New London ― The company hired by the Connecticut Port Authority to find an operator for State Pier has agreed to pay another $10,000 fine in response to a state ethics complaint related to its work as a lobbyist.

Seabury Maritime, which last year paid a $10,000 ethics fine for buying gifts for port authority employees and board members, has signed an agreement with the Connecticut Office of State Ethics to pay the new fine in response to an investigation that determined the company violated the state code of ethics for lobbyists.

The Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board voted to approve the consent order between the state and Seabury on Thursday at its monthly meeting.

From 2017 to 2019, while lobbying for the business of the quasi-public Connecticut Port Authority, the Office of State Ethics said Seabury paid individuals to lobby the port authority and additionally spent money on items such as food, drinks, overnight lodging and other items of value to port authority board members and/or its employees. Spending more than $3,000 per year in lobbying triggers a requirement to register with the Office of State Ethics. Seabury, which the state determined spent $17,500 over the three years, did not disclose the financial information during that time as required.

The investigation determined Seabury, between 2017 and 2019, had “communicated directly and/or solicited others to communicate with board members and staff of the CPA for the purpose of influencing administrative action of the CPA, including efforts to secure one or more financial agreements with the CPA, and was therefore lobbying,” Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board Chair Dena Castricone wrote in the consent order.

By agreeing to pay the fine, Seabury avoids a hearing on the issue and does not admit any wrongdoing. Seabury, according to the consent order, argued the expenditures were not lobbying but rather “normal business activity including promotion of (Seabury’s) services to an entity that could benefit from those services.”

Seabury also claims an unnamed former employee of its company who was also a member of the port authority board of directors refrained from voting on the approval of the contract to hire Seabury. Henry Juan III was previously disclosed as a former port authority board member who worked for Seabury.

Seabury is the same company that the port authority paid $700,000 for its consulting work and to find a State Pier operator. The payment included a $535,000 success fee that was negotiated in 2020 and later investigated by the state attorney general’s office and State Contracting Standards Board since similar “finder’s fees” are barred from state contracts.

Success fees would be banned in contracts with quasi-public agencies under several proposed bills being considered by the General Assembly this session.

The port authority has said the success fee paid to Seabury was in part based on its agreement with the company chosen to run the pier, Gateway, and Gateway’s commitment to make $30 million in capital improvements at State Pier.

Seabury was previously fined $10,000 after it admitted violating the state code of ethics when it provided gifts such as food, drinks, an overnight stay at a private club in Greenwich and NHL playoff hockey tickets to Port Authority employees and board members and some spouses. The gifts went to Juan, fellow former board member Donald Frost, former Port Authority Executive Director Evan Mathews, and Andrew Lavigne, its former manager of business development and special projects.

Office of State Ethics Executive Director Peter Lewandowski, in a statement, said the Office of the Attorney General assisted in the ethics investigation.

“Lobbying services assist state agencies and quasi-public agencies complete their important work, but information on who, what, and how much is being spent on all state lobbying must be readily available to the public,” Lewandowski said in the statement.

A representative from Seabury could not be reached for comment.

g.smith@theday.com