POLITICS

Former top BMV official faces ethics complaint Thursday

A former Bureau of Motor Vehicles official has reached a proposed settlement with the Indiana inspector general

Tony Cook
IndyStar
Screen grab from video deposition of former BMV Chief of Staff Shawn Walters.

A former top official at the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles has reached a proposed settlement with state authorities over allegations that he violated state ethics laws when he took a job with a company to which he had awarded a state contract.

The Indiana Ethics Commission is scheduled to consider the settlement between former BMV Chief of Staff Shawn Walters and Indiana Inspector General Cynthia Carrasco at its meeting Thursday.

The possible disciplinary action follows an IndyStar investigation last year that found Walters helped negotiate a state contract with a company called Express MVA, then later left state employment to take a newly created executive position with the company.

The contract provided Express MVA with BMV workstations and allowed it to charge a lucrative "convenience fee" that effectively doubled the cost of services typically available only at state license branches. Those fees amounted to about $6 million a year for the company.

Walters left the BMV in 2013 amid a scandal over tens of millions of dollars in customer overcharges at the agency. Another IndyStar investigation, published in March 2015, found that Walters and other BMV executives knew about some of those fee problems for years but chose to ignore or cover up the overcharges rather than refund the extra money to motorists and adjust to significant budget losses.

About $30 million was later refunded, but only after a class action lawsuit. A second lawsuit involving additional fees is ongoing.

After working briefly for another state agency, the Family and Social Services Administration, Walters took the job with Express MVA in 2014.

Gov. Mike Pence canceled the state's contract with Express MVA in August after the IndyStar story about Walters' relationship with the company. The governor also asked Carrasco, the state's top ethics watchdog, to conduct an investigation.

Pence cancels BMV contract, asks for ethics investigation

She filed a formal complaint against Walters in April. It accuses him of violating a state law that puts restrictions on state employees who want to take a job with a company that does business with the state.

Those restrictions are intended to prevent private companies from using lucrative jobs to entice or reward state officials who have the power to regulate or award contracts to them. The ethics commission has wide discretion when it comes to penalties, which can include fines, restitution and prohibition against future state employment.

Carrasco said the terms of the settlement agreement between her office and Walters would not be released until Thursday's ethics commission meeting.

Walters is being represented in the case by Debra Minott, who hired Walters to work at FSSA at an increased salary of $125,000 after he left the BMV. She was later asked to leave the Pence administration for unspecified reasons.

Attempts to reach Walters and Minott were unsuccessful.

Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter: @indystartony.​

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