Today's Indianapolis Star has this front-page story: "State sets new rules for ethics: Kernan aims to restrict lobbying and ban gifts to executive branch." It begins:
Gov. Joe Kernan laid out new ethics and lobbying rules Tuesday, including a ban on any gifts to executive branch employees and a one-year restriction on lobbying by senior officials who leave his administration.Here is the link to the actual Kernan press release, dated 4/27/04.In addition, Kernan said he will create an "office of chief investigator," who will report to the governor. That person will coordinate the state's internal ethics investigations and develop additional policies to prevent fraud.
"An organization, in order to be effective, must have the trust of its customers, and must have very clear expectations and rules that are laid out, that are not confusing," Kernan said at a news conference in his Statehouse office.
That trust has been strained by a series of scandals in state government in recent months. Four employees at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles were arrested, accused of taking bribes to give out driver's licenses. A convicted identity thief was arrested after the state learned he'd lied to win a key job at the Public Employees Retirement Fund that gave him access to sensitive information.
A manager at the Family and Social Services Administration was fired and indicted earlier this month on charges that he bilked the state out of $455,000.
Kernan will implement the new rules through executive orders, many of which will take effect July 5. The new rules also say lobbyists trying to influence state agencies must register, just as those trying to influence the legislature must do.
My initial questions: First, re the series of scandals listed above - these offenses already are being prosecuted. What will the new rules add?
Second, what will be the definition of an executive branch lobbyist? This will not be easy to draft. Here is the link to the law on legislative lobbyists in Indiana (IC 2-7). Here is the chapter (IC 2-7-1) containing the definitions. Essentially, this law requires that anyone who is paid or expends more than $500 to influence legislative action must register. The focus of "legislative action" is basically the enactment or defeat of legislative measures. The executive/administrative branch of state government is much more diverse. What will the definitions be here?
Some attention is given to this issue in the Star story this morning:
But Dan Seitz, a lobbyist with BoseTreacy Associates LLC and a partner with the law firm of Bose McKinney & Evans LLP, said Kernan's announcement leaves him with more questions than answers.Other papers this morning also cover this story. Here is the Louisville Courier-Journal report. A quote:His biggest concern? The definition of a lobbyist.
In the legislature, it's anybody who spends at least $500 a year to influence the General Assembly.
How a lobbyist is defined in the executive branch will be decided by the Department of Administration, which Kernan has charged with developing theproposed rules by July 5.
Rules affecting lobbyists will be published in the Indiana Register and will go through the normal rule-making process, with feedback from the public, before final versions are drafted in six to nine months.
Seitz questioned Kernan's authority to impose the registration requirement.
"There are freedom-of-speech issues," he said.
Kernan also expanded the state's "revolving door" policies. Currently, executive branch employees and state agency heads must wait one year before lobbying state officials on an issue with which they had been previously involved.Another question: What about staff level employees leaving state government and going to work for those their agency has been regulating -- "changing sides" during the course of an enforcement action or similar dispute where they have inside knowledge, for instance? Is this a problem, and is/would it be covered?For example, if the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management resigns, he or she can't immediately go to work as an attorney for a company working with that agency.
Kernan's new policy expands that prohibition by banning former senior-level staff of the governor and lieutenant governor and agency heads from contacting state officials about any official action for one year, regardless of the topic.
The Munster Times has a brief story this morning. A quote: "[T]he changes will affect 35,000 state employees and thousands of state vendor companies and lobbyists. "We are drawing very clear, easy-to-understand lines that will make a real difference," Kernan said.
[More] Here is the link to a Center for Public Integrity report, "Hired Guns," and related information on lobbyists.
Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 28, 2004 07:48 AM