The city commission adopted changes to Tallahassee’s ethics rules, taking aim at improper interactions between elected officials and those seeking official action.

Changes to the ordinance include a ban on city officials soliciting gifts from vendors and lobbyists and a prohibition on city officials accepting gifts totaling more than $100 in a calendar year.

These changes are effective upon final passage.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called a special election for April 24, 2018.

The special election is needed to fill nine vacant Assembly seats and two vacant Senate seats.

The Senate races may garner a lot of fanfare as Democrats hope to win both seats and gain control of the New York Senate.

A bill was introduced in Utah restricting funds from a campaign account owned by a lobbyist.

House Bill 213 prohibits a lobbyist from using his or her own campaign account money for political purposes, unless the expenditure is in support of the candidacy of that lobbyist.

The bill passed the first reading and is currently in the House Business and Labor Committee.

The New Mexico Senate introduced Senate Bill 107, which states any lobbyist or lobbyist’s employer required to file an expenditure report must also file a report with the secretary of state within one week following the conclusion of a legislative session.

The post-session report must list the legislation the lobbyist or lobbyist’s employer lobbied, and whether the lobbyist or lobbyist’s employer supported or opposed each piece of legislation.

The bill is currently in the Senate Rules Committee.

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin announced the dates for the 1^st Suffolk Senatorial District special elections.

The primary will be held April 3, with the general on May 1.

The vacancy was created after Linda Dorcena Forry resigned to become a vice president at Suffolk Construction.

Pictured: Outgoing Senator Linda Dorcena Forry

Hawaii Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui announced he will be resigning on Wednesday to join a lobbying and public affairs firm as senior vice president.

In his announcement, Tsutsui cited the difficulty of working on Oahu with his family being on Maui, and the new job will allow him to be on the same island as his family.

Hawaii’s revolving door restrictions only apply to legislators and employees of the Legislature.

Changes to registration and training requirements are now effective for Miami lobbyists.

Following the passage of Ordinance 13718, lobbyists must now register within five business days of being retained as a lobbyist by a principal and prior to engaging in any type of lobbying activities.

Lobbyists must also complete an ethics training course within 60 days of registering, and if registration is renewed continuously thereafter, a refresher course is required once every two years.

Additional changes include the requirement to report travel and lodging provided to public officials and a fine of $50 per day for failure to file an annual report. The previous fine was a one-time $25 penalty.

The Virginia House Committee on Rules unanimously reported House Bill 263 without recommendation to the House floor on Friday.

The bill establishes the Virginia Democracy Voucher Program, which sends every registered voter in Virginia $100 in Democracy Vouchers that may be accepted by candidates for state offices in lieu of campaign contributions every year.

Virginia has more than 5.5 million registered voters, meaning the program as designed would cost more than half a billion dollars per year.

The North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a 2017 law overhauling the state’s Elections Board and Ethics Commission. Session Law 2017-6 merged the existing state Board of Elections and state Ethics Commission and created the new Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement.

The court held provisions in the law concerning the membership of and appointments to new bipartisan state board constituted a separation of powers violation.

Although the office functions of the ethics commission and elections boards merged last year, Gov. Roy Cooper did not make any appointments to the new board while this lawsuit made its way through the courts.

The Carroll County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 to move forward with a new ethics ordinance.

The ordinance was originally developed in 2014 after the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill in 2010 requiring all counties, municipalities, and boards of election to pass ethics ordinances.

Carroll is the only county in the state not yet in compliance.

The ethics ordinance would apply to candidates beginning with the 2018 elections. The ordinance will be discussed next at a public hearing on February 27.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed Executive Order 2A, which places limits on gifts and defines personal relationships for the governor of the Garden State.

This order requires the governor to disclose gifts received from anyone he has met in the past three years before being inaugurated.

“Anyone we’ve met since then is going to be subject to complete disclosure above the threshold of whatever the gift levels are,” said Murphy.

Any relationship established before then is considered pre-existing and is exempt from the order.

The executive order puts New Jersey in line with federal standards.

Lobbyists in Austin have agreed to cooperate with the city and disclose how much clients pay them. Taking a lead from state and federal filing requirements, Austin began requiring lobbyists to report what they are paid last year.

Seventeen lobbyists registered with the city, all lawyers, asserted attorney-client privilege prohibited them from the disclosure. The city’s Ethics Review Commission was scheduled to hear ethics complaints filed against the group, but all 17 amended their reports to add the missing information.

A lobbyist who originally refused to disclose his compensation said the City Clerk accepted the form without the information and there is even space provided for an explanation as to why the compensation information was not disclosed.

Austin’s actions this week have set an example for enforcing the reporting requirements moving forward.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback resigned yesterday after the U.S. Senate confirmed him to be the ambassador at-large for international religious freedom.

The vote was 49-49 along party lines, with two senators absent, and Vice President Mike Pence broke the tie in favor of Gov. Brownback.

Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer will take over as governor when the resignation becomes official on January 31.

After being rejected by the Wisconsin Senate, a bipartisan commission has voted to retain Mike Haas through April 30 as the state’s top election official.

Attorney General Brad Schimel has told Gov. Scott Walker someone new must be appointed in order to be in compliance with state law.

Commissioner Mark Thomsen, however, contends only the bipartisan commission has the authority to remove Haas from the post.

Upcoming elections take place on February 20 and April 3.