A state representative who called more than a dozen arts and cultural groups “slackers” and “no-shows” insists that he has no conflict of interest in the legislation, and therefore didn’t need to disclose to fellow lawmakers that his wife was leading the organization that got the largest increase of funds among the 75 groups that applied.
The organization, the St. Timothy’s Summer Music Festival, stands to get nearly three times as much funding from the state as the group had requested, while Rep. John Fitzpatrick, R-Anaconda, pushed to zero out funding requests from other groups.
Fitzpatrick’s wife, Connie, is listed on the application from St. Timothy’s, and used the same email account as one used by Rep. Fitzpatrick in his capacity as a lawmaker to communicate with the group about the funding process.
Fitzpatrick told the Daily Montanan via email on Friday that he isn’t affiliated with the organization, and that as a resident of the smaller Deer Lodge County, he knows many of the residents, which could be interpreted as a conflict of interest virtually anytime someone from the Anaconda area shows up to testify at the Legislature.
“I am not affiliated with the festival, and I do not personally benefit from the appropriation,” Fitzpatrick said.
In fact, he said that he and his wife are financial supporters of it, actually underwriting part of the festival so that it could meet the minimum requirements to apply for state funding, $5,000. The group is currently slated to received $12,500, 143% more than it had originally requested.
But in a fiery legislative meeting in February, dozens of people showed up to protest the way Fitzpatrick had led a budgeting subcommittee dedicated to distributing arts and cultural funding.
Groups from around the state said that for years, they had submitted their grant requests, but had not been required to appear before the legislative subcommittee. In fact, many were told that attending the sessions was not mandatory and would not affect funding, according to multiple residents. However, Fitzpatrick said that he expected that groups or individuals representing the organizations would at least attend via remote video conference to advocate for funding.
He told fellow lawmakers when those groups “no-showed,” he and other committee members decided to zero out the budget requests, leaving larger groups like the Charlie M. Russell Museum in Great Falls and the Alberta Bair Theatre in Billings, along with other smaller organizations, with no grant funding. Fitzpatrick also pointed out that many of the organizations were asking for less than $10,000 but had operational budgets of hundreds of thousands or millions.
Still, for nearly two hours in February, arts and cultural groups railed against the decision, saying that the change was not clearly articulated by the Montana Arts Council, the coordinating agency for the grants. Employees of the council agreed that they had misunderstood the change as well, and hadn’t communicated that testimony was required.
During the hearings and subsequent discussion with lawmakers, Fitzpatrick didn’t disclose that his wife had submitted an application for a summertime Anaconda music festival, and that the approved funding was more than double what had originally been requested.
He told the Daily Montanan that after nearly two dozen groups did not show up, the subcommittee had a decision: Leave money sitting, or put it to work. So the subcommittee, comprised of both Democrats and Republicans, opted to allocate the funds to groups that had attended, giving many, if not all, more money than they requested, including the St. Timothy’s Summer Music Festival, whose application was submitted by Connie Fitzpatrick.
Rep. Fitzpatrick explained that without her help, the festival was in jeopardy, and she submitted the application to keep it going. He also said that even though additional funds stand to be allocated, a one-to-one funding match requirement means the small musical festival will probably not be able to use more money.
Amend it or else
Before HB 9 got out of the full House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, Democrats were concerned about another aspect, political hardball. Democrats said that they had been told that if the amendments to zero out the funding for some of the groups weren’t approved, the entire bill may be killed by the governor or Republican leaders.
“These groups teach children how to dance, how to act, and expose them to music. I served on a school board for six years, and I learned that we ought not punish children for the mistakes adults make,” said Rep. Luke Muszkiewicz, D-Helena. “The good bill sponsor (Fitzpatrick) has said if the amendment doesn’t pass, the whole bill will not.”
Five Democrat representatives voted against amending the bill, but after the fight to restore funding failed, the entire House Appropriations Committee passed the amended bill 22-0.
During executive action on the bill, Fitzpatrick did not deny that bill could be killed if the committee didn’t hold the line on changing the funding.
“I realize it’s a difficult vote for many. It’s not a difficult vote for me,” Fitzpatrick said. “Some of these groups are less than one mile away, and they couldn’t spend five minutes to pick up a $12,000 check, and they failed to do that. Let’s at least take care of the 47 people who had enough pride in their program and enough respect for the legislative process to show up and testify.”
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said they were forced into a tough situation: Either reject arts and cultural funding and hurt all the groups, or accept the changes made by Fitzpatrick’s subcommittee that would help some.
In the end, 15 groups had their funding wiped out because they did not show up to the committee. Others had their funding reduced if they only provided written testimony. Those groups that testified — either in person or via video — saw increased funding.
In total, 75 groups asked for, and originally received various amounts, mostly between $12,500 and $13,000.
After the amendment, however, 15 groups were left with zero dollars, while 10 had their grants reduced to $2,000, a roughly 85% cut.
After the amendment, the remaining groups all received an increase in funding to $19,660 to $20,160, a bump of between 55% and 57%.
The only group to receive more than that was St. Timothy’s festival that Connie Fitzpatrick had submitted. That amount rose from $5,000 to $12,160 — an increase of 143%.
During the February meeting, Fitzpatrick said that had any of the organizations showed up and apologized, they may have changed the decision.
Rep. Mary Caferro, the top ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said that she didn’t know that Fitzpatrick had a connection to any of the organizations.
“We were really concerned. We felt that they had lost funding inappropriately,” she said, “But we also wanted to support HB 9 because it did provide some projects to get funding at some level.”
She said she does not believe anyone on the Democrats’ side knew of the connection.
“That’s pretty bothersome,” she said. “I don’t remember any disclosing about it.”
At least one other Democrat, though, came to Fitzpatrick’s defense — Sen. Ellie Boldman of Missoula, who sat on the joint subcommittee that made the decision to zero out some grants, a move that she said she supported, even more after the criticism of Fitzpatrick.
Boldman said that in a small state like Montana, lawmakers have close, personal friendships with many who testify before the committees that are never disclosed. Furthermore, she said lawmakers have a responsibility to question every allocation, and they couldn’t do that because some groups did not show up.
“The idea that Rep. Fitzpatrick is the chattel of his wife and he must also discloseher unpaid volunteer connectionsin the community that we all know Rep. Fitzpatrick represents is also absurd,” Boldman said. “These types of relationshipsdo not rise to any ‘conflict of interest’ and there is no obligation to disclose, and, in my opinion, the whisper and innuendo is unfair and irresponsible.”