From State Senator Craig Wilcox:

Legislative Inspector General announces resignation

Citing a lack of “true ethics reform,” Legislative Inspector General (LIG) Carol Pope offered her resignation to members of the Legislative Ethics Commission on July 14.

She offered her resignation immediately, until a replacement is chosen, or until her term ends in December.

I have been vocal about the ongoing issues of corruption and misconduct within state government, and this is just further evidence of the need to pass substantive ethics reforms in the legislature.

Earlier this year, lawmakers came together in a bipartisan effort to pass an ethics reform package that included a component to empower the LIG to investigate corruption allegations.

While it was a good step forward to begin addressing the ongoing ethical concerns in state government, there is still a lot to be done to ensure elected officials are held accountable for their actions and to address the longstanding history of legislator misconduct. 

Senate Republican lawmakers sponsored several additional reforms proposed by the LIG that were never called before the Ethics Committee for a hearing. They include:

• SB 551 (Tracy):Amends the law to include more disclosure on Quarterly Reports filed by the Legislative Inspector General. Adds that the reports will include the total number of founded reports (currently complaints) forwarded to the Attorney General. 
• SB 1870 (Barickman):Amends the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act to allow the Legislative Inspector General to conduct investigations and issue subpoenas without the prior advance approval of the Legislative Ethics Commission.
• SB 2529 (Plummer):Amends the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act so that the Legislative Inspector General shall not initiate any investigation without giving notice of the allegations involved to each member of the Legislative Ethics Commission. The Legislative Inspector General does not require the advance approval of the Commission to initiate any investigation, but the Legislative Inspector General shall not investigate matters that are beyond the scope of, or are unrelated to, the initial complaint upon which the investigation was founded, without the advance approval of the Commission. 
• SB 1350 (Curran): Amends the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act to: 

• Allowing the Attorney General to impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate, indict and prosecute bribery and misconduct by members of the General Assembly;
• Authorizing state’s attorneys to use wiretaps to investigate crimes of public corruption;
• Granting the Legislative Inspector General the ability to investigate members of the General Assembly without first receiving approval from the Legislative Ethics Commission;
• Banning legislators from lobbying other branches of state government or units of local government for compensation;
• Requiring legislators to wait one year after leaving office, or until the end of the current term (whichever is longer) before they can become a lobbyist;
• Prohibiting a legislator from leaving office and continuing to use their campaign fund to support lobbying activities; and
• Updating the Statement of Economic Interests to enhance the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.