Ken Bernhard resigns as state ethics chairman

Former state representative G. Kenneth Bernhard resigned from the state's Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board on March 4, a board which he chaired, one week after it emerged that he'd given $250 to political campaigns in 2008.

On Monday, the board approved a subcommittee's recommendation that it hire outside counsel to investigate. The statute calls for a maximum penalty of $10,000 per violation, said Carol Carson, executive director for the Connecticut Office of State Ethics.

Caron said the outside counsel will likely be chosen before the board meets next on March 25.

Records show -- and Bernhard admits -- he gave $50 to the "Say Yes to Nitzy" campaign for Westport resident Nitzy Cohen and $100 to the "Marino 2008" campaign for Orange resident Vincent Marino, both of which lost in Nov. 2008. He also gave $100 to Gov. M. Jodi Rell's exploratory committee for reelection.

State law prohibits board members from contributing to anyone subject to the Code of Ethics for Public Officials and State Employees, which includes the governor and state legislators.

"The contributions were done openly and with full disclosure," Bernhard wrote to the ethics board in late February. He said he was unaware that such payments were prohibited.

"As a member of the Citizen's Ethics Advisory Board, I have been entrusted with a great responsibility and I am very distressed at having technically violated the Code, even as everything was in public view and inadvertent," he continued. "I expect that my conduct will be evaluated and handled in the same fashion as everyone else who is subject to the code."

In a press release dated March 4, the Office of State Ethics called Bernhard's contribution "valuable" since he joined in Jan. 2008. His tenure marked "a time of great progress" for the office, as it being a newly formed agency and "demonstrated substantive results in all areas of its mission: education, interpretation, enforcement and transparency."

Reached for comment on Thursday, Bernhard called the payments a "procedural misstep," and said he was merely supporting two new candidates whom he'd encouraged to run for public office. Marino is his law partner. Cohen is a local Republican.

"There's a procedural rule of which I was unaware, having been recently appointed to the [board], that says members should not make political contributions for fear that they might have a conflict of interest at some point in the future," Bernhard told the Westport News. "There never was a conflict, and if there ever had been, the simple solution would have been to recuse myself."

"If you'd read some of the news accounts," he went on, "you'd have thought I committed a double homicide."

Vice Chairman Thomas H. Dooley, of Vernon, is now acting as chairman at least until the board meets on March 25. The office said it appointed a subcommittee on March 3, that will review the matter and make recommendations.

Bernhard stressed to the Westport News that he's been involved in public service for years without pay. "I put in an extensive amount of work every week, organizing and preparing materials. I still serve on judicial review council. I work with many Republican colleagues on bills that are important to me. And I like to think I continue to make a contribution."

While resigning, Bernhard wrote to the board: "It is apparent that my service will be a distraction to the important work that the Board does for the people of our state and I cannot permit that to happen."