PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Rhode Island Ethics Commission has authorized an investigation into an ethics complaint against House Speaker Gordon D. Fox, in connection with his role as a closing attorney for a troubled Providence economic-development loan program.
The decision followed a closed-door meeting of the panel Tuesday. And it came after Fox and his lawyer - Albin Moser - provided the commission with a written response to the complaint that Judith Reilly, a former Providence resident now living in Salem,Mass., lodged against Fox on September 3.
In the complaint she filed with the commission on Sept. 3, Reilly alleged that Fox violated the code of ethics by failing to disclose, on his annual financial-disclosure filings, income he received for performing legal work for the Providence Economic Development Partnership between 2005 and 2009. The complaint lists "51 loans whose closings Mr. Fox worked on."
Fox has not commented publicly on the complaint.
In a written statement filed with the ethics commission, Fox's lawyer wrote:
"The Complaint focuses on the years 2005 through 2009. In 2005 through 2009, PEDP
contracted with Joshua Teverow's private law office to perform PEDP loan closings. Mr.
Teverow's office subcontracted with Mr. Fox as a closing attorney on some of the closings that PEDP had contracted with Mr. Teverow's office to perform.
"PEDP issued checks to Mr. Teverow's office and Mr. Teverow's office paid Mr. Fox out of those funds. PEDP issued no checks to Mr. Fox
"When Mr. Fox filed his yearly financial statements for the years 2005-09,
he did not list PEDP because he believed he did not need to list a state
or municipal agency on the... (form) unless he received income from the
agency."
But if the commission decides he should have reported his income from
Teverow's office, "then Mr. Fox will amend his yearly financial statements
for the years prior to 2010 to list PEDP as a source of income,'' Moser wrote.
When the controversy first surfaced during his 2012 campaign for reelection, the PEDP said it didn't know how much Fox was paid during the years in question because he was working during that period as a "subcontractor" to the agency's lawyer at the time, Joshua Teverow.
Fox has disclosed his role at PEDP in his more recent filings.
As to how Fox was selected for this work, David N. Cicilline, then the mayor and chairman of the agency's board, said he asked the city's former director of planning and urban development, Tom Deller, to arrange a meeting between Fox and Teverow "to share work at the PEDP."
"Either Gordon reached out to me or I reached out to him. I can't remember which," Cicilline, who is now Rhode Island's 1st District Congressman, explained in an interview with The Journal last October. "I was aware of his ability as a lawyer. He had been an assistant city solicitor."