The most expensive lunch of his life
Former official fined $5,000 by R.I. ethics panel
PROVIDENCE — Former state official David Patten on Tuesday agreed to pay a $5,000 Ethics Commission fine for his actions on a now-infamous business trip to Philadelphia to visit a company seeking to redevelop Providence’s Cranston Street Armory.
The Ethics Commission also voted to find probable cause that Governor Daniel J. McKee’s former administration director, James E. Thorsen, violated the state’s ethics code by accepting a free lunch at a fancy Italian restaurant during that March 2023 trip to visit Scout Ltd. Thorsen will defend himself during an adjudicative Ethics Commission hearing in the next few months.
Ethics Commission staff members initiated the complaint filed against Patten and Thorsen after their actions — which included racist and sexist comments by Patten — drew national attention.
Patten, the former director of the state Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, reached an agreement that says he violated the state ethics code’s $25 gift ban by accepting the lunch at Irwin’s, a Sicilian restaurant on the eighth floor of the Bok Building that Scout revitalized.
In accepting that meal, Patten also violated a section of state law that prohibits procurement officials from accepting anything valued at more than $100 from a state vendor. This marked the first case involving that section of law, Ethics Commission executive director Jason M. Gramitt said.
The lunch bill totaled $524.60, and the “per person charge” came to $133.15, according to commission documents. After Scout wrote an email objecting to the behavior of the state officials, Thorsen sent Scout a reimbursement check for two people, totaling $262.30.
“The tour ended as scheduled at Irwin’s restaurant for the lunch specifically requested by Patten,” according to the commission’s investigative report. “Because the restaurant was not normally open for lunch and there were not servers or other front-of-the-house employees working, the head chef personally prepared and served the group’s food.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, Ethics Commission member Hugo L. Ricci Jr., a former state judge, made a motion to change the agreement to boost the fine to $10,000. But no other commission members seconded that motion. The commission then voted 6 to 1 for the agreement fining Patten $5,000, with Ricci voting no.
Patten and his lawyer, Michael P. Lynch, met with the Ethics Commission in executive session Tuesday morning.
Afterward, Lynch told reporters that Patten’s behavior in Philadelphia stemmed from “a medical event, a medical crisis, that occurred back then. He has received the treatment that he has needed. He is in a much better place today. And now he is hopefully going to be able to move forward. This has been a long, expensive process.”
When Patten resigned in June 2023, Lynch issued a statement, attributing Patten’s behavior to “a health issue termed an acute stress event — culminating from various events over the past three years.”
On Tuesday, Patten did not respond when asked if he had anything to say to Scout executives. But Lynch said, “Mr. Patten has been apologetic for the events and the conduct that resulted from this event.”
He said Patten “has been able to get back on the right path and is very regretful of that time and those events that took place. It has been a learning process for him, and he hopes it is a learning process for others who have faced the same type of medical challenge that he experienced at that particular time.”
The Ethics Commission also met with Thorsen and his lawyer, Kevin Bristow, in executive session on Tuesday.
The commission voted 7 to 0 to find that probable cause exists to believe that, in accepting the free lunch, Thorsen violated the $25 gift ban, a ban on officials using their public office to obtain financial gain, and the law barring state procurement officials from accepting anything valued at more than $100.
The commission also voted 7 to 0 to find that no probable cause exists to believe that Thorsen solicited or accepted favors or gifts from Scout with the understanding they would influence his official judgment.
Thorsen has defended his actions during the trip, saying he never made racist or sexist comments, and reported a fellow state official to human resources as soon as he returned.
After Tuesday’s meeting, Thorsen said, “If I thought I did wrong, I wouldn’t be here right now. It would have been settled a long time ago.”
In March 2023, Patten and Thorsen traveled to see the Bok Building that Scout had redeveloped in Philadelphia. The company was seeking to redevelop the historic Cranston Street Armory.
In an email, Scout officials have said that at one point, Patten commented on the appearance of a female Scout executive, asking where her husband was and saying, “If I knew your husband wasn’t going to be here, I would have come last night.”
At another point, the email said, Patten commented on a pair of sneakers he’d received, saying, “Are these made in China? I hope not, because I really hate China” — and then looking at a female Asian staff member in the room and saying, “No offense, hun.”
And in a text, Patten urged company officials to “Have a cold six pack waiting on the table in your conference room,” saying, “You have three hours to convince us to give you $55M.”
Gramitt said, “The Ethics Commission doesn’t have jurisdiction to impose penalties for offensive behavior or inappropriate behavior. We have to enforce the code of ethics, and the code of ethics primarily relates to things such involving conflicts of interest, improper gifts, improper use of office.”
In July 2023, the McKee administration announced it was terminating its contract with Scout to redevelop the historic armory. The move came after a consulting firm hired by the state determined the project would not be “in the financial interest of the state taxpayers.”
After Tuesday’s meeting, Common Cause Rhode Island executive director John M. Marion said it’s good that the Ethics Commission filed a complaint against Patten and has now concluded the case. But he said the fine could have been higher than $5,000 “given the scope of everything Mr. Patten did wrong in Philadelphia” and his role as “a high-ranking, high-paid state employee” who made $174,490 a year.
“They could have done more to send a message that this is unacceptable by government employees,” Marion said. “And they chose not to send a stronger message.”
Marion noted that Patten will end up paying $5,000 because he “shook down” Scout for a meal. “So this was the most expensive lunch in Patten’s life,” he said.