PROVIDENCE — Emails and text messages showed no signs that Governor Daniel J. McKee’s staff knew about the sexual harassment complaints made by six women against Ethics Commission nominee Bryant C. Da Cruz until minutes after they’d publicly announced his appointment.
Documents obtained through a Globe records request regarding McKee’s ill-fated choice for the commission last November show the main question raised was whether Da Cruz could serve on the panel while working as a federal political coordinator for the National Association of Realtors.
The governor’s office released 251 pages of documents to the Globe on Tuesday night after a $229 public-records request made in early December. While the documents don’t reveal who recommended Da Cruz, they do show how little vetting went into one of the most important appointments a governor can make.
The records show Da Cruz was chosen for the commission seat, previously held by a nun, less than a week after interviewing for the post. And even though the Narragansett Times had written in 2019 about the sexual harassment allegations against Da Cruz, it isn’t apparent in the documents that the governor’s team knew about them. Da Cruz told the Globe that the governor’s staff never asked.
For a full week, McKee’s office tried to push past initial local media reports about the allegations, records show. But the administration promptly pulled the plug on his appointment hours after the Globe published a Dec. 1 article, which included a memorandum detailing the allegations and interviews with some of the women who’d complained about Da Cruz’s behavior.
Six women, including two town employees, came forward with complaints that Da Cruz had sexually harassed them when he was vice chairman of the South Kingstown Town Council. The town manager collected those complaints in a January 2019 memo, in which Da Cruz “agreed that his behavior was unacceptable, and he affirmed that he would not engage in any future communications of the type that prompted the complaints.”
The town couldn’t take any action at the time because Da Cruz wasn’t an employee, the memo said. But six months later, the town changed its sexual harassment policy to include elected council members.
Within hours of the Globe report, McKee’s office issued a statement announcing Da Cruz’s resignation and saying, “The office acknowledges that the vetting process was not adequate and that will be corrected going forward.”
The public records, which go back a full year, show that Ethics Commission officials have been pleading with the McKee administration to fill the seat, which has been vacant since the November 2021 resignation of Sister M. Therese Antone, Salve Regina University’s chancellor.
On April 3, Ethics Commission executive director Jason Gramitt wrote to E. Craig Dwyer, manager of McKee’s Boards and Appointments Office, noting that the nine-member Ethics Commission then had two vacancies and that the governor could appoint someone directly to the seat Antone vacated.
On April 29, Gramitt wrote to Dwyer again, saying another Ethics Commission member had resigned. “The commission’s Chairperson, Marisa Quinn, has asked me if she should write a letter directly to the Governor to ask that he act on this appointment,” he wrote.
Dwyer wrote back, assuring him that McKee was aware of the vacancies, saying, “There is not a week that goes by that I don’t bring up Ethics vacancies.”
On June 14, Gramitt followed up with Dwyer, saying some commissioners had sent him names of possible appointees. The governor’s office redacted the names he listed.
But Gramitt told the Globe those names didn’t included Da Cruz. He said he doesn’t recall the names, but they were “upstanding” citizens who would have added diversity to the commission. He said Ethics Commission leaders have been concerned about the lack of diversity on the commission in recent years.
Da Cruz, 48, the son of immigrants from the Cape Verde Islands, has been a Realtor since 2003 and is immediate past president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors. He is a volunteer firefighter for the Union Fire District in South Kingstown, and on the board of advisers for Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick.
He also donated $1,000 — the maximum then allowed — to McKee’s campaign in April 2023, according to the state Board of Elections.
The records obtained by the Globe show his name came up on Oct. 30, when Kelly Vartanian, special assistant to McKee’s chief of staff, emailed Da Cruz to schedule an interview.
Da Cruz met with the governor’s staff on the morning of Nov. 8, and followed up with an email to Kate Pirraglia, McKee’s senior adviser and special counsel, asking whether state law on Ethics Commission qualifications applied to the federal government. He is the federal political coordinator for the National Association of Realtors, and by state law, commissioners cannot be employed by a business entity that derives revenue from lobbying.
But that did not stop his nomination from proceeding quickly.
On Nov. 15, Dwyer sent Da Cruz’s resume to McKee communications director Andrea Palagi as the new appointment to the Ethics Commission. And the governor’s office sent out a press release announcing Da Cruz’s appointment on Nov. 22, the day before Thanksgiving.
Records show reporters from outlets such as WJAR-Channel 10 and the Providence Journal quickly wrote to the governor’s office asking about the 2019 Narragansett Times story about sexual harassment complaints against Da Cruz. But it wasn’t apparent the governor’s team knew about it.
McKee’s communication staff circulated the Times article, but the administration did not back off the appointment. Rather, it issued a statement saying, “As the 2019 reporting on this points out, none of the allegations warranted action by the town or police department.”
When the Globe obtained the town manager’s memo the next week, Palagi reiterated that the allegations had not prompted town or police action.
With his appointment under scrutiny, Da Cruz texted McKee’s deputy chief of staff, Pastor Chris Abhulime, saying, “I am going to pull all of this bs together. I am thinking of fighting back, but would do that only with the governors office blessing.”
But privately, the governor’s staff circulated the Globe article among themselves and McKee, according to the records.
McKee’s response to his chief of staff, Antonio Afonso, was redacted. But after McKee saw the article, Afonso texted Da Cruz asking him to give him a call.
Hours later, Palagi sent Da Cruz the statement that they were going to send to the media: “After further review of the circumstances, we have accepted Mr. Da Cruz’s resignation and will be making an appropriate appointment to fill his seat. The office acknowledges that the vetting process was not adequate and that will be corrected going forward.”
Da Cruz told Afonso and Palagi that he didn’t like the last sentence in that statement.
But Palagi texted back: “Thank you for the reply. This is the statement approved by our chief of staff that will be issued this afternoon.”
On Dec. 4, Palagi texted McKee the statement as he headed to an airport event, saying, “If we stick to the statement, this should be the end of the story.”
As of Thursday, two seats on the Ethics Commission remained vacant.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv. Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits.