PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Ethics Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to investigate two former state leaders for their alleged behavior during a daylong trip to Philadelphia in March, WPRI-TV CBS 12 reported.
The six-member panel will now investigate the action of David Patten, the state’s former property director, and Jim Thorsen, the former director of the R.I. Department of Administration, for potential violations of the state ethics code or state laws during the trip.
Rhode Island FC To Offer Local Businesses Top-Notch Networking Opportunities in 2025
The perfect atmosphere for entertaining clients or hosting employees, The Stadium at Tidewater Landing will…
Learn More
Neither Thorsen nor Patten were at the meeting for the vote, WPRI reported. Patten’s attorney, Michael Lynch, said after the vote that this was merely a first step in the process and not a finding of fault.
On June 15, the R.I. Ethics Commission’s staff outlined complaints against Patten and Thorsen for potential violations of the state ethics code during the trip. The complaints suggest Patten and Thorsen may have violated a Rhode Island law that bars public officials from receiving any financial gain or reward from their public positions, as well as an ethics regulation that bars officials from accepting any single item worth over $25 or collection of gifts worth over $75 from someone with business before the government.
In an email to Gov. Daniel J. McKee, Philadelphia real estate developer Scout Ltd. claimed Patten displayed bizarre, offensive behavior that was “blatantly sexist, racist and unprofessional” during the daylong trip when Patten and Thorsen visited Scout on March 10 to discuss the redevelopment of the Cranston Street Armory. Scout officials also claimed Thorsen, who left his state job in April to rejoin the U.S. Treasury Department, failed to intervene.
The McKee administration fought for months to keep the email secret but released it after Attorney General Peter F. Neronha ruled in favor of WPRI-TV and The Providence Journal in an open-records complaint.
On June 12, Thorsen said through a statement from his attorney that he was aware that Patten “was behaving strangely during this trip and was not representing the state in an appropriate or positive way.
“This presented a dilemma on how to complete the meeting, but because of the time constraints, I endeavored to do so,” Thorsen said in the statement.
Thorsen said the clarification “of greatest importance” to him was that “I did not make any remark or make any statement to any person that was racially or sexually insensitive or inappropriate. I do not engage in that type of speech or conduct,” according to a WPRI-TV report.
Thorsen also asserted that he “did not request or have anyone else request preferential treatment from Scout.”
Thorsen also claimed he was “in the dark” that Patten demanded Scout open a high-end Italian restaurant to serve the officials lunch that day in Philadelphia.
“I sat down to eat with two Scout Ltd. representatives at around 11 a.m.,” he said. “There were no other diners in the restaurant at that time. Because it was so early, I did not attach significance to that observation.”
Patten, who has been on paid administrative leave since May 30, submitted his resignation on June 15, effective June 30, at McKee’s request after a “human resources investigation highlighted Mr. Patten’s highly inappropriate conduct, which was disturbing, entirely unacceptable and not representative of Rhode Island’s values or the integrity of our state workforce,” McKee spokesperson Matthew Sheaff said in a statement.
Patten went on medical leave three days after the trip and will maintain his health insurance coverage until Sept. 30, Sheaff said.
