The Healey Administration’s climate chief violated ethics rules at the EPA after she began the process of seeking a job with the state, according to an ethics complaint filed by a government watchdog group.
In a letter dated Aug. 1 and sent to Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General Sean O’Donnell, a group called Protect the Public’s Trust said their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the departure of Melissa Hoffer from her position as EPA Principal Deputy General Counsel revealed the Bay State’s Climate Chief failed to follow the agency’s ethics rules for seeking work outside of the federal government.
“Ms. Hoffer served as one the highest-ranking lawyers at EPA, yet she apparently failed to comply with routine ethics obligations when seeking employment with a non-federal entity. While certainly not the first instance PPT has identified at the EPA, the apparent ‘look-the-other-way’ approach to ethics violations under the current administration is a primary reason for the public’s plummeting trust in the federal government,” the group wrote.
Hoffer was a “Day 1″ political appointee of President Biden, serving as Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel of the EPA until the confirmation of Jeff Prieto as General Counsel in November of 2021 and remaining as Principal Deputy General Counsel thereafter.
Before her appointment in the federal government, she served as the Chief of the Environmental Protection Division in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. In 2015, then-Attorney General Maura Healey appointed Hoffer the head of a newly formed Energy and Environment Bureau.
After taking office in January, one of Healey’s first official acts as governor was the signing of an executive order creating the Office of Climate Innovation and Resilience and a Cabinet-level position to go along with it. Hoffer was announced as the nation’s first state-level “Climate Czar” in December of 2022, weeks before the position was officially created, while Healey was still the governor-elect.
Sometime before that, the watchdog group tells the Inspector General, Hoffer engaged in negotiations with Healey’s transition team about the new job. Those conversations, the group says, were supposed to be reported to the federal government.
“Ms. Hoffer was required to provide EPA’s Ethics Office with notice within three business days of any negotiations or agreement reached about employment with any non-federal entity,” the group wrote. “Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that, by Ms. Hoffer’s own account, her negotiations with Massachusetts began on November 28, 2022. Yet, she did not inform the ethics office until December 16, nearly three weeks later.”
According to a spokesperson for the EPA the agency is aware of the complaint but doesn’t reach the same conclusions as the watchdog group.
“EPA takes seriously the ethics obligations of its employees, including Ms. Hoffer while she was an appointee. During that time, Hoffer appropriately followed through with the necessary steps to comply with her commitments in coordination with the Agency’s career ethics officials. EPA is committed to cooperating with the Office of the Inspector General on all complaints and will refer additional questions on the matter to OIG,” the spokesperson said in a written statement.
The Healey Administration did not return a request for comment.
