The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
The Senate Rules Committee gave a do-pass recommendation Thursday evening to a proposal to create a state ethics commission, but the bill must pass two more committees before it gets a chance to be considered on the Senate floor.
The session ends next Thursday.
The committee substitute that passed combines elements of four ethics commission bills introduced in the Senate. It isn’t yet available online, but a news release states that it would “have oversight of the activities and practices of all public offices, officials, employees and contractors for the departments, commissions, councils, boards, committees, agencies and institutions of the executive and legislative branches of state government.”
The Rules Committee vote on the bill wasn’t immediately available, but Chair Linda Lopez, the sponsor of Senate Bill 43, was one of the members voting in favor of the bill.
“This legislation is a work in progress that will help deter abuses of office and position that can weaken our state’s finances, corrupt its delivery of services, and lead to the needless expenditure of taxpayer dollars,” Lopez said in a news release.
The commission, under the committee substitute, would have the power to investigate complaints and conduct secret hearings on those complaints. If an investigation reveals ethics violations, the commission would publicly issue a written report and could also issue a reprimand, censure or recommendation for disciplinary action.
Findings involving potential criminal violations would be reported to the attorney general or appropriate district attorney.
The commission would also prepare draft ethics codes that would have to be considered for adoption by each entity of the state, and it would issue ethics advisory opinions covering state employees and officials, contractors and lobbyists.
Secrecy
The legislation would keep the commission’s work secret until and unless the commission finds an ethical violation. It would require commission workers and members and the complainant to keep knowledge of the commission’s work on a complaint secret until that point.
Violators would be subject to criminal misdemeanor penalties and a civil fine of up to $25,000.
Activists have expressed concern about that level of secrecy, which goes beyond the secrecy surrounding the work of the state Judicial Standards Commission.
The legislation approved by the Senate Rules Committee would not punish a journalist or other third party for revealing details of an investigation at a time when the commission’s work is still secret. It would instead allow penalties against the person involved in the probe who leaked that information to a third party.
The legislation still needs do-pass recommendations from the Senate Judiciary and Finance committees before it can be scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor.