RI governor's office fought to keep this email secret. Why the Journal fought back, and what it says

PROVIDENCE – Under orders from the state's attorney general, Gov. Dan McKee on Thursday made public an email from a state contractor detailing "a series of bizarre, offensive and unprofessional actions'' by top-tier state employees during a March 10 work trip to Philadelphia – including racist and sexist comments.

The email centers on the actions of David Patten, the $174,490-a-year director of the state's Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance, who is currently on paid leave while the state police investigate his alleged actions, as well as then-Director of Administration James Thorsen, who now works for the U.S. Treasury.

Patten's lawyer, Michael Lynch, told The Journal that Patten, 58, is "embarrassed" and "humiliated" by the behavior recounted in the email sent the governor's chief of staff by Scout Ltd., the urban design company under a state contract – which was signed by Patten – to develop a $56-million re-use plan for the largely abandoned Cranston Street Armory. (Attempts to reach Thorsen on Thursday were not successful.)

Facing myriad questions about Patten's future as a paid employee, on leave, McKee on Friday said:

“While we cannot provide specific comments as the HR and RISP investigations are ongoing, the allegations regarding Mr. Patten’s behavior, if true, are disturbing, unacceptable and unfitting of anyone, especially an employee representing the state and who expects to be employed by the state.

"This behavior prompted our Administration to initiate and request the investigations, and we will have more to say once the process comes to a close.”

Email: Philadelphia trip sparked outrage from nearly everyone they met

Among the "bizarre" events attributed to Patten specifically before and during the site visit to a completed Scout redevelopment project, the former BOK vocational school in Philadelphia:

• "A text received at midnight (12:01AM) the night before their visit saying 'Please have French coffee (with milk and sugar) and the best croissant in Philadelphia ready for me upon arrival. Director Thorsen likes Diet Coke. Have a cold six pack waiting on the table in your conference room. You have three hours to convince us to give you $55M'."

• "Says that they want lunch at the Michelin Star restaurant located at Bok." After hearing the restaurant is not open for lunch, says to a Scout executive: "'Well you can call in a favor if you want $55M in funding.' We arranged for a private lunch which has never happened in the history of the project."

• "Patten at almost every visit insisted on taking something from the tenant home with him, whether that be vegan cheese, hand blown glass or a pair of sneakers. At each instance of taking something he turned to Thorsen and said something to the extent of 'I don't have to declare this right' in which Thorsen replied 'its de minimis'."

• "Waiving[sic] $55 million in our faces as if this is what we are receiving and benefitting is insulting, misinformed and quite frankly a tact of exerting power and control over someone that is disgusting," the author of the email, Everett Abitbol, director of development for Scout, wrote to McKee's chief of staff, Antonio Afonso.

The email also attributes more than one racist remark to Patten, including this exchange between Patten and an employee at the shoe shop that offered him a pair of sneakers: "Are these made in China? I hope not, because I really hate China." Patten then allegedly directed his attention to a female Asian staff member in the room and said, "No offense, hon."

"The CEO is livid and has asked for their information to file a public complaint if these are government officials. He is also married to a Chinese woman and has two half-Chinese children," Abitbol wrote.

The Scout email also said that "what Director Patten said to our managing partner Lindsey Scannapieco was [also] unacceptable and clearly sexual harrassment.

"While getting coffee just as the day began, Director Patten made comments to Lindsey directly about her appearance and going so far as to say "Lindsey, where is your husband? Why is he in Australia? Good thing your married or I would move to Philadelphia" and "if I knew your husband wasn't going to be here, I would have come last night."

Thorsen's role in trip also drew criticism

Thorsen did not escape criticism.

According to the Scout email, "Thorsen allowed this behavior to continue to happen, even after we pulled him aside to make note that this needed to stop. We are not sure if this was intended to try to force our hand to walk away from the project – but we are disgusted and shocked by these actions."

It is not clear where the armory project stands. There is no money for it in the proposed $14-billion budget headed to a House vote Friday.

Following the release of the email, Scout issued this statement about its intentions in sending the email and current concerns:

"We want to clarify that our reporting of behavior was intended to ensure accountability for their actions and uphold our commitment to our community at Bok as an inclusive and safe space for all."

"We sincerely hope that our reporting of our experiences did not contribute to any potential lack of fundingor support from the governor or his team," the statement continued.

Chiming in, state Sen. Samuel W. Bell, whose district includes the armory, said: "We must also consider the appearance of impropriety. It sends the wrong message if funding for a project suddenly does not appear when a vendor chooses to report extortion by an administration official."

Patten's lawyer responds: Actions the result of mental-health event

"He is certainly not going to hide from this," Patten's lawyer, Lynch, told The Journal. "Unfortunately the events that unfolded in Philadelphia were the result of a mental-health event characterized by mental-health professionals as an acute stress event that had built up over time."

"Over the past three years, Mr. Patten has lost his sister, his father and just a few weeks before the Philadelphia trip, his best friend, all while continuing to work, and he had never really taken any extended time from work," Lynch continued. "He did not take care of himself and sought to deal with the stressors through work, long hours ... and unfortunately resulted in comments that were in no way part of his persona."

At no time is his past history has he ever "demonstrated any sexist or racist behavior or made any such comments and has always acted in all capacities as a private citizen, as a public employee and ... a former member of the Westerly School Committee ... in a professional manner," Lynch said.

Patten, who recently moved from unpaid medical leave to paid administrative leave, has been cleared to return to work by his doctor and hopes to do so, said Lynch, adding that Patten also hopes this is a "learning opportunity for all and not just for himself."

"He also understands that it may take time ... before he earns back the respect he has built up."

More on this scandal: Details of ill-fated Philly trip that ended with a state official on leave come to light. What we know.

Who is David Patten?

Before his move to the Department of Administration, Patten was the vice president of business affairs at the Community College of Rhode Island.

Email release comes after Journal, WPRI appeal

On Wednesday, Attorney General Peter Neronha's office ordered the McKee administration to make the email public within five days.

"Disclosure of the email could be very damaging to the reputation of the employees who are the subject of the email," Assistant Attorney General Katherine Sadeck wrote in a response Wednesday to appeals filed by The Providence Journal and WPRI-TV of McKee's refusal to make the email public.

However, "there is a public interest in allegations regarding how high-level state officials openly acted in front of third parties while they were in the course of representing the State of Rhode Island," she wrote.

McKee spokesman Matt Sheaff issued this statement after the governor's office released the email:

“Our office has reviewed the attorney general’s decision and we appreciate the acknowledgement that ‘the record indicates that the governor’s office applied the balancing test in good faith.’

"As there is still an ongoing human resources investigation and an ongoing state police investigation into this matter, the office cannot comment further at this time.”

For the record: the email was conveyed to the governor's chief of staff by Jeff Britt, Scout's registered lobbyist at the State House

The Scout email says that Patten was "repeatedly asking us if we hired Jeff Britt and were we aware that Jeff took Director Thorsen's job on [the State Investment Commission] and doing so in a somewhat menacing way while alluding to how bad he felt on how Jeff was then treated by the states Attorney General." (He referenced Britt's acquittal of money-laundering charges connected to the financing of a campaign mailer.)

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: McKee official misconduct email released. What it says