The subject of gifts to politicians and their families was an issue Wednesday as the Alabama Ethics & Campaign Finance Committee met to discuss possibly reforming the state’s ethics law.
“At our last meeting, we discussed the Ethics Clarification and Reform Report,” said Rep. Matt Simpson (R-Daphne), chairman of the committee. “This is what people have identified as problems with our current ethics law.”
Simpson said the discussion will include what the courts have identified as issues.
“I will tell you that does include a discussion of ex parte Hubbard,” Simpson said.
Jimmy Entrekin of the state Legislative Services Agency said not only does the ethics law “include you as legislators,” but it also includes up to 300,000 local and state government officials and employees.
“It also includes family members,” Entrekin said. “If you include family members as well as lobbyists and principals and you get up to potentially a million people.”
He said five areas of focus were the gift ban, the definition of and scope of principal, conflicts of interest, the disclosure requirements, and the revolving door.
Entrekin said there is no distinction in the law between taking a gift that is one dollar over the gift ban versus taking something of significant value.
“All of these things carry either a class D felony or a class A misdemeanor,” Entrekin said. “Every state requires some sort of financial disclosure filings.”
State Rep. Thomas Jackson (D-Thomasville) asked, “Are we saying that the current policy is too gray and not black and white enough?”
“There is some language that needs to be clarified,” Entrekin said. “The commission report clearly identified some areas where clarification could be needed.”
Entrekin said the law has “two different definitions of conflict of interest. Which of these should apply or both?”
“There is not a definition of ’employee’ in the ethics law,” Entrekin said. “Is a provider of part-time professional services excluded if that does not comprise more than 50% of a recipient’s income?
“Is it the company or individuals within that company?”
Jackson said, “There was a time where legislators were given tickets to Alabama and Auburn games.”
He said the reason that rule went into effect was racial: “We were showing up in places where we were not supposed to have been.”
Jackson also said the Republicans 2010 ethics reform package “was a bad idea from the beginning.”
“At some point it would be helpful for us to [look] where we started, what the opinion created, and also the things that we have done to change in the interim up until now,” Rep. Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa) said. “We have done several things. We have created distinctions between what lobbying is versus what economic developing is. We have done several things about who is required to report and who is not.”
Simpson said the committee will discussion legislation that has been filed since 2010 at its Oct. 26 meeting.
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