The Patty Roe Story: the interesting ethics of Congressman Rick Renzi

Congressional rules are designed to prevent “senior” staffers from simultaneously having two careers, in order to prevent conflicts of interest. Federal law and ethics rules also bar any staffers from working on political campaigns unless they do it on their free time. And no campaign work can be done from a government office, such as a congressional office building. But the office of ethically-challenged Republican Congressman Rick Renzi of Arizona has figured out a way to trample on the spirit of both rules. Here's how he does it:

A woman named Patty Roe works in Renzi's office as his administrative assistant, and during the first half of this year, Roe was paid at a rate that works out to about $95,000 per year. “Prior to joining the Congressman's office, Patty owned her own consulting business in Washington, D.C.,” Renzi's office said in a statement issued when Roe was hired last December. “Patty has represented clients ranging from local, state, and federal candidates, to national associations and coalitions specializing in . . . fundraising efforts for the past five years.”

After joining Renzi's staff, Roe continued to work as a fundraising consultant. Records show that since January Renzi has paid Roe $5,000 a month to troll for donor money, so it looks like she'll make an additional $60,000 on top of her office salary. Not bad—especially when you consider that Roe has also received about $30,000 in fundraising fees this year from four other House members: Tom Feeney of Florida, whose chief of staff, Jason Roe, is Patty's husband; Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, both of Florida; and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. Renzi's office says those payments were for services rendered in 2005.

That first rule I mentioned above—the one meant to prevent senior congressional staffers from having two careers—limits outside earned income to $24,780 per year. Roe gets around that rule because a senior position is defined as one that pays $109,808 or more in 2006.

Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor and currently executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it sounded like Renzi might have fixed Roe's salary at an artificially low level so she could keep raising money for his campaign. “It reminds me of Jerry Lewis and Letitia White,” she said, referring to the scandal-tainted California congressman and the influence peddler who formerly held a top job on his staff. “[Lewis] paid her below the threshold [for ‘senior’ staff], so the revolving-door statute didn't apply, and she could get a job as a lobbyist right after she left his office.”

It's hard to see how the second set of rules I mentioned—the ones that limit staffers' work on political campaigns—would not apply to Roe. Records on file with the House identify her as a full-time employee of Renzi's. To be in compliance with the rules, Roe must be doing all her fundraising work before she clocks in to work as Renzi's administrative assistant, or after she checks out, and she can't make or receive a single fundraising-related call in her House office.

If she isn't breaking the rules, Roe must not sleep much. Renzi's spokesman Vartan Djihanian insists that this is the case: “Whatever fundraising she does,” he said, “is on her time.”

Sloan said she'd never heard of a case where a top staffer was being paid so much to do outside fundraising for her boss in addition to her day job. “This situation is quite unusual,” she said. “If we had an ethics committee that did anything, which we don't, they would look into this.”

Next Wednesday, Renzi is holding a 12:30 P.M. fundraiser (Suggested contribution: $1,000 per PAC or $500 per head for individuals) at 401 9th Street NW, Suite 640 North, in downtown Washington. The invitation doesn't say so but that's the lobbying office of JPMorgan Chase, a big donor to Renzi, who sits on the Committee on Financial Services. Patty Roe is identified as the contact person for the event.

I wonder if she'll be there—and if so, will she put in overtime at Renzi's office to make up for doing campaign work during regular hours?

[More Washington Babylon]

[Contact Ken Silverstein]

[About Washington Babylon]

Previous · Next · More Washington Babylon · Respond via email

USERNAME
PASSWORD
Subscriber? · Lost password? Lost username? · More help