The Globe and Justinian (“Senate President Murray’s Best. Move. Ever.”) are right that the Senate ethics bill (here’s the text and summary) released this morning has laudable campaign finance reforms and the Senate leadership deserves kudos. The bill will eliminate campaign contributions from lobbyists, reduce campaign contributions from certain businesses, and substantially increase disclosure of campaign spending (including “sham” issue ads). The Senate goes much further than the House here.
But the Senate also weakens, rather than strengthens, ethics enforcement and rules. Let me count the ways (I’m sorry for the laundry list-too busy to be eloquent):
- It adds a “knowing” requirement to bribery and gratuities sections making prosecution harder.
- It removed enforcement proceedings from the Ethics Commission and puts them in the Division of Administrative Law Appeals (DALA), eliminating the Commission’s ability to interpret and apply the law [G.L. c. 268B, sec. 4(f)], although they retain the ability to determine a penalty.
- Removes current whistleblower protections and requires that all aspects of a file (including the identity of a whistleblower) be turned over to the subject of an investigation. Talk about chilling!
- Shortens the statute of limitations for violations.
- Requires the Commission to stop and investigation while criminal investigations are in process.
In addition, the bill fails to add critical provisions that exist in the House bill (and Governor’s bill) which apply criminal penalties to outrageous gift violations, give the Ethics Commission regulatory authority to further clarify the rules, extend the summons power, and extend the statute of limitations, and more.
None of this takes into account the lack in both House and Senate bills of a straightforward Scaccia fix.
Call your Senator now and tell them not to take a step backwards. They should support amendments that strengthen the ethics provisions (if you can’t call, send an e-mail here). Act quickly, because this bill will be on the Senate floor tomorrow.
And stay tuned for more details as we get sponsors for these amendments!
thanks
…from large corporations doing extensive lobbying for zoning changes, tax breaks or other issues? For instance current law has no provision for financial reporting in towns with representative town meeting.
Representative Town Meeting is a relatively large body, not easy to whip, and zoning changes require 2/3s majority. It would take a massive effort to pull it off. Not impossible mind you, but really freakin’ hard methinks.
Have the Governor or the House used? Does the “knowing” standard apply to the public official or to the person offering the bribe? Or both? It’s been a few years since BarBri, but I seem to recall that crimes that are similar to bribery (i.e. forgery, embezzlement, larceny) are all specific intent crimes with a “knowing” standard. And does the standard really matter that much? Are there many situations where bribes are offered or accepted “recklessly” but not “knowingly”?
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p>It seems to me that the focus should be on having the resources and fortitude to actually prosecute a bribery crime and then properly punishing a conviction. Your other four bullet points speak to that. But I don’t understand the objection to using a “knowing” standard.
Accidental bribery and intentional bribery. The Senate and House desperately do not want to have to give up the “freebies” they get as part of their job. The dinners, the rounds of golf, the drinks, the tickets to game because those “perks” don’t affect how they do their job. They are loyal public citizens and just because their friend happens to want to take them golfing so they can talk about how casinos are bad for Massachusetts will in no way influence how s/he votes.
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p>Ethics is about appearances, and the appearance of impropriety should be as bad as the impropriety itself.
Too bad the Senate dropped the whistleblower protections.
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p>I was going to drop a dime on Charlie Doherty (running for mayor of Woburn) for holding a raffle at his campaign kickoff party.
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p>It was nice of him to take pictures and put it on his website, though…
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p>http://s774.photobucket.com/al…
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p>- brian