One more Bay State municipal employee has paid a giant nice for accepting free ski journeys and different presents from a water meter producer and its distributor.
Danvers DPW Director David Lane has paid a $17,000 civil penalty for violating the state’s battle of curiosity regulation, in line with the Massachusetts State Ethics Fee.
Lane admitted to accepting free ski journeys, a golf outing, and a steakhouse dinner from a water meter producer and its distributor, the fee introduced on Tuesday.
This nice comes after present or former staff of Danvers, Franklin, Natick, Salem, Southampton, and the Sudbury Water District paid civil penalties to resolve comparable battle of curiosity regulation violations associated to accepting ski journeys from the water meter producer and distributor.
The Danvers division of public works makes use of a model of water meter all through its service space made by an Alabama-based producer, and sourced by way of the producer’s sole approved New England distributor. Lane has oversight duty for the DPW’s water meter purchases.
The water meter producer and its distributor reportedly hosted ski journeys and different occasions, they usually invited staff of a number of municipal water districts and departments of public works, together with Lane.
Lane took half in three-day ski journeys the water meter distributors hosted in Sugarloaf, Maine, in 2018; Okemo, Vermont, in 2020; and Jay Peak, Vermont, in 2022. The water meter distributors paid for Lane’s lodging and most of his meals.
Lane had his personal season ski go that he used on the Okemo journey, and the water meter distributors paid for his ski raise tickets for the Sugarloaf and Jay Peak journeys.
The distributor additionally hosted Lane at a golf occasion in October 2020, paying for his greens charges, meals, and drinks. In November 2020, a gross sales consultant of the producer handled Lane to dinner at a steakhouse.
The battle of curiosity regulation bans public staff from accepting something price $50 or extra that’s given to them for or due to their official positions.
“When public employees accept valuable gifts from vendors, they create the appearance that they may be improperly influenced by the vendors or are likely to unduly favor them in their actions on the job,” stated State Ethics Fee Government Director David Wilson. “Accepting such gifts undermines the public’s confidence in the integrity of the employees’ governmental service and is prohibited by the conflict of interest law.”
