Parsing the Ethics Proposals
by Christine Stuart | March 4, 2008 8:38 AM
Posted to State Capitol
The House Democrats held a press conference Monday to talk about their
ethics proposals,
which include banning legislators from working for quasi-public agencies and banning lobbyists from being appointed to state or local boards and commissions.
Speaker James Amann, D-Milford, said it’s about improving confidence in government and coming up with an enforceable ethics code, for the “few bad apples.” Amann observed that ethics reform is an ongoing theme for both parties who are rallying around a core of ethics reforms in 2008.
Last week House Republicans unveiled this proposal on ethics. At least one of the proposals matches what the Democrats discussed Monday.
Both House Democrats and Republicans want to leave the policing of ethics violations to the Office of State Ethics, while the members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle seem to be lining up behind a proposal that would create a bipartisan committee of legislators to police their own. The bipartisan committee would be similar to the one formed to investigate former Senator Louis DeLuca.
DeLuca resigned before the six-member committee of legislators could take action this fall, but Senators seemed to think there was a need for a similar process, in case they’re faced with a situation in the future.
Rep. Chris Caruso, chairman of the General Administration and Elections Committee said Monday that such a panel didn’t work in the 1970s and it won’t work now. Caruso said if legislators were asked to police their own there would be unwarranted attacks and retaliation. “You’re gonna have witch hunt after witch hunt,” Caruso said.
He said he would support forming a panel of lawmakers to punish one of their own only after they were found in violation of the ethics code by the Office of State Ethics.
Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats seem to disagree. Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Southport, who took over as top Republican in the Senate after DeLuca stepped down sent this letter to Senate President Donald Williams saying the Republicans would like to form a bipartisan committee of legislators to investigate ethical violations of their colleagues.
In September, Sen. Ed Meyer, D-Guilford, came out with this plan to reform ethics in state government.
How is it that these reforms are based on caucus politics and not party politics?
Comments (3)
Posted by: Rebecca | March 4, 2008 1:29 PM
Question can this part apply to the New Haven Police Dept??
Revocation of Pensions
Give judges the power to revoke or reduce the pensions of state and municipal elected or appointed officials and employees, and quasi public agency directors, members and employees who are convicted of a crime that violates the publics trust
Allow for pension revocations of officials who are removed from office by impeachment or expulsion
Allow pension revocations to be applied back ten years!!
Posted by: ctkeith | March 4, 2008 3:43 PM
Many questions have to be answered before considering making a Pensions part of a punishnment for a crime or an ethics violation.Pensions are community property in a marriage are earned(not awarded or given).Punishing a spouse or a child for somehing they had no knowledge or control over is wrong.
I'm not opposed to pension forfeiture being considered in very severe cases where the public trust has been violated but there must be a process involved where the severity of the violation matches the punishment and where innocents don't pay for the violaters crimes.
PS
Rebecca,
Should judges also be able to take peoples 401Ks?
Posted by: Steven G. Erickson | March 6, 2008 9:45 PM
About 2/3 of the legislators on the Judiciary Committee in the legislative branch are lawyers.
If you go to an elected officials about lawyers abusing clients and propose legislation to fix it, you are more often than not, talking to a lawyer that abuses clients.
It is just that crazy.
Lawyers overseeing lawyers, and lawyers having unlimited power to snoop and take cash out of your wallets and purses is like protecting little boys by having pedophile Catholic Priests oversee other pedophile Catholic Priests.
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/