Better Government Association

Panel alters ethics proposals

By MARSHA SHULER
Advocate Capitol News Bureau
Published: May 10, 2007 - Page: 1a

A package of bills aimed at improving Louisiana’s reputation by updating governmental ethics laws got a cool reception in a House committee Wednesday.

The House and Governmental Affairs Committee passed four of the less sweeping bills pushed by the newly-created LA Ethics 1, but only after altering a couple of them along the way.

The panel did not act on a bill that would require legislators and legislative candidates to disclose all sources of income, debts, and financial interests.

During a four-hour hearing, proponents of the package were sniped at by Republican and Democratic lawmakers. But in the end no lawmaker opposed the four bills that cleared the committee.

“We expected intense opposition in committee,” said Stephen Moret, president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and a leader in the LA Ethics 1 movement.

The panel approved and shipped to the House floor:

House Bill 733 that would require lobbyists to provide more information about their activities and on a more timely basis. The panel stripped a requirement that reports be filed electronically — a key provision. House Bill 493 that would require elected and appointed officials and others to get ethics education through an Internet-based program or seminar.

“It will help reduce inadvertent offenses that occur,” said Rep. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, sponsor of the bill, House Bill 532 that would ban the state ethics administrator from having outside employment so as to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Ethics administrator Gray Sexton has a private law practice. House Bill 340 that gives employees greater protection from firing or retaliation under state government’s whistleblower laws.

The Chamber is one of more than three dozen business, public interest and economic development groups involved in LA Ethics 1.

The group is trying to improve the state’s rankings on ethics in government indexes done by two nationally-recognized groups — the Center for Public Integrity and the Better Government Association. Improved rankings will help business development, the groups say.

Reps. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge, and Mert Smiley, R-St. Amant, questioned the methods in the rankings.

“Are we going to be driven by this Center for Public Integrity or what makes sense?” asked Greene, who got the panel to strip the mandatory electronic filing.

With electronic filing there is “a searchable data base,” Chamber policy director Jason El Koubi said. In addition, paper records have to be manually scanned before they can go on-line that takes time, he said.

Sexton said more than 900 legislative and executive branch lobbyists are registered but only 20 to 30 of them currently file electronically.

Smiley said the information used in making the rankings is outdated with the last report done in 2003.

“They have been very inactive,” he said.

During debate on the lobbyists’ bill, Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans, suggested that El Koubi and others promoting the legislation may have violated ethics laws by not timely filing as a lobbyist.

Koubi said he and several other Chamber officials became registered lobbyists last week.

Arnold said legislators have been lobbied for weeks in advance of the legislative session.

In other debate, the panel deferred action on House Bill 138 which would have required legislators to report income they receive from lobbyists and from principals and employers of the lobbyists.