The first special session of Maine’s 128^th Legislature adjourned sine die on November 6, 2017. The House sustained Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill allowing and regulating the retail sale of recreational marijuana.

Additionally, the bill to bring ranked-choice voting law into constitutional compliance became law without the governor’s signature. Maine voters passed a ballot initiative approving ranked-choice voting in the November 2016 elections.

Ranked-choice voting ensures the winning candidate in a multicandidate race receives the majority vote because voters rank candidates in order of preference. If a candidate does not receive 50 percent of first-choice votes, then the lowest scoring candidate is eliminated and votes are retabulated.

The bill to bring ranked-choice voting into constitutional compliance delays the new system until 2021 and automatically repeals the law unless voters ratify a constitutional amendment authorizing the Legislature to determine the method the state Legislature and Governor are elected by December 1, 2021.

The Hawaii Senate is scheduled to convene a two-day special legislative session on Tuesday, November 14, to confirm 4 judicial appointments.

Choosing from a list of candidates selected by the Judicial Selection Committee, Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald appointed Jessi Hall to the First District Family Court Judge and Gov. Ige appointed Paul Wong, Matthew Viola, and Rowena Somerville to the First Circuit Court.

Each Circuit Court judge will serve a 10-year term while the Family Court appointment has a six-year term.

Gov. Steve Bullock called the Legislature into a special session late Monday to address the state’s budget issues caused by an unforeseen drop in state revenue and costly wildfires.

Gov. Bullock has been working with lawmakers for months to come up with a plan to fix budgetary issues without calling a special session, but no agreement could be reached. Gov. Bullock released a list of cuts he would be willing to make to state agencies to help close the gap in revenue.

Smaller state agencies, including the Commissioner of Political Practices who oversees the state’s ethics, will see 10% cuts while larger agencies such as the Department of Corrections and the state university system will be burdened much less.

The special session is scheduled to convene November 14, 2017.

A special election will be held on January 23, 2018, to consider a veto referendum on taxes included in a 2017 legislative session bill.

The taxes at issue are on healthcare insurance premiums intended to provide funding for people on the Oregon Health Plan, Oregon’s version of Medicaid.

A recall petition seeking to remove Democratic Senator Joyce Woodhouse has enough valid signatures to force a recall election according to the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office.

The recall petition was filed in August by a former Nevada Republican Assemblyman with no reason cited. State democrats are fighting the recall efforts with a “Decline to sign” campaign as well as a federal Voting Rights Act lawsuit filed on behalf of five voters seeking to end the recall before a special election could occur.

Attorneys fighting the recall efforts assert the recall would undermine a republican form of government by threatening to upend the undisputed results of legitimate and regularly scheduled elections.

Two other Nevada Republican-led recall campaigns targeting both Democratic and Independent state senators have signature deadlines this month.

The Iowa General Assembly has implemented a new lobbyist reporting application for the upcoming session.

A training class for the new application is being offered on several different dates. Interested parties may reserve a seat by emailing helpdesk@legis.iowa.gov or by calling the Help Desk at (515) 281-6506.

Training classes are available on November 9th at 9:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m., November 15 at 1:30 p.m., November 21 at 9:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m., or November 29 at 9:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m.

All training classes will be held in the Miller Building, Room 300, 1112 E. Grand, Des Moines, Iowa, 50319.

The old system will remain in place until the new system is available on December 1, 2017.

Gov. Kim Reynolds called a special election for Senate District 3. The special election has been called to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of State Sen. Bill Anderson.

In September, Anderson accepted a job as the director of the Cherokee Area Economic Development Corporation, but Reynolds had to wait until Anderson submitted his formal resignation to call the special election.

With a formal resignation date of November 1, 2017, Reynolds has set the special election for December 12, 2017.

The Santa Fe City Council will hold a public hearing on a bill relating to campaign finance on December 13, 2017. The bill will remove public disclosure of independent expenditures for groups supporting or opposing ballot measures.

On January 10, 2018, the City Council will hold a public hearing on a bill regarding procurement. If adopted, the bill regarding procurement would adopt the New Mexico procurement code as the purchasing manual for Santa Fe.

Both bills are available at the Santa Fe, New Mexico website.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) will conduct a public hearing on proposed regulations in Hearing Room A of the Legislative Building, 198 State Street, Albany, New York on October 30, from 1-4 p.m.

The proposed regulations compile existing guidelines and advisory opinions regarding rules and requirements related to lobbying. The proposals were originally introduced in October 2016 and were reviewed in December 2016.

After the public hearing, JCOPE will review comments and decide if further amendments must be made. If the rules are adopted, JCOPE must follow the State Administrative Procedures Act and file the full text of the rule with the Department of State.

More information about the proposed regulations are available at JCOPE’s website.

In United Healthcare Services, Inc. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, United Healthcare Services, Inc. (United) was not awarded the city of Baltimore’s Request for Proposal (RFP) for medical administration services despite being fully compliant with listed Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) and Women Business Enterprises (WBE) goals.

The companies awarded the contract did not comply with the requested MBE and WBE set at 11 percent and 4 percent respectively. After United complained, the city allowed the selected offerors to revise their MBE and WBE forms.

United filed suit against the city alleging violations of Baltimore’s procurement laws. The court found the city “is generally given a wide berth in making its decisions,” and United cannot point to a provision in the City Code the city clearly violated.

Additionally, the City Code only requires bidders make a “good faith effort” to be in compliance with the RFP and “the City has more expertise interpreting the City Code, and its own rules, than the Court.”

In turn, United failed to establish it would be likely to succeed on the merits.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 867 into law, recasting various provisions of the Political Reform Act regarding the definition of the term contribution.

The law moves the behested payment reporting requirements out of the definition of contribution, and instead places those requirements in the part of the campaign disclosure sections of the act.

Additionally, the law provides specific definitions for terms related to behested payments and the reporting of such payments.  The law is effective January 1, 2018.

The Oklahoma Ethics Commission held an informal meeting this week to review a proposed amendment regarding a cooling-off period for elected officials and state employees.

The proposed amendment would require state employees and public officials to wait 2 years before registering as a lobbyist or representing another entity before the agency he or she previously served.

Supporters believe a cooling-off period prevents a conflict of interest while opponents to the proposed amendment feel it discourages involvement in government.

The proposal also includes a waiver of the restriction if the intent of the cooling-off period would not be undermined when waived.

Tempe City Council will vote next month on whether to send a ballot measure to voters next March seeking tighter restrictions on independent expenditures.

The Sunshine Ordinance would require groups making independent expenditures over $1,000 to disclose their organization name and source of funding. Tempe has not seen an uptick in independent expenditures yet but wants to prevent a future increase as independent expenditures are often associated with mud-slinging and attack ads.

The Mayor’s office and the Tempe Chamber of Commerce have expressed concern over the Sunshine Ordinance, worrying it might cause legal trouble for the city for infringing on first amendment rights and the Citizens United decision.

Even if the measure is approved by voters, as a charter amendment it will be automatically reviewed by the state to ensure there is no conflict with state law. 

The General Assembly adjourned on October 17, after finishing a special session convening on October 4.

The General Assembly overrode Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 656, a bill canceling North Carolina’s judicial primaries next year.

The Legislature will reconvene on January 10, 2018.