Rhode Island’s ethics code does not explicitly prevent Senate President Valarie Lawson from leading the chamber while also heading one of the state teachers unions.
That’s why the Rhode Island Ethics Commission saw no conflict for Lawson to continue both jobs, affirming the recommendation of its staff in a 7-1 vote Tuesday.
The six-page advisory opinion comes in response to a May 23 request by Lawson. Since she was elected Senate president on April 29, Lawson, an East Providence Democrat, has been dogged by doubts over potential conflicts between the legislative power position and her day job as president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island.
Lawson attended the meeting with her attorney, Nicole Benjamin of Adler Pollock & Sheehan, but did not speak. In a subsequent emailed statement Tuesday, Lawson described the ethics panel’s decision as confirmation of what she has previously insisted — that she can hold both positions.
“It helps to distinguish between a vague notion of a perceived, general conflict and an actual, specific conflict requiring recusal under the Code of Ethics,” Lawson said of the opinion. “Further, it ensures that one does not have to be retired or independently wealthy to serve in this role. This decision supports the operation of our legislative body as the framers intended: a part-time, citizen legislature comprised of a diverse membership from all walks of life, who can draw from their varied experiences to best serve the public.”
All members of the Rhode Island General Assembly, including those in leadership positions, earn $19,817 a year. Lawson also earned a $167,869 salary as teachers union vice president in 2022, the most recent data available based on Internal Revenue Service filings from the National Education Association of Rhode Island. She was elected union president in 2023, after more than 30 years teaching in East Providence Public Schools.
But it’s probably too soon for Lawson to take a victory lap. The ethics opinion offers several caveats, noting that its recommendation cannot be tailored to any specific legislation, since Lawson’s request did not reference any bills being considered or discussed.
If and when the Senate considers any policy or funding changes that could financially benefit Lawson, her family, or her fellow teachers union members and administrators, she must recuse herself, the opinion states. Recusal is also required on any discussions or votes in which NEARI is involved in lobbying or through verbal or written testimony.
Lawson had previously pledged in her May 23 letter to step aside when potential conflicts arise, a promise she followed through on when the Senate took up two labor-backed bills on June 4. The legislation from which Lawson abstained had proposed extending organizing rights to college graduate students and bolstering information-sharing between collective bargaining units and their members’ employers.
But the peril remains
John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, expects the conflicts to continue to crop up given the wide scope of education and labor bills still pending before the chamber this year — and in future sessions.
“Our comments have never been that it’s illegal to hold both positions,” Marion said in an interview after the meeting. “It’s just that it’s perilous to hold both positions because it’s difficult to manage the conflicts.”
Lawson is no stranger to the overlap between legislative office and teachers union priorities. Indeed, her ascension through the ranks of the Senate, starting as majority whip in 2023, and in 2024, as majority leader, came months into her role as president of the 12,000-member state teachers union. Last year, she sought ethics advice on potential conflicts between her teachers union job and proposed pension changes under consideration by lawmakers; the commission gave her the go-ahead to vote on the bills in question, invoking the class exception of the state ethics code, which lets elected officials participate in discussions or decisions that benefit themselves within the context of a larger group of people.
But the Senate president has outsized influence, setting the daily calendars for the upper chamber, participating as an ex-officio member on every Senate committee, and most importantly, leading behind-the-scenes negotiations to determine which pieces of legislation advance to a vote.
Ethics Commissioner Hugo Ricci Jr., who cast the only vote against the opinion Tuesday, cited concerns with Lawson’s new “undeniable power,” as Senate president.
Lawson’s predecessor, the late Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, left his own union job when he was elected to the president position, Ricci noted.
“What I am trying to say is, could mere recusal be sufficient?” Ricci asked. “She is in a class of one. She is not a general member of the Senate anymore. She is president of the Senate. With that comes mass powers.”
Ricci’s line of questioning set off a brief but testy exchange with fellow commissioners, who insisted that they were limited to Lawson’s specific request, as well as state ethics regulations.
“We must accept the good faith of a recusal until a complaint is filed,” Commission Chairman Lauren Jones said. “If the president is saying, for the record, as she has in her application, that she will appropriately recuse herself when matters come before her, we have to take that.”
Commissioner Frank Cenerini agreed, invoking a baseball analogy.
“We have all been appointed by the governor, yet we have no problems reviewing complaints against the person who appointed us,” Cenerini said of the nine-member panel. “It comes down to an issue of character. You’ve got to call the balls and strikes as you see them.
Ricci proposed delaying a decision to give ethics staff more time to review the potential conflict, including considering what other states have done in similar situations. But his motion failed with no secondary support.
Marion, however, acknowledged Ricci’s concerns in a later interview. The staff report recommending Lawson could preside over the Senate while keeping her union job was “somewhat naive” in its consideration of the unique powers bestowed upon the top chamber leader, he said.
“It talked about how she sets the consent calendar, but not the floor calendar,” Marion said. “It mentioned she is not on any one committee but failed to say she can participate on any committee.”
Marion continued, “I think she’ll be back before the commission on specific bills and on actions that she takes that they didn’t cover.”
Ethics Commissioner Matthew Strauss was absent from the meeting Tuesday.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
