PROVIDENCE – A former state director has agreed to settle a state ethics complaint for $5,000 tied to his alleged bad behavior during a business trip to Philadelphia in 2023.
David Patten, the former director of state property, and James Thorsen, the former director of the R.I. Department of Administration, were the subject of an ethics commission probe for their alleged behavior during a Philadelphia trip last March to visit a development of Scout Ltd., a company that was interested in a long-term $55 million contract with the state to redevelop the Cranston Street Armory.
After Patten’s issue was resolved Tuesday, the commission continued to meet behind closed doors to discuss the behavior of Thorsen. However, Thorsen chose against settling with the panel. The commissioners announced afterward they believe there’s probable cause showing Thorsen violated three parts of the state’s ethics code and they will hold an administrative trial to resolve the issue at a future date.
The Philadelphia trip made national headlines after Scout officials complained about the behavior of both Patten and Thorsen.
In an email to Gov. Daniel J. McKee, Scout claimed that 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, 2023, to discuss the redevelopment of the Cranston Street Armory. Scout officials also claimed Thorsen 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 CBS 12 and The Providence Journal in an open-records complaint.
On June 12, 2023, 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.”
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” regarding Patten's demand that Scout open a high-end Italian restaurant that was closed at the time 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.”
On June 15, 2023, 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 suggested that 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 more than $25 or collection of gifts worth more than $75 from someone with business before the government.
Patten, who had been on paid administrative leave since May 30, 2023, submitted his resignation on June 15, 2023, effective June 30, 2023, 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 at that time.
Patten went on medical leave three days after the trip and maintained his health insurance coverage until Sept. 30, Sheaff added.
The R.I. Ethics Commission previously dismissed a state Republican Party complaint against McKee over a lunch meeting with Jeff Britt, a Statehouse lobbyist, and Scout officials. The GOP filed a complaint alleging the January lunch at the Capital Grille violated state ethics rules prohibiting the acceptance of gifts in excess of $25 from parties seeking government contracts. The bill for the lunch was reported to be $228 and paid by Britt.
Britt admitted he picked up the tab after McKee’s fundraising chairman, Jerry Sahagian, said he “did not have the campaign credit card.” R.I. Board of Elections campaign finance records show Scout executives gave McKee two campaign donations the same day as the lunch.
In a 6-0 vote, the commission tossed the complaint, deciding there was no probable cause that McKee, a Democrat, knowingly or willfully violated the law. The evidence also failed to show McKee knew he had received a free lunch.
