The Senate Ethics Committee edged closer Friday to a hearing for former chamber President Jason Ellsworth, adopting rules over protests of the Hamilton Republican.
At issue is whether Ellsworth should have disclosed his relationship with a business associate who stood to benefit from a state government contract worth as much as $170,100. The 2023 Senate leader spent 15 minutes of Friday’s hearing reading into the record rules that he said the Ethics Committee wasn’t following.
Ellsworth said he doubted he could get a fair hearing. The hearing is currently scheduled for March 7, which is also the final day for getting non-revenue bills transferred between the House and Senate. In an email earlier this week, Senate Republican spokesperson Kyle Schmauch said there were 200 to 300 Senate bills in committee or about to be in committee.
“I’m going to be calling Sen. (Tom) McGillvray, if this continues, which it shouldn’t, based on the Constitution and based on investigative powers,” Ellsworth said. “Sen. McGillvray, as a witness, he has already stated on the [Senate] floor that I need to resign. So, he’s made up his mind. If this was supposed to be unbiased, how could there not be a greater form of bias than ‘resign.’”
McGillvray is a member of the Ethics Committee and Senate majority leader. It’s been a month since the Senate voted for an ethics hearing and emotions have boiled over several times on the Senate floor since then.
The committee laid out general rules for the hearing next week, including terms for subpoenaing witnesses. Ellsworth’s attorney, Joan Mell, raised concerns about the timing of an exchange of witnesses and exhibits. By rule the information would be traded no later than 24 hours before the hearing, which Ellsworth’s team said left too little time to prepare responses.
Ellsworth will not be required to testify on his own behalf.
Special Counsel Adam Duerk, hired by Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, said providing Ellsworth with fair hearing was the priority.
“It is the intent of the committee and those providing legal authority and guidance to this committee to ensure that due process is awarded here to Sen. Ellsworth,” Duerk said.
“To that end, there [has] been communication from [the] respondent’s attorney. There have been comments today from Sen. Ellsworth. Those communications are not falling on deaf ears.”
The investigation into Ellsworth concerns a contract for services issued to business associate Bryce Eggleston at the end of December 2024. Ellsworth had offered the Stevensville man a job reviewing how state agencies put into practice several laws intended to limit the powers of Montana’s judicial branch. The bills, crafted by a select Senate committee that met for several months in 2024 and was chaired by Ellsworth, are currently in process in the Legislature.
Eggleston was to be paid $6,300 per bill. The arrangement raised red flags with legislative staff who initially received two contracts of more than $80,000 each. One staff member speculated that Ellsworth had split the work into two contracts to avoid the $100,000 threshold at which the work would have to be put out for bid if exceptions weren’t made.
The Department of Administration made the exception needed to put the work into one contract and approved the agreement.
In January, concerns arose that Ellsworth abused his power to allegedly get the contracts split, while also failing to disclose his relationship with Eggleston, who has since abandoned the agreement.
Abuse of power is a misdemeanor. The state Department of Justice is reviewing the matter. The Ethics Committee’s work is limited to the alleged non-disclosure of a conflict of interest.
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