The Range Association of Municipalities and Schools board held a special meeting last night to reorganize and discuss its appointment of Sen. David Tomassoni as executive director. RAMS is a lobbying organization that advocates for units of local government on Northern Minnesota's Iron Range. Many at the Capitol and in the media, including me, have been highly critical of the move, citing a conflict of interest and unethical practice in having a sitting senator serve the bidding of a lobbying group.
The RAMS board, according to this Bill Hanna story in the Mesabi Daily News, did entertain the notion that reform of the organization might be necessary, but took few, if any, specific steps at this time. I had reported last week of rumors that a major motion to alter the organization's focus might come; it would appear that motion was morphed into this more general sentiment left hanging by the board.
It remains to be seen what RAMS decides to do in the year ahead, though it's clear that they are not digging trenches to defend all aspects of the status quo.
Meantime, I've called for Tomassoni's resignation from the Senate, though after seeing this Nick Minock story from Northland's NewsCenter (Duluth's CBS and NBC affiliate) last night, I am not holding my breath. You can watch the story, which is a solid summary of where we're at, here:
Meantime, the state Campaign Finance Board had to reschedule a meeting due to a lack of quorum earlier in the week. They meet Friday to vote on a draft opinion prepared by staff that shows that Tomassoni taking a job, in and of itself, is not a conflict of interest. That was the question Tomassoni asked the board at the behest of his Range ally and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, and it will likely be answered the way those two had planned all along.
I've argued that this question was a false front. The real question is whether Tomassoni's job duties, which include tasks that sound a lot like lobbying, constitute de facto lobbying. Tomassoni and the RAMS board thought they had immunized themselves from these criticisms because they had placed a sentence in the contract declaring that Tomassoni would not be a lobbyist. But that sentence is contradicted by the plain fact that the only reason this job exists is to influence the opinion of elected leaders for the benefit of clients, in this case other government units. The rest of the job duties show this clearly.
It'd be a little like saying saying Bill Belachek wasn't the "coach" of the New England Patriots, he's just an administrator who sees to the details of operating a football team. Sure, he's "on the sidelines calling plays," but don't read too much into that, OK? You're overreacting.
"Overreacting." That's my trigger word today. In the Northland News Center story, Tomassoni said he is "aghast at the overreaction" to this matter. He also said that "'unethical' is the last word people would use to describe me," which, for the record, is a really weird sentence structure to use for a personal ethos.
