{"id":12805,"date":"2010-02-09T13:01:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-09T20:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=12805"},"modified":"2010-02-09T19:46:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T02:46:53","slug":"senate-rules-discusses-ethics-commission-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/02\/senate-rules-discusses-ethics-commission-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Rules discusses ethics commission bills"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)<\/p><\/div>\n

A number of sticking points still remain in the debate over the creation of a state ethics commission, including whether the body\u2019s work should be confidential and the makeup of the commission itself.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what came out of a discussion about three ethics commission proposals today in the Senate Rules Committee. Ultimately, the committee took no action, but sponsors of the three bills are now charged with combining their bills into one substitute.<\/p>\n

The bills are Senate Bill 43<\/a>, sponsored by Democrat Linda Lopez<\/a>, Senate Bill 154<\/a>, sponsored by Democrat Dede Feldman<\/a>, and Senate Bill 268<\/a>, sponsored by Republican Sue Wilson Beffort<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lopez\u2019s bill is the product of a bipartisan interim legislative subcommittee<\/a> that met last year.<\/p>\n

The debate about the commission\u2019s make up centers around how many members it should have and who should appoint them, with the primary concern expressed being political balance so there\u2019s less opportunity for a witch hunt. Proposals range from 6-11 members, with some appointed by lawmakers and others appointed by the governor.<\/p>\n

As for confidentiality \u2013 the debate is over the public\u2019s right to know versus the desire to protect officials from baseless attacks. Lopez\u2019s bill \u2013 the one that leans most toward confidentiality \u2013 would require confidentiality during the process of an investigation, and violators could be subject to a criminal misdemeanor citation or a civil fine of up to $25,000.<\/p>\n

Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings<\/a> said confidentiality is important.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can be ruined by the accusations out there,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd once they\u2019re out there, you can\u2019t get them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Noel, former head of the state\u2019s Judicial Standards Commission<\/a> who\u2019s now working on ethics legislation for the governor, said the trend with judicial ethics boards is away from confidentiality.<\/p>\n

Noel gave some opinions on a few points in the bill, but said generally the governor\u2019s office is \u201cvery supportive\u201d of the direction the Rules Committee is taking.<\/p>\n

Steve Allen, executive director of Common Cause New Mexico<\/a>, also sounded optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the current bills are actually improvements on what passed the House<\/a> in the last session,\u201d he said. \u201cI am also optimistic that we can come together here and have some consensus on this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House has passed a commission bill in the past, but the Senate has not.<\/p>\n

The Rules Committee gave no timeline for the presentation of a committee substitute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A number of sticking points still remain in the debate over the creation of a state ethics commission, including whether the body\u2019s work should be confidential and the makeup of the commission itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[109,107],"class_list":["post-12805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics-reform","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12805\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}