Ethics Rules & Oversight Should Apply to General Assembly-But They Don’t!
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
As we head into the final days of the legislative session, everyone is focused on improving the economy without busting the budget. We at the OCG Institute (the education arm of Operation Clean Government) have a proposal that will help our economy and better our way of life without increasing taxes one red cent.
As part of our ongoing efforts to reduce corruption in government, the Rhode Island Ethics Commission should have its oversight powers over members of the General Assembly restored.
Research on the impact of corruption is definitive. Corruption reduces job growth and increases state expenditures. It worsens income inequality and lowers voter turnout. Corruption not only impacts our economy but also our culture.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe OCG Institute is forming a coalition to address this proposal. We call it CLEAN RI – The Coalition for Legislative Ethics and Accountability Now.
If you agree that restoring Ethics Commission legislative oversight will benefit Rhode Island in a variety of ways, please visit cleanri.org for more information and to learn how your organization can join the coalition.
We know Speaker Mattiello has dismissed the idea saying, “If a three-year jail sentence doesn’t deter someone, a $1,000 fine is meaningless.
He is right that fines handed out by the Ethics Commission do not deter crime (even though Senator Celona was fined $130,000 for selling his vote during the pharmacy bill scandal What Speaker Mattiello is missing is the oversight by the Ethics Commission enables the average citizen to hold legislators accountable through an impartial third party. This system protects the taxpayers from bad politicians and it also protects legislators from overzealous citizens.
Back in 2006, twenty years after the Constitutional Convention created the Ethics Commission, Senators John Celona, Gerard Martineau and William Irons were investigated by the Ethics Commission for voting on pharmacy bills at the same time they were working for companies that benefited from those bills.
Senators Celona and Martineau pled guilty and were sent to federal prison. But Senate President Irons sued, arguing that the "speech in debate" clause in the RI Constitution provided immunity to prosecution by the Ethics Commission.
That "speech in debate" clause stemmed from a similar clause in the US Constitution. The intent was to prevent a President or other officials of the executive branch from having members arrested or otherwise punished for voting or taking actions as legislators that ran counter to the President’s policies.
Clearly, that was not the case here; but a majority of RI Supreme Court justices agreed with Irons and the case was dismissed in 2009.
As a result of that decision the people no longer have an impartial system to initiate similar investigations against potentially corrupt legislators.
Common Cause RI reports that 60% fewer legislators have recused themselves from potential conflict of interest votes since 2009. In other words, knowing that they cannot be challenged by the Ethics Commission, members of the General Assembly are now two-and-a half times more likely to vote on legislation where they might have a conflict of interest, greatly increasing the potential for corruption.
In 1986 the citizens of Rhode Island overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment creating an independent and non-partisan Ethics Commission, and they did not intend to exclude the General Assembly from that oversight.
This continued inaction by the General Assembly shows a blatant disregard for the 143,973 voters who approved the original ethics amendment, as well as disdain for those state legislators who privately believe they should be setting the example for honest government in Rhode Island.
In thirty-three other states an independent Ethics Commission has jurisdiction over the state legislature. Let’s not pride ourselves on being a state that does not.
Margaret Kane is President of Operation Clean Government, a group dedicated to promoting honest, responsible and responsive state government in Rhode Island. OCG Institute is the education arm of OCG. Bill Felkner is project coordinator for "CLEAN RI”; he is a policy analyst and former elected town and school district official .
Related Slideshow: Rhode Island’s History of Political Corruption
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