Projo Politics Blog

One of Governor Carcieri’s new appointees to the state Ethics Commission is related to his wife, Suzanne Carcieri, although apparently not closely enough to get the governor in trouble with the state Code of Ethics for a third time.

Sister Deborah H. Cerullo, a Catholic nun and a lawyer, confirmed the relationship, saying she believes her grandmother and Mrs. Carcieri’s grandmother were sisters. She said she was uncertain about the details but it was her understanding that the relationship makes her Mrs. Carcieri’s third cousin.

How much does it matter?

It doesn’t, according to Ethics Commission Chairman James Lynch Sr.

At commission meetings, Lynch has been a regular critic of nepotism, the practice of hiring or appointing relatives to government positions. However, he said of this appointment, “[I] don’t have a problem with it at all. It is not nepotism.”

The Code of Ethics, which the commission enforces, bans the hiring or appointment of relatives by state and local officials without its approval, and the proscription extends to first cousins, step-first cousins and first-cousins-in-law.

The regulation doesn’t mention second or third cousins. So if Sister Cerullo has her family tree right, Carcieri apparently won’t get in trouble again.

She said her family and the Carcieris have “the kind of relationship where we get together occasionally, for special events or large family gatherings.”

“We’ve known him for most of my life,” Sister Cerullo said.

When he announced the appointment, Carcieri cited her legal and academic experience. A Catholic nun and lawyer, she has worked as an assistant district attorney in both Massachusetts and New York and taught law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and at Boston College Law School. Since 2003, she has had a law office in Providence.

The governor did not, however, mention his family’s relationship with Cerullo, which nonetheless began circulating immediately after the appointment was made public.

Cerullo said she didn’t ask for the appointment, adding that “the governor’s office approached me.” She said the governor appointed her for her experience rather than because they’re relatives.

She said she would not participate in the commission’s handling of any complaints against the governor. “I have a very high regard for the governor,” she said. “It would be very hard for me to be objective.”

Jeff Neal, the governor’s press secretary, said that both Sister Cerullo and the governor’s other Ethics Commission appointee, J. William Harsch, a lawyer and unsuccessful Republican candidate for attorney general, were chosen from a field of “numerous” candidates, whom he would not identify. He said Sister Cerullo was chosen for her “excellent credentials,” which made her a perfect candidate for the ethics position.

Carcieri has paid fines twice to settle ethics cases, avoiding trial-like hearings. In 2005, the governor agreed to pay $750 to settle charges based on his acceptance of tickets from Fleet Bank to watch a New England Patriots game from the bank’s box at Gillette Stadium and his failure file a financial-disclosure statement. Last March, he agreed to pay a $1,000 fine for soliciting donations from state employees during his 2006 reelection campaign.

In 2004, he accused the commission of discriminating against him by prosecuting him for failing to file the financial-disclosure statement when many other officials also didn’t file but weren’t prosecuted.

However, Lynch said that since then, Carcieri has supported the commission, notably by not cutting its budget as much as he might have in a general tightening of state spending.

--By Bruce Landis, Katherine Gregg, Scott Mackay, Steve Peoples and John E. Mulligan

Journal staff writers

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