It’s time for a quick review of some of the ethics issues in other parts of the country.

Fracking commission gets tutorial on ethics laws.
Newsobserver.com

At a 3?1/2-hour orientation and planning session for the state’s newest commission – informally known as the fracking board – staffers from several state agencies offered pointers on how to avoid running afoul of state ethics laws and sidestepping situations that could lead to litigation. The list of Thou-shalt-nots included not sending private emails to other commissioners, not accepting gifts of any value, and not distributing free books to fellow commission members.

A few bristled at the restrictions, but said they will follow state policy on conflicts of interest and public disclosure. The standard treats all emails as public, whether sent or received, even to commissioners’ personal email accounts.

“You get a little taken aback when someone threatens you that you can’t communicate with each other,” said Commissioner James Womack, who is a Lee County Commissioner and a former Army intelligence officer. “If we have to reveal information that the public sends us in confidence, then the public needs to be warned that such communications might cause someone to lose their job or lose their ability to make a living.”

Minneapolis planning board’s conflicts prompt ethics review.
Star-Tribune.

Minneapolis’ ethics officer is reviewing conflict-of-interest rules for city boards and commissions after complaints about planning commissioners with too much business before their own board.

In recent months, members of the Minneapolis Planning Commission have increasingly sat out votes on development proposals because they’re somehow involved in the projects.

On one recent occasion, a member left the dais and testified before her colleagues. One panel member now recuses himself out of protest whenever his colleagues abstain because of a conflict.

“We are concerned that the risk of an appearance of impropriety may erode public confidence in the work of development-related Boards and Commissions,” Mayor R.T. Rybak wrote in a July letter explaining the review, along with the chair of the city’s Ethical Practices Board. The ethics officer, Susan Trammell, expects to make recommendations in the next several months.

Commission President David Motzenbecker did not want to address specific questions about recusals until Trammell’s review is complete, but said, “There’s nothing wrong or ethically challenged about what we are doing.”

MWAA board meets to talk travel, ethics reforms
Washington Post

Board members have been criticized for taking expensive trips to far-flung destinations including Prague and Hawaii and spending lavishly on expensive wine and dinners. It has also come under scrutiny for awarding several no-bid contracts to former board members and for hiring an ex-board member for a $180,000-a-year job the day after she stepped down from the board.

At the Wednesday meeting, the board is expected to pass revised travel policies that will discourage first-class travel and limit the amount that can be spent on meals. Board members who wish to drink alcohol will now have to pay for it themselves.

NY ethics board member who quit strikes at board.
Wall Street Journal/AP.

The maverick member of New York’s ethics board who quit in protest lashed out Saturday against the secretive board, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and good-government groups he says have fostered an ethical “farce” in Albany.

Ravi Batra quit Friday night after calling for a federal investigation of what he called the lack of independence of the Joint Commission on Public Ethics from Cuomo and the elected officials who appoint commission members.

“When I resigned over principal there was clear proof in the public square that there is no independence in JCOPE,” Batra said Saturday.

Batra said proof that JCOPE is controlled by Cuomo and legislative leaders came in late July. That’s when the commission decided to ignore the date set in law to start requiring the identification of donors to multimillion dollar lobbying firms, including the Committee to Save New York. The commission already had missed the June 1 effective date established in law but could have used it retroactively to June 1 but instead set it retroactively to July 1.

Ethics policies combined; Tennessee governor’s meetings stay secret.
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis.

TNReport, an online news service, requested copies of Haslam’s private meeting schedule from his inauguration through June 30. The governor issues a weekly “public schedule” of events he attends, but keeps a separate list of private meetings. Haslam refused the request.

“There’s just a lot of discussions that we have, that any governor needs to have, as part of the decision-making process that we go through on so many different issues,” the governor told TNReport, though he added that he might “revisit” his stance at some point.

“I think we just felt like coming out of the box, that there was a need just to protect that deliberative process for now,” he said.

In rejecting the request, administration officials declared that the private schedule can be kept secret as part of the “deliberative process privilege.”

But TNReport quoted Elisha Hodge, the state’s own open records advocate, as saying there is no precedent in Tennessee for using that “common law” doctrine to keep the governor’s calendar secret.

New York ethics board members spar over transparency
Pressconnects.com

Members of the embattled state Joint Commission on Public Ethics dueled Monday over whether its private investigation into the handling of an Assembly sexual harassment case should be made public.

After more than an hour discussion — the most substantive public debate the panel has had since it was formed last year — the members agreed to go behind closed doors and then report out its preliminary actions into the scandal.

Members were miffed that media reports last week indicated JCOPE stifled efforts to investigate Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s role in a $103,000 settlement in June with two staffers over sexual harassment charges against powerful Assemblyman Vito Lopez, D-Brooklyn.

Crack open Albany’s ethics secrets, now
Editorial comment from the New York Daily News criticizing the state’s new ethics law in action.

The law’s key failing — too much secrecy — was there for all to see on Monday, as JCOPE spent a full two hours debating what, if anything, they could say about their investigation of the Lopez case.
At least I think they were talking about the Lopez case. His name never actually came up, because it’s literally a crime for panel members to discuss who they’re investigating or why.

They did claim that press reports from last week — which said their probe was focusing entirely on Lopez while not looking at Silver’s role — were misinformed. What the real truth was, they did not say.

Ethics task force will promote openness, accountability.
Cronkite News, Phoenix.

A committee tasked with evaluating the city’s ethics standards will promote transparency, openness and accountability, Mayor Greg Stanton said Monday.

“The goal is to maximize public confidence in decision-making,” Stanton said at a news conference announcing the effort.

Chaired by former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, the Ethics Review Ad Hoc Task Force will dissect current policies, hear public input and compile a set of best ethical practices to be unveiled at year’s end.

“To make sure you’re on the cutting edge you have to put committees like this together,” Stanton said.

Although Stanton said he didn’t want to point fingers, he mentioned the furor over some state lawmakers accepting and not reporting free tickets and travel from the Fiesta Bowl. No lawmakers were charged over those gifts.

And so it goes in the world of ethics.