laws.

It’s ludicrous for anyone to think otherwise. Especially when one considers that the same Ethics Commission recently ruled that Fayette County Housing Authority Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink committed “an unintentional/technical violation of the (ethics) act” in casting blanket votes on all Section 8 Program voucher payments because one of them went to her estranged father.

That ruling came down even though Zimmerlink made the situation public back in 2003 and relied on the legal opinion of FCHA solicitor John Purcell, who said she could cast such votes without conflict. To boot, the Ethics Commission required Zimmerlink to pay $250 to settle the matter.

As far as we know, the Ethics Commission isn’t making McGinty or DiBerardinis pay anything, even though they doled out millions to entities that employed their spouses in a direct or consultant capacity. What’s fair about that?

And while they’re keenly focused on the issue, GOP lawmakers should also take a hard look at their own ranks, and the conflicts that exist when millions of dollars in state grants are awarded to agencies on which legislators serve on the board of directors. That’s not much different than what McGinty and DiBerardinis have been doing.

Rendell says he will appeal if the ethics ruling is too broadly applied. We say the broader, the better.