The State Ethics Commission on Thursday unanimously found that a statutory one-year “cooling-off” period applies to a former state official hoping to accept a job offer at a company whose contracts he previously oversaw.
Matthew Wade was the senior vice president of marketing at the Indiana Economic Development Corp. until Friday, Jan. 16, when he retired.
By Tuesday, Jan. 20, he had an offer to work as senior strategist at Marketing Alliance, an economic development marketing firm based in Florida and Texas.
“So, one business day is all it took?” asked the skeptical Commissioner Raymond Biederman, during a regularly scheduled meeting at the Indiana State Library in downtown Indianapolis.
State law mandates that former state employees wait a full year before accepting job offers or receiving compensation from employers with which they negotiated or administered contracts, if they had “discretionary” decision-making powers over those agreements.
Wade requested a formal advisory opinion on whether his offer would trigger the statute.
In his submission to the commission, Wade reported participating in procurement and negotiation work for approximately 10 contracts, with Marketing Alliance among the vendors.
He maintained his role was to collect proposals, facilitate discussions on the scope of work and provide advisory recommendations — noting all contracts required further review from legal and finance officials, plus executive-level approval.
“I was not the signatory or final decision maker,” Wade wrote.
But Biederman said he had found Wade’s signature on an agreement with Marketing Alliance.
Wade said he signed off on a scope of work, included as an addendum after the contract.
“IEDC does apply standard state terms and conditions to contracts and let any addendum be an attachment, but not part of the agreement,” he added.
IEDC Deputy General Counsel David Staples said contractors must submit a scope of work — which the IEDC accepts or rejects — to be appended to the boilerplate contract language.
“He’s not saying he made no decisions,” Staples said of Wade, “but he can’t pull the trigger to either execute a contract or terminate contracts.”
The commission concluded, however, that Wade had substantial decision-making powers, citing the influence his recommendations had in whether a contract could move forward.
The three commission members present also pressed Wade on the hiring timeline.
He maintained that formal discussions and the job offer came only after he left the IEDC.
Commissioners repeatedly said they were asking about “direct or indirect” and “formal or informal” discussions, reminding Wade he was answering their questions under oath.
“Do you have any friends of acquaintances that are currently employed by Marketing Alliance?” asked Commissioner Robert Duncan, prompting Wade to admit he “know(s) a lot of the team.”
“Do you ever socialize with any of them?” Duncan asked.
“Yes,” Wade said.
“And during those socialization events, did you ever mention to them that you were looking for something after you retired?”
After a long pause, Wade replied, “Yes.”
The commissioners ceased questioning and agreed, by unanimous voice vote, that the cooling-off period applies in his case.
Wade can still seek a waiver, however, according to commission officials.
Waiver granted
Also on Thursday, the commission approved a waiver of other state ethics laws for Jason Johnson, currently the deputy chief of staff of legislative affairs for Gov. Mike Braun’s office.
Johnson hopes to accept a spot as senior vice president for advocacy at the Applied Research Institute, a nonprofit that works with IEDC and others to bring federal money to Indiana — and “one of the entities of interest” investigated in a forensic analysis of the agency and its partners.
The IEDC’s former chief innovation officer moved on to the Applied Research Institute in December 2022. But the potential conflict wasn’t discussed, nor was it disclosed to the State Ethics Commission, when the IEDC awarded the entity a $17.5-million contract. That former executive also didn’t obtain a required post-employment waiver.
Johnson requested a waiver of the one-year “cooling-off” requirement before former state employees can work as lobbyists, as well as the lifetime “particular matters” ban. That prohibits former state employees from helping their new employers on contracts, lawsuits and other particular matters they handled as state workers.
Johnson said he would likely register as a lobbyist. But he and Governor’s Office General Counsel Patrick Price said it’s “not traditional lobbying.”
Rather than approaching the state for money, Price said, “it’s, hey, we have this grant from … the federal government. Do you want to partner? Is this something you want to be involved in?”
Johnson sought a particular matters exception because he supported state efforts to win a federal drone test site designation that the institute now administers. It was awarded in January.
In an ethics screen established in March, Johnson agreed to be screened out of meetings involving the test site or a governor-established drone task force. He also agreed to a yearlong screen at the institute from involvement with the state’s executive branch, contracting discussions with IEDC, and any involvement with the site or task force.
The commission approved the waiver in a unanimous voice vote.
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