County commissioners approved a new purchasing manual to ensure consistency and avoid impropriety within the county’s contracting process.

A new hiring manager was brought in last year to overhaul a Purchasing Department troubled for years with allegations of political meddling.

Pursuant to the new manual, the Commissioners Court will still approve contracts handled by the Purchasing Department, but will be unable to override the department’s vendor choices. These changes are the latest in a series of improvements following the federal indictment of a county commissioner for rigging bids and accepting kickbacks in 2014.

On September 22, an ordinance revising the lobbying law for the city of Austin, Texas, was approved by the City Council.

The new law repeals and replaces Chapter 4-8 of the city’s code relating to the regulation of lobbyists.

The ordinance, which was to have taken take effect on January 1, 2017, was amended before passing and will now take effect on June 1, 2017.

Today, the Texas Ethics Commission will ask the Legislative Budget Board for an increase in appropriations to fund possible future litigation, according to the San Antonio Express News.

The Ethics Commission is unsure if Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office will defend the agency in future litigation, according to the commission’s appropriations request. In April, the attorney general’s office refused to provide legal representation for the commission in a lawsuit challenging a law prohibiting the use of audio and video recordings from the House and Senate floors being used in political advertising, according to the News.

In the request, the commission states, “The Commission does not know whether future requests for representation will be declined by the Office of the Attorney General and wants to be financially prepared to retain outside counsel to defend the constitutionality of laws passed by the legislature.”

On September 8, a 101-page sworn criminal complaint was filed against a former Texas Ethics Commissioner. Michael Quinn Sullivan filed the complaint against Tom Harrison with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office, according to The Lead.

Harrison, who resigned this year from the Ethics Commission, is alleged by Sullivan to have violated state bribery laws while he was a commissioner. Sullivan is president of Empower Texans, a nonprofit organization created to encourage governmental fiscal responsibility, according to the organization’s website.

On September 1, new provisions in the city of Austin’s campaign finance laws take effect.

Ordinance No. 20160623-020 increases disclosure requirements for nonprofits and independent groups making political contributions or expenditures in excess of $500. These organizations are required to report the identities of who contributed to them unless the donation was directed to not be used for political purposes. Contributions for investments and commercial transactions also do not require disclosure of the contributor.

Another part of the ordinance, not effective until February 1, 2017, requires intermediaries transferring more than $500 for political campaign purposes to disclose details of the transfers, including the occupation and employer of the person making the transfer and the purpose and description of each transfer.

The coat of arms of Austin, Texas by Glasshouse on Wikimedia Commons.

On August 18, an ordinance revising the lobbying law for the city of Austin, Texas, met with preliminary approval from the City Council. The new proposed law repeals and replaces Chapter 4-8 of the city’s code relating to the regulation of lobbyists.

The draft ordinance was approved on a first reading only and will require at least two more approvals from the City Council to become law. The City Council is next meeting again on September 1, but the proposed ordinance is not yet on the council’s agenda for that date. The ordinance may be addressed later in the year following the adoption of the city budget in mid-September, according to the Austin Monitor.

If passed as currently drafted, the new ordinance would take effect on January 1, 2017.

Photo of the Austin, Texas skyline by Argash on Wikimedia Commons.

On July 20, a federal court ruled the city of Austin’s campaign contribution blackout period unconstitutional. The blackout period allowed officeholders, candidates, and their respective committees to only accept campaign contributions during the last 180 days before an election or recall election. In Zimmerman v. City of Austin, Texas, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, concluded the law was unconstitutional under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

In addition, the court found an Austin City Charter provision designating a 90-day requirement for campaign account terminations to be unconstitutional.

District Court Judge Lee Yeakel did uphold the city’s contribution limits for mayoral and city council candidates, finding the limit a constitutional regulation of protected First Amendment activity. The ruling also found City Councilman Don Zimmerman, who originally brought the lawsuit last summer, did not have standing to challenge the aggregate limits of the total contributions a candidate can accept from sources other than natural persons eligible to vote in a postal zip code completely or partially within the Austin city limits.

Photo of Austin, Texas by Eric A. Ellison on Wikimedia Commons.

On June 28, the Houston City Council passed an ordinance updating its campaign finance law by delineating clear periods of time when candidates may receive political contributions.

Under the new ordinance, a person may make contributions to a city candidate of up to $5,000 per contribution cycle. A political action committee may make a contribution of up to $10,000 for the same period of time. Each contribution cycle lasts two years, from January 1 (following a general election or after the end of the last contribution cycle) to December 31 of the next year. Additional contributions can be made to a runoff candidate during a separate runoff contribution cycle.

The ordinance, passed on Wednesday, becomes effective tomorrow, July 1.

Photo of downtown Houston by Henry Han on Wikimedia Commons.

On June 22, lobbyists in Texas will be required to include previously excluded types of compensation when reporting lobbyist activity. On June 1, the Texas Ethics Commission adopted rules changing some regulations.

One regulation currently allows for compensation exceptions for purposes of calculating the threshold requiring registration as a lobbyist. Those same exceptions were also exempted from lobbyist activity reporting. Effective June 22, those exceptions for calculating the registration threshold remain, but registered lobbyists will now have to report those types of compensation.

Additionally, the Ethics Commission enacted a rule narrowing the gift exemption for permissible fact-finding trips provided to government officials and employees by lobbyists.

The Texas Ethics Commission adopted rule changes to conform with House Bill 3517 of 2015. The bill had removed the exemption for registration for an individual who is solely paid to communicate in a capacity other than as an employee of a vendor of a product or service to a member of the executive branch concerning state agency purchasing decisions involving a product, service, or service provider or negotiations regarding such decisions if the compensation for the communication is not totally or partially contingent on the outcome of any administrative action.

The Texas Ethics Commission Rules definition of independent contractor under T.E.C.R. §34.1(5) has been repealed. The Texas Ethics Commission Rules allowing for $75 registration for certain independent contractors under T.E.C.R. §34.46 has also been repealed. On May 3, the rule changes became effective.

A new lobbying ordinance may be coming to Travis County, Texas, according to the Austin American-Statesman. An ethics code, possibly including a lobbyist registration and reporting component, is being considered by the county, with recommendations to be accepted in May from a task force made up of county officials.

“As a general rule, it’s really important for all government functioning to be very, very transparent and for the public and the elected officials to know who’s talking to them on behalf of whom. And right now, there’s no lobbyist registration requirement,” said Commissioner Brigid Shea according to the paper.

Seal of Travis County courtesy of Travis County, Texas on Wikimedia Commons.

Lobbying

New Mexico: “Senators Credit KOB As They Pass Campaign Finance System Reform” by Ryan Luby for KOB

Campaign Finance

New Mexico: “‘Dark Money’ Disclosure Bill Dies in Final Days of Session” by Trip Jennings for New Mexico In Depth

Washington: “State: Food industry lobby engaged in ‘egregious’ money laundering in 2013 vote” by Joel Connelly for Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Ethics

Alaska: “Former Juneau Lawmaker Fined $18K for Allegedly Helping Oil Companies While Seeking Oil Jobs” by Matt Miller for KTOO

Missouri: “Gutting of Lobbying Bill Clouds Ethics Agenda’s Future” by Kurt Erickson for St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Missouri: “Missouri Rep. Don Gosen Abruptly Resigns under Cloud of Suspicion” by Jason Hancock for Kansas City Star

New York: “Former Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak Accused of Sexually Harassing Staffers Is Fined $100G by Legislative Ethics Commission” by Kenneth Lovett for New York Daily News

Ohio: “Ginther’s Ethics Proposals Get Public Hearing” by Mike Foley for WCBE

Texas: “Reports: Indicted Crystal City mayor jailed after disrupted council meeting” by Claire Cardona for Dallas Morning News

Virginia: “Virginia Taxpayers Pick Up $2,435 Food and Beer Bill for Mystery Guests in Redskins Suite” by Graham Moomaw for Richmond Times-Dispatch

Elections

“Fall of the House of Bush: How last name and Donald Trump doomed Jeb” by Ed O’Keefe, Dan Balz and Matea Gold for the Washington Post

“Sanders Supporters Like Chipotle, While Trump Fans Prefer Sonic” by Tim Higgins for Bloomberg.com

“Bernie’s Army of Coders” by Darren Samuelsohn for Politico

“Pope Francis Suggests Donald Trump Is ‘Not Christian’” by Jim Yardley for The New York Times

Nevada: “Hillary Clinton Beats Bernie Sanders in Nevada Caucuses” by Amy Chozick and Patrick Healy for The New York Times

South Carolina “The More Donald Trump Defies His Party, the More His Supporters Cheer” by Trip Gabriel for The New York Times

South Carolina: “Donald Trump’s South Carolina Victory Spurs New G.O.P. Jostling” by Maggie Haberman and Alan Rappeport for The New York Times

On February 3, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a special election will be held on May 7 for Texas House District 120. The winner will serve the remainder of the term for the seat left vacant by Ruth Jones McClendon, who resigned on January 31.

A special election will also be held on the same date for House District 139 to serve the unexpired term left vacant by Sylvester Turner, who became the mayor of Houston on January 2.

The special elections join the state’s May uniform election date.

Photo of Ruth Jones McClendon courtesy of the Texas House of Representatives website.

On December 17, the Austin, Texas City Council voted to reform the city’s lobbying and campaign finance laws.

The council approved a lobbyist reform proposal, which includes initiating changes to city ordinances relating to the regulation of lobbyists and to the duties and functions of the Ethics Review Commission. The council also approved a resolution regarding mandating disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures by non-profits and other entities not currently required to disclose their funding. The city manager has been directed by the council to write these ordinances, which will then be put to a vote by the council sometime in 2016.