Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker is proposing the General Assembly pass an ethics law prohibiting local council members from reviewing land use cases where there has been no appeal. Currently, when a planning board has decided an outcome, and there is no appeal by either the developer or the resident, the council can still choose to ‘call’ up the case. Baker wants to prevent this procedure because the purpose may be to seek concessions from developers.

Baker is also proposing they pass legislation similar to what has already been proposed by Delegate Justin Ross, requiring local officials to recuse themselves from voting on building projects if a developer contributed to a shared campaign account affiliated with the official. Presently, local leaders may vote on land use projects while indirectly receiving political contribution from these developers through accounts shared with General Assembly candidates.

An Advisory Committee on Campaign Finance created by Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has issued a report recommending changes to the state’s campaign finance laws. Among the 25 recommendations are treating LLC clusters and all other legal entities with common ownership or control as single entities for contribution limit purposes, requiring disclosure from any non-political party group making independent expenditures for the election or defeat of a candidate, and requiring loan-related violations of campaign contribution limits to be assessed against candidates as well as lenders.

The committee suggested further study for issues regarding how campaign finance laws apply to “new media,” including requiring the reporting of sub-vendor information, to prevent covert campaigning by candidates and their committees through anonymous sources.

Ronald DeFilippis, Chairman of the Election Law Enforcement Commission, revealed the upcoming plans for the commission, including the intention to have electronic filing available for quarterly and annual lobbyist reports by 2012. Writing in the latest ELEC-Tronic Newsletter, the monthly informational bulletin from the commission, the chairman noted the “staff is working to create the hardware and software components” to implement the new filing system.

The commission also intends to enhance its candidate and treasurer training, introducing instructional videos and making training available online, and to simplify the language in their lobbying and campaign finance law compliance manuals.

Governor Brian Sandoval signed Executive Order 2011-02 establishing a new ethics gift rule for the governor’s senior staff, cabinet, all division heads of cabinet agencies, and himself as governor.

The order prohibits gifts which might be intended to influence or reward an individual in the performance of his or her official business. The order also requires notification of the ethics requirements to vendors doing business with the state and those receiving state grants.

Photo of Governor Sandoval courtesy of Brian Sandoval on Wikipedia.

State senator Jim Arnold announced he will introduce legislation to regulate lobbying disclosure rules for all levels of local government in Indiana. In his proposed bill, spending by vendors bidding for contracts of $100,000 or more with a governmental body would trigger mandatory disclosure.

Local governmental officials, including county commissioners and city council members, would be required to report whenever a lobbyist spent money on them over a threshold limit.

The law is not intended to supersede local ordinances but would still establish and necessitate minimum requirements of disclosure.

Photo of State senator Jim Arnold courtesy of the Indiana Senate Web site.

A grand jury convened to investigate government corruption has issued its first interim report.

The report makes various recommendations, including the elimination of “3-pack” advertising, where a political party may advertise jointly for three or more candidates without it being considered a contribution to any candidate.

The report also recommends a lifetime ban on vendors entering into any contract with Florida if convicted of a crime involving theft or procurement with the state.

Among the other suggestions the grand jury makes is a requirement candidates receive election and campaign finance law training. “Election and campaign laws constitute an intricate blanket of laws which can lead an honest and sincere public official or candidate to run afoul even with the best efforts to comply,” the report states.

The statewide grand jury had been called by Governor Christ and heard testimony for ten months.

A superior court judge has ruled the Secretary of State cannot refuse to provide procedural information regarding a complaint made against a lobbyist. In NCICL v. North Carolina, Judge Paul G. Gessner found no basis in law for the refusal to grant information regarding a formal complaint previously made about a legislative lobbyist.

The Secretary of State had argued the state public records laws prohibited them from releasing any information, and had refused to reveal any details, including the status of the complaint or even whether any action had been taken.

The Federal Election Commission has issued Advisory Opinion AO2010-30 Citizens United, allowing Citizens United to rent its email subscriber mailing list to federal candidates, political party committees, and political committees.

The commission concluded the rental is not a coordinated expenditure or a coordinated communication. Citizens United plans to rent its list at fair market prices using a commercial list brokerage firm.

The commission did not have enough votes to approve a response as to whether using the list to solicit contributions or invite recipients to a fundraiser violates the prohibition against corporate facilitation of contributions to candidates or political committees.

A special legislative session has been announced for March 30, 2011 to redraw state and federal districts. The redistricting will include congressional, state education board, and judicial districts.

Significant district changes are anticipated due to overall population decline and shifts in population concentration as a result of Hurricane Katrina. The session has been called by legislators, not the governor, for the first time in state history.

Photo of Louisiana State Capitol building by Bluepoint951 on Wikipedia.

A panel of the Administrative Conference of the United States has made a recommendation of ethics standards for government contractors and their employees. Under the proposed rules, a contractor would be prohibited from accepting gifts from anyone who is seeking an official action from the contract work or who has some interest substantially affected by the contract.

A contractor would also have to certify, prior to commencing work on any contract, no participating employee has a conflict. If conflicts do exist, the contractor would be required to request waivers for such conflicts, or disclose any conflicts and propose a mitigation plan.

The Conference is an independent agency of the federal government serving as an advisory organization.

Update: Kathy Kyle, Communications Director with the Administrative Conference of the United States, sent us a wonderful clarification, which we quote here:

The “recommendation” that you reference in your blog is an initial draft recommendation that was considered by the Committee at its most recent meeting, on December 3, 2010.  Over the course of the next several months, the Committee plans to hold one or more additional meetings wherein it will further discuss the issues related to the project and will revise the recommendation.  Once the Committee has produced its final recommendation, the recommendation will then be presented to the ACUS Council and then to the full Conference meeting in plenary session, set for a vote.  If approved, the final recommendation will then be published in the Federal Register.

The Republican National Committee has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court challenging limits on the amounts a political party can spend in coordination with candidates. Filed on the RNC’s behalf by James Bopp, Jr., the RNC argues the expenditures constitute the party’s free speech.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele said, “The right of political parties to express their members’ views about their candidates for office while also working directly with those candidates to help elect them is crucial to a healthy democracy.”

The case being appealed, Cao v. FEC, found contribution limits constitutional as applied to the RNC.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed a ban on political contributions from banks which arrange derivative trading with federal, public, and municipal agencies. The banks would be prohibited from making campaign donations to public officials who have the power to award work to the banks.

The commission voted unanimously to seek public comment on December 16 with the view to complete the regulations by 2011.

State Senator Loretta Weinberg has proposed legislation to end loopholes in the New Jersey pay-to-play laws and to end “wheeling”, the channeling of money through different political committees to avoid contribution limits. “This new bill will give us the iron-clad restrictions against the practice of using campaign cash to influence decision-makers that has unfortunately become business as usual in the Garden State,” said Weinberg.

Additionally, county and municipal political parties would be banned from donating to each other and limited to donating $25,000 to state parties. County parties would only be allowed to donate to local parties within their jurisdiction. Senator Weinberg would like her pay-to-play reform added as a part of Governor Christie’s municipal and county “tool kit”, but has not received any response from the Governor.

Photo of Sen. Loretta Weinberg by Bbsrock on Wikipedia.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin is pursuing the creation of a local ethics commission to replace the city’s reliance on the state. Currently, city ethics issues are resolved by South Carolina’s ethics commission. Mayor Benjamin believes reliance on a local commission with local ordinances would better serve Columbia and its city council.

The seven member commission would be made up of four residents from each of the council’s four political districts, a certified public accountant, a local business owner and an attorney. The attorney, who would serve as chairman, must not have done business with the city.

Photo of downtown Columbia by Akhenaton06 on Wikipedia.