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Ethics reform: North Carolina isn’t there yet

Posted on July 30, 2009 by Staff

Jane Pinsky

About the only good thing to come out of the scandals surrounding former North Carolina House Speaker Jim Black was the passage of major lobbying and ethics reforms. But it took Black’s disgraceful fall to move legislation that had been languishing in the General Assembly for many years.

Now, two recent, ethics-related news items demand our attention and remind us of the unfinished work in this area:

#1 – Former Gov. Easley apparently thinks he has done nothing wrong when he took cars for his family’s private use from a private car dealer and free plane trips that went unreported from wealthy supporters, and then appointed those supporters to state boards and commissions.

#2 – Former First Lady Mary Easley allegedly has no problem with getting a highly paid job at N.C. State because of her husband’s influence and then using political IOUs to raise money for the program there.

Both of these incidents highlight the need for additional reforms, especially in the executive branch of government.

As the leaders of the General Assembly ponder and debate how to resolve the current budget crisis, they would also do well to restore public confidence in state government. They could start by tightening up state laws to assure that rich political contributors don’t (a) get to treat the governor to complimentary private airplane flights and (b) get special favors or appointments to powerful boards and commissions.

Fortunately, there is a package of four bills awaiting action in the General Assembly that would address these and other ethical issues while also providing the citizens of North Carolina with much of the transparency they deserve with respect to their state government. Here are some brief summaries:

Disclosure by Appointees to Boards and Commissions (House Bill 944) – This bill would require anyone appointed to the 14 most influential boards and commissions to report all political contributions they have made totaling $1,000 (as well as contributions from others that have resulted from the appointee’s fundraising) within five days of the appointment to the board or commission.
This legislation will shed light on the political connections of those people being appointed to key public bodies. In short, we will know if an elected official is repaying a political favor.

“Pay to Play” (House Bill 961) – This measure, which is also known as the “No Governor Blagojevich bill,” would prevent state contractors from influencing the elected officials who award contracts by making financial contributions to their campaigns. It will help guarantee that the interests of the people of North Carolina take first priority.

End Executive Branch Revolving Door (House Bill 1136) – This proposal would prevent key state employees from jumping from state employment to private employment without a six-month “cooling off” period. Unfortunately, North Carolina has had a long history of state employees (many of whom receive taxpayer subsidized training and/or award contracts or regulate industries) going to work for the industry they used to regulate or the company to which they awarded contracts – sometimes weeks or days after leaving state employment.

Local Government Codes of Ethics (House Bill 1452) – This bill requires local and county governments (including school boards and sanitary districts) to create their own codes of ethics and to assure that every official receives training on it. This is a step that’s long overdue.

The central problem that always confronts us when it comes to ethics reform is not a lack of knowledge about how to address the problem, it is the issue of political will. For better or worse, it is the presence of scandal that usually provides the spur to get new laws adopted. Let’s hope that this is once again the case in 2009 and that the recent controversies surrounding Mike and Mary Easley provide the impetus for us to take one more step toward making government open and available to the people of North Carolina.

Jane Pinsky is the director of the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform.

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