A major ethics law reform bill won’t get a vote in a House committee Thursday, as originally planned, but sponsor Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, said Wednesday he’s not giving up on efforts to add clarity to the laws that affect public officials, state and local government employees and their families.
During a public hearing Wednesday in the House Ethics Committee chaired by Simpson, those speaking against the bill included Alabama Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton, commission member and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Lyn Stuart and former Rep. Mike Ball, a Madison Republican who previously chaired the committee and proposed over the years modifications to the law.
Ball said there are several good aspects of the bill, but some points need to be “aired out.”
“There are specific provisions which can be addressed and should be addressed,” Albritton said. “But an entire rewrite of the act would be overkill and would be bad for the people of Alabama.”
Speakers’ concerns about the 68-page House Bill 227 included changes to the Ethics Commission and its power. The bill transfers some provisions of the ethics law to the criminal code and jurisdiction of the state attorney general and district attorneys. The commission would deal solely with civil, non-criminal matters.
“The commission, the district attorneys and the attorney general provide necessary checks and balances to each other,” Albritton said.
Simpson has previously said the current laws are too cumbersome and having enforcement broken up over multiple agencies is confusing.
Another issue, Albritton said, is that exceptions to a proposed gift ban are too expansive.
“This rewrite provides less restrictions on giving (gifts to officials) not more, which is a problem,” Albritton said.
One of Simpson’s reasons for wanting to revamp the laws is that many of the rules that should be followed by elected officials also apply equally, and unnecessarily, to state and local government employees.
Making that point Wednesday was Sanjay Singh, who was a professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham for 18 years until he left, in part because the current ethics laws conflicted with his job demands.
“There is a vast chilling effect on people like me and the vast majority of professors, researchers (and) university employees because we are held to the same standards as elected officials,” Singh said.
“As faculty members, we are required more and more to go out and do public-private partnerships, which means a massive amount of fundraising from the public and public-private companies. … You cannot just do that on 20% of your free time, it’s a full-time job.”
Simpson pushed back a bit on suggestions that the committee take its time with the legislation or do nothing while a major gambling expansion bill is pending in the Legislature.
The committee started meeting regularly last summer to discuss the current laws, pitfalls and possible changes. Simpson circulated a draft of the proposed bill the first week of the session in early February. Feedback received is reflected in the current bill and Simpson has been open to additional changes.
A day to bring the bill back to committee has not been set. Democrats on the committee urged Simpson not to give up.
“I don’t want perfect to be the enemy of better,” Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said. “At some point, we have to put our foot in the ground and start plowing.”Democrats also noted that the last major revision of the ethics laws were done in 2010 by an outgoing governor and brand new GOP-led Legislature in a one-week special session.
“I’m not attempting to steamroll this bill … for some type of political gain,” Simpson, an attorney and former prosecutor, said. “I can tell you guys right now there is not a single person who touched ethics in Alabama and came out smelling good from it. I am well aware of the attacks that will go on…
“But the fact is, there’s a problem.”