1 / 21

Ethics Matters

Ethics Matters. TRENDS IN THE ENFORCEMENT DIVISION. Ethics Day. Trends in Three Areas:. 1.) Trends in Enforcement Under the Public Officials Code. 2.) Trends in Lobbying Enforcement. 3.) Trends in Reporting. Ethics Day. Trends in Enforcement Under The Public Officials Code.

tolla
Download Presentation

Ethics Matters

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Ethics Matters TRENDS IN THE ENFORCEMENT DIVISION

  2. Ethics Day Trends in Three Areas: 1.) Trends in Enforcement Under the Public Officials Code 2.) Trends in Lobbying Enforcement 3.) Trends in Reporting

  3. Ethics Day Trends in Enforcement Under The Public Officials Code 1.) Increase in political complaints 2.) Increase in higher education complaints 3.) Increase in confidentiality related complaints

  4. Ethics Day Election year = Increase in Politically Related Complaints 1.) OSE’s Limited Jurisdiction 2.) State Elections Enforcement Commission (“SEEC”) Jurisdiction 3.) Increase in Freedom of Information (“FOI”) requests

  5. Ethics Day Increase in complaints at institutes of higher learning 1.) Increase in awareness of OSE’s jurisdiction 2.) General types of cases - interrelated a.) Cases involving impairment of judgment – Gen. Stat. § 1-84(b) b.) Cases involving self-dealing – Gen. Stat. § 1-84(i) c.) Cases involving use of state resources – Gen. Stat. § 1-84(c)

  6. Ethics Day Increase in cases under the confidentiality provisions - Gen. Stat. § 1-82a 1.) Increase often seems to be result of attempts to use OSE for political agenda 2.) Ongoing cases are confidential, unless confidentiality is waived by the respondent 3.) Closed cases are confidential, unless… a.) Confidentiality is waived by respondent b.) Probable cause is found c.) Matter is settled

  7. Ethics Day 4.) Respondent talking publicly = difficulty in enforcing confidentiality provisions 5.) Can the complainant speak publicly after a matter has been dismissed? a.) Gray area – Kamisinski v. Judicial Review Council, 44 F.3d 106 (2d Cir. 1994)

  8. Ethics Day TRENDS IN LOBBYING 1.) Grass roots issues 2.) Issues in coalition reporting

  9. Ethics Day Grass Roots Issues 1.) Lobbying includes soliciting others to contact public officials. "Lobbying" means communicating directly or soliciting others to communicate with any official or his staff in the legislative or executive branch of government or in a quasi-public agency, for the purpose of influencing any legislative or administrative action… -Gen. Stat. § 1-79(k) …some exceptions that apply, i.e. communications by a representative of a vendor

  10. Ethics Day 2.) Easier to solicit without crossing $2000 threshold 3.) Confusion of reporting for pooling of resources

  11. Ethics Day

  12. Ethics Day Trend in Lobbyist Filings 1.) Uptick in compliance, with a few “frequent flyers” 2.) New online filing system 3.) Training available

  13. Ethics Day TRENDS IN REPORTING Division has conducted four audits, and reports on these audits, over the past year and a half, including: 1.) Status of the Lobbyist Audit Program 2.) Statements of Financial Interests (“SFIs”) two years in a row 3.) State Marshal Annual Statements of Interests (“ASIs”)

  14. Ethics Day The Lobbyist Audit Program This office randomly selects up to 40 client lobbyists, per statute, and audits their filings in order to see if they are complying with applicable statutes, namely, whether lobbyists are preserving “all accounts, bills, receipts and other documents” that are “necessary to substantiate” the information that is filed with their financial reports. –Gen. Stat. § 1-96a(a)

  15. Ethics Day What did the audit tell us? 1.) Did not uncover any major violations by the audited lobbyists, i.e. contingency fee agreements or quid pro quos 2.) Communicator lobbyists have trended toward being more accurate on filings, with corrective action required decreasing 3.) Client lobbyists have trended toward being less accurate 4.) Feedback: Lobbyists indicate that they are learning a lot through the audit process

  16. Ethics Day Statements of Financial Interests Audits 1.) Certain public officials and state employees must file annual SFIs with our office. - Gen. Stat. § 1-83a(1) 2.) OSE has nothing to do with who files SFIs – Statute and the Governor 3.) Audited last year’s and this year’s SFIs

  17. Ethics Day What did the audit tell us? 1.) Majority of SFI filers were timely and accurate in their filings 2.) A significant portion failed to list a source of income, a source of spouse’s income, or financial securities holdings of $5,000 or more 3.) OSE made changes, e.g., increased education efforts and focused on building relationships with ethics liaisons from state agencies 4.) As a result, this year’s audit showed more timely and accurate compliance 5.) Continue to improve

  18. Ethics Day Audit of Marshal Annual Statements of Income 1.) Marshals file ASIs with OSE annually 2.) This is OSE’s only area of jurisdiction over marshals 3.) First year the marshal ASIs have been audited

  19. Ethics Day What did the audit tell us? 1.) Majority of state marshals filed their forms on time and accurately 2.) 8.5% failed to fully answer questions 3.) 22% miscalculated their income, based on the numbers provided

  20. Ethics Day Office hopes to help marshals improve in complying with the requirements of the ASI Report should be released next week, please visit our website

  21. Ethics Day www.ct.gov/ethics Thank you.

More Related