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Rep. Simpson on new ethics bill: We want you to know where the line is

MONTGOMERY, ALA. — After months of meetings and discussions, Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, is circulating a draft of legislation that would make several significant changes to the state’s expansive ethics laws.

The 63-page proposal shared with Alabama Daily News this week revises multiple sections of state code dealing with the rules about 300,000 elected officials and state and local government employees — and sometimes their family members — must obey. In some cases, it enhances penalties for those who violate the laws.

Simpson plans to file the bill later this month, but said he first wants to give his colleagues and anyone else a chance to “poke holes in” his attempt to clean up ethics law revisions made in 2010 and some of the unintended consequences they created.

Simpson, an attorney and former assistant district attorney, regularly has to call the Alabama Ethics Commission to get clarification on current laws. If he can’t understand it, public employees and school teachers shouldn’t be expected to either, he said.

The gray area in the law causes confusion and unintended violations, he said.

“If you cross the line, we’re still coming for you,” Simpson told Alabama Daily News. “But we want you to know where the line is.”

The bill would:

  • Strike from existing law the vague “thing of value” in current anti-bribery law and make it a Class B felony to accept or offer “anything” with a corrupt intent to a public servant or anyone closely associated with the public servant. It’s currently a Class C felony.
  • Make it a Class B felony for an elected official or state employee to use their position, office equipment or facilities or confidential information for the benefit of themselves or any other person.
  • Prohibit lawmakers from sponsoring or voting on legislation on which they have a conflict of interest.
  • Defines a conflict of interest as a substantial financial interest that materially or uniquely benefits the public servant, family member or associated business or benefits them in a manner different from how it financially affects other members of the same class.
    A lawmaker whose spouse is a teacher can still vote on the education budget that gives educators a raise. He or she couldn’t vote on a bill increasing salaries at the specific school where the spouse works.
  • Better define the state agencies that enforce various laws. Anything involving a potential criminal penalty would be the jurisdiction of the Alabama Attorney General or district attorneys. Anything involving citations and fees would fall to the Alabama Ethics Commission.
  • Changes the “revolving door” law that bans legislators from lobbying in the State House for a certain period to two years. Current law says two years plus whatever time might be left on a lawmaker’s term when they leave. That means for some, up to five years.
  • Defines a “prohibited source” as lobbyists or principals acting within the jurisdiction of the public servant’s governmental body; people doing or seeking to do business within the public servant’s government body.
  • Revises a gift ban to define them as items worth more than $100, with some exceptions. Those exceptions, including travel to “educational functions” sponsored by a “prohibited source” must be reported quarterly by the prohibited source. Those reports will be made public.
  • Says the executive director of the Ethics Commission must be confirmed by the Senate and reconfirmed every five years.
  • Would reduce the number of state and local government employees who have to fill out statements of economic interests, instead focusing on elected officials and public servants who handle money or spending decisions. Filers would have to disclose the “name of each associated business” and income sources and the range of earnings. For example, less than $1,000 or at least $10,000 but less than $50,000.
  • “If you’re a teacher, why does your statement of economic interests matter?” Simpson said. “If you’re cutting grass for a city, why do you have to file a statement of economic interests?
    “… Now, if you’re a department head or making financial decisions, that’s a different situation.”

Read the full draft bill here: Ethics Draft 6 Feb 2024

Currently, the statements of economic interest do not require reporting of all financial interests.

Former House Majority Leader Micky Hammon once had a small ownership in a health care clinic that was lobbying the Legislature in 2016 to require insurers to cover its procedures. But that ownership was too small to trigger required reporting on his statements, The Decatur Daily previously reported. Federal investigations into that business and Hammon led to him pleading guilty to felony mail fraud.

Simpson is chair of the House Ethics Committee. That group began meeting last year to discuss the current ethics laws and weak spots.

The committee will discuss the draft on Wednesday and Simpson expects to file legislation near the end of the month.

In 2019, Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, sponsored an ethics bill and got beat up over it pretty good, he told ADN Thursday.

He hopes Simpson is more successful than he was, because the state’s current laws are onerous to the point of being a deterrent to serving in public office. 

Rules for elected officials are one thing, he said.

“But to draw in every single family member you’ve ever had and require burdensome reports for teachers, it’s not necessary,” he said. 

If approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey, the bill won’t go into effect until June 2025, giving lawmakers to correct in the 2025 session any oversights.

“My goal is not to get it right right now, my goal is to get it right,” Simpson said. “It is too important for the state of Alabama to mess this up again.”

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