Burlington City Council President Jane Knodell recruited and paid a fellow councilor $2,000 to run her reelection campaign.
Knodell (P-Central District) made the one-time payment on January 30 to Cobble Knoll — an LLC registered with the state three weeks earlier by Councilor Adam Roof (I-Ward 8).
Both Knodell and Roof asserted that the relationship does not involve any conflict of interest. And Roof said he is also doing paid work for incumbent Joan Shannon (D-South District) and political newcomer Richard Deane, a Democrat who’s running for a council seat in the East District.
Neither Shannon nor Deane reported payments to Roof in their campaign finance filings, though Roof said he has not yet billed them. Shannon said she would pay Roof $1,000 for his work. Deane did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Middlebury-based ethics expert Mike Palmer said such business relationships involving councilors could raise questions of real or perceived impropriety — whether “the judgment and decisions of the government official [are] unaffected by any interests other than that of the city.” Palmer is a lawyer and owner of the consulting and training business Ethics by Design.
Knodell faces a challenge from Genese Grill. The incumbent has raised $7,715 and spent $4,184 — about half of which has gone to pay Roof for his services.
Roof said the job entails social media work, coordinating volunteers, communications strategy and budget management. He earns his living as a political organizer and consultant for candidates, he said, though he noted that this is the first time he’s ever run a Burlington campaign.
Among city councilors, Roof said, his work for Knodell is “no secret.”
“It’s a couple thousand bucks,” he said. “It isn’t going to impact how I vote.”
Roof left his full-time job at the National Center for Campus Public Safety in August. He spent much of the summer and fall advocating for two ballot items involving the Burlington Town Center redevelopment. Both passed in November.
He worked for a candidate in Virginia and is now trying to get more experience consulting for campaigns, he said.
“I want to be clear: they came to me, I didn’t go seeking out this work,” Roof said. “Folks recognize my ability and prowess in community organizing.”
Knodell, a University of Vermont economics professor, contributed $250 to Roof’s 2015 campaign, when he won election. One of her students at the time helped run Roof’s campaign.
If reelected, Knodell indicated that she plans to seek a third year as city council president. Roof voted for Knodell in two previous council president elections.
If the vote comes around this year, Roof said he sees no need to recuse himself.
“I’ll consider voting for Jane on the grounds of whether she’s the best person for the presidency job,” Roof said. “Any notion that Jane is paying me for a vote to be president — that’s absurd.”
And when controversial resolutions come to a council vote, Roof said, the payment from a fellow councilor would neither change his allegiance nor cloud his judgment.
“That it would make me any less of an independent, I consider absurd, and I just patently disagree with it,” Roof said. The work, he added, “is a great opportunity to support people I believe in.”
According to Burlington city attorney Eileen Blackwood, Roof’s work on fellow councilors’ campaigns doesn’t create any conflict of interest that would violate city policy. The rules on the books only speak to instances when a city councilor has a “direct financial interest” in the outcome of a vote, Blackwood said.
The issue could potentially fall under the purview of a city ethics policy, she said— though one doesn’t exist in Burlington. “Every councilor, when a particular matter comes before them, makes a decision of whether they can exercise independent judgment,” Blackwood said.
The issue does raise questions of ethics and alliances, according to Palmer. Palmer had never heard of a similar case, and most likely, he surmised, “the people involved haven’t thought of” potential issues that could arise from the situation. Nevertheless, Palmer highlighted the need to closely examine potential conflicts within local government.
“People form alliances or caucuses all the time,” he said. The question that arises he added, is whether “the fact that [Roof is] getting paid, in some way compromises his independent judgement with respect to issues that come before the council.”
Grill, who is running as an independent against Knodell, voiced concerns that councilors are “vigorously promoting the same political agenda.”
“For one city councilor to take money from another city councilor for any reason is questionable,” Grill wrote in an email to Seven Days. “To take money to promote her political campaign is particularly troubling.”
According to Palmer, how things look is a concern. “One of the considerations is the appearance of impropriety — how other people might see the conduct in question — as well as the actual impropriety itself,” Palmer wrote in a follow-up email to Seven Days.
Palmer offered an imaginary scenario of a council member who hires other councilors, but uses the payment for work as a pretext to earn their loyalty. “You can easily imagine scenarios that would be much more nefarious than this likely is,” Palmer said. It highlights “one reason we need a good government ethics program.”
Shannon, though, argued that paying Roof for his campaign work is a way to mitigate any conflict of interest. “He sends an invoice; we pay it. Done,” she said. “There is no more expected from either side.”
Shannon said she feels more indebted to campaign volunteers who turn out in the snow and the rain to do literature drops. “Councilors regularly help other councilors in their campaigns,” she said. “Most of it doesn’t have to be reported. No one reports who’s putting in 100 hours of effort.”
For her part, Knodell called any assertion of a conflict of interest “a baseless, groundless suggestion.” She “was shocked” the issue even came up, she said. On the council, she added, “When we have a conflict, we disclose them. I don’t think that’s the case here.”
Other councilors are supporting Knodell’s campaign as well, she pointed out — though on a volunteer basis.
“I’ve known Adam since he was an undergraduate at UVM. I have a high level of trust in him,” she said.
With her work as a researcher and professor, she couldn’t take on the task of running her campaign herself.
“I have a very active opponent and I was looking for someone who had the skills” to run the campaign, Knodell said. “The work was beyond what someone could be expected to volunteer.”
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This is such a weird, biased article that is so deeply ignorant of Burlington history that it might as well be in the Free Press. Looks like the days of Burlington having at least one outlet that did good city council coverage are over…
@adcahill, could you expand on your comment? What are the parallels in Burlington political history? Curious to hear your perspective. Thanks.
Ethics expert Palmer notes that “such business relationships . . . could raise questions.” City Attorney Blackwood explains that this situation might be covered by “a city ethics policy . . . though Burlington doesn’t have one.”
Should citizens be reassured that ethical standards are so high in city government that an ethics policy is unnecessary? Or should citizens be worried that the mayor and city council have assigned the development of an ethics policy to the backburner indefinitely?
The Councilors’ responses: “a baseless, groundless suggestion.” She “was shocked” ” He sends an invoice; we pay it. Done,” just show they’ve been around too long. It’s about the appearance of impropriety, potential conflicts of interest and good government ethics. It’s time for a change.
Once asked a Burlington State representative if it was OK to buy them a cup of coffee when under legislative rules free meals from lobbyists must be reported to Secretsry of State. Probably not a good idea I was told as the legislator picked up their check of about $4. Is laugh out loud for 3 sitting City Councilors chipping in thousands of dollars to a colleague Councilor for campaign work to not be at least an appearance of conflict of interest. These same 3 councilors also thought it fine participating in outspending fall Town Center ballot items opponents six to one using corporate money. Good to know these four councilors believe money and politics sharing among themselves is just fine and what their voters expected when they chose them for Council. Have you no shame Councilors? Tony Redington Ward 2 Burlington
Let me get this straight…let’s say I’m on City Council. I accept monies from another counselor to campaign for her. Then my subsequent CC votes are supposed to be unaffected when that counselor wants me to vote aye or nay on upcoming issues???
I’m just amused that picture was taken in the third floor ladies room at City Hall.
Shannon said she feels more indebted to campaign volunteers who turn out in the snow and the rain to do literature drops? I see that the mayor emailed voters, asking them to volunteer to help with the campaigns of his slate — Knodell, Shannon, Deane. This, and hiring a fellow councilor, is dirty business. Of course it is an ethics violation. The pollution of Trumpian ethics permeates City Council and the Mayor’s office.
Voters can do something about it — elect Grill, Simpson, and Winkleman. We need residents on City Council, not lobbyists, operatives, and the mayor’s rubber stamps.
Come’on, Knodell is only paying him a few thousand bucks, that less than half of what Don Sinex gave to Jane in an plain unmarked envelope. What’s a few thou between buddies??
“what Don Sinex gave to Jane in an plain unmarked envelope.”
Shame on you. If you’ve got a witness to this, or other evidence, disclose it. Otherwise, stop with your shameful accusations of bribery just cuz you didn’t get your way on the mall development vote — which CLC demanded in the first place.
This is the left- democrats and Progressives that are hiring their own to help. The person who called this Trumpian needs to stop with the Right Hate mentality and look at the facts- this has absolutely nothing to do with the right or with Trump
We’ve got an independent (Roof) being paid by progressive and democrat incumbents (Knodell and Shannon) to manage their campaigns. We’ve got newcomer, Deane also benefiting from the City Council political machine. Roof even left his full-time job to spend much of the summer and fall advocating for two ballot items involving the Burlington Town Center redevelopment. Weinberger’s agenda is providing quite a focus for this cadre of City Councilors. With this kind of political nepotism it’s no wonder TRULY progressive and independent voices are hard to come by. It’s time to break up this comfy group and bring in new ideas. Vote for Simpson, Winkleman and Grill. With the exception of Tracy and Bushor and maybe Giannoni, we’ve got a full fledged old boys/girls club on our hands and we are overdue for a shake up.
It is clearly time to pull the plug on these faux-gressives.
Support Genese Grill for City Council.
When the City Council closes ranks to prevent new people from disrupting the status quo, they are being anything but Progressive. I’m glad this came out – it was harder to expose the money involved in approving the mall development ballot items in November. The Mayor should not select the Council members, or tell us who to select. The Council members themselves should not fund each other’s campaigns either. Let’s have a fair game, eh? In my opinion, the Council needs All of these new members – the old Council is more or less a rubber-stamp for the Mayor’s directives. Let’s have the people speak – not the developers. The incumbents have done good things in the past, true, but now we need more points of view – for more public input.
It’s common sense you are not gonna kick a gift horse in z mouth. City Councilors lobby other Councilors all the time to get support/votes for their issues.
I hope Roof wasn’t paid to lobby for the downtown zoning change… We sorely need an ethics committee. Processes we have in place are being violated. The Planning Commission process was so usurped of it’s role and power during the downtown zoning change push, that it was painful to watch, if you were really paying attention and saw through the glitz and smoke.
I’d like to see 7 Days do a story on the cozy relations present on the Boards and Commissions of the city. The way these highly coveted volunteer positions are chosen and appointed needs to be reworked, to avoid the kind of corruption that is going on. Especially on the DRB, which has legal power and consists of some individuals very close with the Mayor in both past city and private legal dealings. It’s ridiculous that all take an oath to tell the truth at the beginning of hearings, including P&Z staff.
How about a check of voting records?. At a recent debate at the UU Church, Joan Shannon stated, in the South End, she helped retain working class jobs when the city and her, were trying to push through another top down zoning change that would have transformed the 4 % of land that is the Enterprise District into a mixed use zoning paradise for developers and all but wipe out the Enterprise Zone? I’d love to hear how you protected working class jobs? Lets get real and allow the processes in place to work!