Check out their other jobs!
Quick – what do 15 lawyers, a funeral director, a nurse, a couple of CPAs and a few more insurance agents have in common? No, this isn’t the start of an old joke; they are all members of the Pennsylvania Senate. Those job descriptions are our senators’ OTHER jobs – besides being a ‘full-time’ legislator!
Every year our elected and public officials throughout the Commonwealth fill out an SEC-1 form from the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission. The mandatory disclosure form requires officials to declare their sources of income over $1,300 and anyone they owe more than $6,500 in debt.
While the ethics form requires public officials to report their sources of income – the amounts made or other contractual arrangements are NOT revealed. Exactly what work is done? – if any – because the income received is not revealed. Do the senator’s business partners trade on their senate connection? When a senator has business dealings with a customer of his personal , for-profit business, are they also regulating and setting policy for that particular customer’s industry? How can the public determine if there is ‘horse trading’ going on with these transactions? Currently when a senator is sitting as a chairman of an industry-regulating committee, there are no requirements for disclosure of how laws could help the elected officials or their customers.
Starting this year, the form from the Ethics Commission directs officials to declare …”each source of $1,300 or more of gross income regardless of whether such income is received solely by you or jointly by you and another individual such as a spouse.”
This addition to the ethics form followed revelations that Senator Robert Mellow’s (D-Lackawanna) secretly owned the building where his taxpayer funded district office was located. This information only became public because Senator Mellow’s messy divorce included the division of the corporation that owned the property. By putting the building in his wife’s name, Mellow avoided this disclosure and a senate rule that forced a third party to determine how much rent the building’s owners could charge taxpayers.
The form does force officials to reveal any entanglements in ‘for-profit’ business either financially or by their participating in some leadership capacity of the business.
Click here for a link that compiles information from all 50 senators including links to public documents associated with their entries on their ethics forms. In some cases websites associated with the companies listed are also included. On the far left column is a year indicating when the data was reported. Clicking on that year will bring up that completed ethics form.
Spare Time
So what do the senators do with their ‘spare time’? Two senators, Andrew Dinniman (D-Chester) and Dave Argall (R-Schuykill), list their other occupation as Professor. Senator Mike Waugh (R-York) is a farmer besides owning Waugh Construction Co. Senator Pat Browne (R-Allentown) in addition to being a lawyer is a CPA. Sen. Robert Mellow (D-Peckville) has an inactive CPA license as well.
Not surprising, 3 out of every 10 Senators is a lawyer. The following are registered with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to particular law firms: Richard Lee Alloway II (R-Chambersburg), Patrick M. Browne, Jessel A. Costa Jr. (D-Pittsburgh) , Lawrence Michael Farnese Jr. (D-Philadelphia),Stewart J. Greenleaf (R-Willow Grove), John R. Gordner (R-Bloomsburg), Michael A. O’Pake (D-Reading), Jeffrey E. Piccola (R-Harrisburg), Dominic F. Pileggi (R-Glen Mills), John C. Rafferty Jr. (R-Collegeville), Michael J. Stack III (D-Philadelphia), and Emerson E. Yaw (R-Williamsport).
The other three senator/lawyers, Jane Clare Orie (R-Pittsburgh), Daylin Barry Leach (D-King of Prussia) and Jane M. Earll (R-Erie), list their only legal work as part of their job as a state senator! (Senator Leach is listed as ‘inactive’)
Regulating Their Own Industry
The senators frequently use their industry expertise to sit on the committees that regulate that same businesses . For instance, attorney Senator Greenleaf is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Pat Vance (R-Cumberland), a Registered Nurse, is the Chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. Funeral Director Senator Robert Tomlinson (R-Levittown) is the Chair of the Senate Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure.
However, an example of regulating a business or industry while working the same gig include one of the busiest state senators (according to listed occupations) Donald C White (R-Indiana). Sen. White, who serves as the Senate Chairman of the Banking & Insurance Committee, is not only licensed as an insurance salesman in Indiana, PA (his home district) but is also licensed as a Stock Broker in Pittsburgh. Additionally, he listed income from two different large insurance related businesses in Pittsburgh – a Fortune 500 business called Unum and 100+ employee company called Henderson Brothers, Inc. (link will be provided for the two businesses.) The only other insurance agent in the senate is John Eichelberger (R-Altoona) (who does NOT serve on committee related to his other profession).
Another example of working both sides is Chairman of the Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee, Senator Mike Brubaker (R-Lititz) who owns 100% of two Ag related businesses, TeamAG, Inc, M W Brubaker Corp., and lists income from another Ag business.
The vice-chairman of the Senate Law & Justice Committee, Senator Alloway lists income from a law firm and also owns 50% of Eco Smart, LLC which the Pennsylvania Department of State lists Mark McNaughton as president. Mr. McNaughton is a former State House member from Dauphin County. Alloway also claims a 50% share in two other businesses, one dealing with development and the other with property holdings.
Senator Barry Stout (D-Eighty Four) is both and owner and officer in various companies including Atlas Services Corp., Huntley & Huntley, Inc , Eight Four Remodelers, Inc, Carbon Resources, Inc, Warrior Constructors, Inc, County Development Corp, and TPS Partners, Inc.
A number of senators – Lisa Baker (R-Dallas), Jim Ferlo (D-Pittsburgh), Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia), Shirley Kitchen (D-Philadelphia), John Pippy (R-Moon Township), Robert Robbins (R-Greenville), Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia), and Leanna Washingto (D-Philadelphia) n list no other income or business entanglements outside their senate income.
G. Terry Madonna of Franklin & Marshall recently said about the Pennsylvania political culture, “Labeled ‘individualist-entrepreneurial,’ political scientists have argued that Pennsylvania state politicians are schooled to think of politics as a venue to better themselves rather than making things better. Pennsylvania’s political culture, going back to the time of William Penn himself, has encouraged a kind of practical utilitarian approach to ublic affairs. Consequently, politics comes to be seen as something of a business, and the business of politics includes making money for those in it.”
Any proposal to limit outside business interests in the name of good government will run counter to currently legislative initiatives that would limit legislators to part-time. What will be their other source of income? So how can public officials avoid or mitigate the potential for the appearance of wrong doing? Real ethics reform will have to take place to answer those questions and to address the public’s current negative attitude toward elected officials.
