An EC Reports on a Legislator Who Resigned His Way Out of Its Jurisdiction
Here's another blog post about a Georgian who wants out of EC jurisdiction.<br>
<br>
Some ethics commissions, especially state ethics commissions, have no
jurisdiction over officials once they leave office. Especially when ECs
require confidentiality regarding complaints until probable cause is
found, this lack of jurisdiction allows officials to resign before
their unethical conduct becomes public. And it allows officials to
evade enforcement.<br>
<br>
The <a href="http://oce.house.gov/">Office of Congressional Ethics</a>
(OCE) bravely did something about this problem, and by doing so
asserted its independence from the House Ethics Committee. Despite the
fact that Nathan Deal resigned from Congress "before a deadline that
would have required the House ethics committee to investigate the
accusations further or dismiss the case," according to <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/u-s-house-panel-4163…
article in yesterday's Atlanta <i>Journal-Constitution</i></a>, the OCE issued
its report anyway.<br>
<br>
Deal clearly intended to prevent the report from going public, because
he is running for governor of Georgia. But the OCE, a bipartisan
committee of three Democrats and three Republicans, none of them
currently in Congress, voted 6-0 to make the report public. It acted
pursuant to "House Resolution 895 of the 110th Congress §
1(f)(1)(B) (2008), which provides that the Board may release 'any
communication' pursuant to its rules or as 'necessary to conduct
official business.'" This quote is from the OCE's site, <a href="http://oce.house.gov/2010/03/march-29-2010---oce-referral-regarding-for…
page containing the link to the 128-page report</a>.<br>
<br>
In other words, the OCE employed an interpretation of an ambiguous
provision to do what Congress probably did not intend it to do: report on
representatives who are more interested in protecting their reputation
than being held accountable when they've used their position to help
themselves and their families.<br>
<br>
ECs shouldn't have to do this. No government official should be able to
resign his way out of ethics enforcement. Any misconduct that merits
resignation is by definition very serious.<br>
<br>
One passage from the report (p. 15) has nothing to do with
unethical conduct, but will bring a smile to your face:<br>
<ul>
Representative Deal’s Chief of Staff attended all three meetings with
the Department of Revenue. When asked why he would attend the meetings,
the Chief of Staff stated that he rarely allows Representative Deal to
go anywhere without him, unless it is a family matter.<br>
</ul>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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