A bill addressing gratuities in response to the federal case against former Portage Mayor James Snyder passed the Indiana House Monday and heads to the Senate for consideration.
House Bill 1065 would make it a Class A misdemeanor for a person to offer a payment to a public servant as a reward for an official act taken by the public servant or a public servant to solicit or accept a payment as a reward for performing an official act.
The bill, authored by State Rep. Hal Slager, R-Schererville, also increases the penalty to a level 6 felony if the fair market value of the reward is at least $750.
The bill exempts a good or service that is subject to a reporting requirement or otherwise authored by an applicable rule or code of ethics. It further exempts plaques, trophies, framed photos, lawful political contributions and wages.
The House Courts and Criminal Code Committee amended the bill to include language from House Bill 1141, which would make commingling of a committee with personal funds up to $50,000 a Class A misdemeanor.
When the bill was heard on second reading Jan. 28, Slager amended the bill to state that an offer of employment would not be subject to being considered a gratuity of the bill. The amendment passed in a voice vote. The amendment was made at the request of other legislators who wanted more clarification, Slager said.
To prove a job was an illegal gratuity, Slager said prosecutors would have to prove there was an arrangement made in advance to receive the job after a public official took an official action, he said.
Slager said Monday he filed the bill to prevent the acceptance of a gratuity after Snyder was indicted and convicted of accepting a bribe.
“It’s not a good idea, under any circumstances, for a public official to accept a gratuity for doing their job,” Slager said. “We want to put an end to that … because we didn’t have that in our code.”
The bill passed the House Monday in a 85-0 vote.
On Nov. 17, 2016, Snyder was indicted on one count of defrauding the IRS and two counts of bribery, one involving towing contracts and the other involving garbage trucks,
A jury in U.S. District Court in Hammond found Snyder not guilty on the charge involving the towing contract, but convicted him twice on the garbage truck charge, a case that made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which deemed in June of 2024 that the $13,000 payment Snyder received over a garbage truck contract was a gratuity, not a bribe, because the payment came after the contract and not before. In the ruling, the court noted that Indiana didn’t have a law against gratuity, so the court ruled in Snyder’s favor, Slager said. The case was remanded to the lower courts.
A jury convicted Snyder on the IRS charge, which involved his personal business and not his duties as mayor at the time, and that conviction had remained unchallenged. Snyder is currently scheduled to be sentenced on March 10 at the U.S. District Courthouse in Hammond.
“Everything pointed to the fact that, in fact, the giving of the gratuity was done so after the official act, not before, and that there was no evidence to suggest there was any arrangement in advance to participate that way,” Slager said.
akukulka@post-trib.com
