The Cuyahoga County Inspector General, Nailah Byrd, has issued an advisory opinion (IGADV-0005) regarding whether a public official or employee’s acceptance of a ticket to a charitable fundraising event violates any provision of the ethics ordinance.

The opinion states that while the ethics ordinance does not explicitly prohibit the acceptance of a ticket, it does require certain conditions to be met.

A charitable event ticket given by a lobbyist or contractor must not include an extravagant or lavish meal, entertainment of significant value, or a fair market value price exceeding $75.

As I am sitting here in my office, movers are taking computers, desks, phones, credenzas, and printers upstairs at 80 South Summit. It’s an expansion and not a move for State and Federal Communications.

A year ago I thought this would be moving week out of the building, but we were able to take over available space after a Cleveland law firm downsized its Akron office.  That’s good for a lot of reasons including letterhead and business cards stay the same.

State and Federal Communications will soon celebrate its 19^th anniversary in Akron, Ohio. We started on Akron-Peninsula Road in a 900 square foot office. In 1996, we moved to Merriman Road where I thought the 3,500 square foot office would be home for a long, long time. We grew out of it and in 2002 we moved to Downtown Akron in the Courtyard Square building and now have 15,000 square feet of space. According to building developers, that amount of space can hold 50 staff people. We are almost there with 30 people on staff.

This expansion is allowing State and Federal Communications to increase our staff to help all of our clients. The changes in lobbying, political contributions, ethics, and procurement lobbying are changing all of the time in the states, cities, counties, and federal governments. Keeping up with it requires people devoted to research and understanding how they affect you—our clients.

You might not see changes, but I want you to know we are always making sure we are providing you with the resources you need for your government affairs work.

Until next month, stay off the eBay Political Collectibles site…I have wall space to cover!

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics issued an advisory alert announcing a delay in the availability of their online filing system for receipt of lobbyist and principal’s quarterly expense reports. The board’s online expense report function will not be available by April 30, the next date the reports are due.

However, because the quarterly expense reports, covering January 3 through March 31, remain due on April 30, the board intends to create an interim paper form expense reporting method. Lobbyists and principals will be able to fill out the interim form on the board’s website, which can then be downloaded and signed. The signed copy must be mailed or delivered to the board by the same April 30 deadline.

The board will advise all registered principals when the interim reporting method becomes available.

The current registration procedure is unaffected by the board’s announcement.

Lawmakers began the 2012 Special Session I last week to consider budget bills including a two-year, $85 billion proposal.

The special session was convened immediately upon adjournment sine die of the 2012 regular session, but was in recess until Wednesday, March 21st.

The House and Senate adjourned in the afternoon on March 21st and will again convene this afternoon on Monday, March 26th to continue the special session.

No person or PAC may make or promise to make a contribution to a member of the general assembly, the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, or their campaign committees, during the annual regular session of the general assembly. This ban does not apply to contributions during special sessions.

Photo of the Virginia State Capitol by Amadeust on Wikipedia.

In the wake of the State Integrity Investigation corruption risk report, Governing posted this article revealing how many public corruption convictions have occurred in each state from 2001 to 2010, as well as calculating a per capita conviction index.

According to the article: “In terms of raw totals, the more populous states racked up the most prosecutions over the decade, led by Texas (697), California (679), Florida (674) and New York (589).”

The per capita ranking was a bit different, with Louisiana leading the list.

Be sure to read “Which States Have the Highest Public Corruption Convictions?” by Mike Maciag in Governing.

A committee hearing is scheduled this week in the Senate to examine its version of the DISCLOSE Act of 2012.

Introduced last week, Senate Bill 2219, also entitled “Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act of 2012”, amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide for additional disclosure requirements for corporations, labor organizations, Super PACs, and other entities.

A House version of the bill, H.R. 4010, introduced in February, revives a previously failed effort in 2010 to pass the legislation.

The Senate Bill 2219 hearing with the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration is scheduled for Thursday March 29 at 10 a.m.

National and Federal

“Can 46 rich dudes buy an election?” by Charles Riley in CNN Money.

“Obama ‘Super’ PAC Donors Among White House Guests” by Jack Gillum (Associated Press) in The San Francisco Chronicle.

“Planners for Democratic convention in Charlotte scramble to raise funds” by David Nakamura in The Washington Post.

In the States

Indiana: “Super PACs start battle in Senate race” by The Associated Press in the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Iowa: “Group wants to close campaign finance loophole” by Rod Boshart in the Sioux City Journal.

Montana: “New arguments filed in campaign finance case” by Matt Gouras in the Great Falls Tribune.

Federal

“Generation X joining K Street” by Jonathan Allen and Jennifer Martinez in Politico.

“Administration Staffers Head Out the Revolving Door” by Kate Ackley in Roll Call.

In the States

Illinois: “Illinois Senate panel blocks lobbyist ethics legislation” by Shannon McFarland (Associated Press) in the Jacksonville Journal Courier.

Illinois: “Lobbying reforms buried in subcommittee” by Rick Miller in Capitol Fax.

Iowa: “Iowa’s lobbying free-for-all” by Jason Clayworth and Jeffrey Kummer in the Des Moines Register.

Massachusetts: “AP: Mass. health care 5-year lobbying topped $51M” by Steve LeBlanc (Associated Press) in Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Minnesota:  “$61M spent on lobbying in 2011” by Matt Herbert in Minnesota Daily.

National:

Study: State governments at high risk for corruption

Federal:

Federal Contractors Donate to Super PAC Backing Romney

GOP Super PAC Men Seek to Overturn Donation Limits

Insider Trading Ban for Lawmakers Clears Congress

Senate Dems Push ‘Disclose Act 2.0’

From the States and Municipalities:

Alabama

Key Corruption Trial Attorneys to Be in Benefit

Georgia

Atlanta Ethics Nominee Withdraws Name; Legislation to Give City Council More Power is Shelved

Illinois

Democrats Now Press Smith to Resign

Kansas

Kansas Bill Would Allow Officials to Explain Ballot Items in ‘Plain English’

Wisconsin

Ethics Violations Filed against Prosser

Wisconsin

Supreme Court Dismisses Case Challenging Political Ad Rules

State and Federal Communications produces a weekly summary of national news, offering more than 80 articles per week focused on ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance.

News You Can Use is a news service provided at no charge only to clients of our online Executive Source Guides, or ALERTS™ consulting clients.

For full news coverage, be sure to read:

“STOCK Act passes: Insider trading ban heads to Obama” by Scott Wong in Politico.

“Lawmakers hit bipartisan note following STOCK Act passage” by Peter Schroeder in The Hill.

State and Federal Communications will be attending the State of the County Address for Summit County, Ohio.

Summit County Executive Russel M. Pry will be delivering his fifth address today at 11:30 in the John S. Knight Center in Akron, Ohio.

Our Highlighted Site of the Week is the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) new Campaign Finance Disclosure Portal. The site was announced just yesterday and offers powerful resources allowing the visitor to access campaign finance data sets and perform advanced segmentation. The types of information included are independent expenditures; bundled contributions; candidate and committee summaries; receipts, disbursements, and a cash summary for PACs and National Party committees; leadership PAC and sponsor data; and much more.

According to the FEC’s news release: “The Commission announced the release of a new campaign finance disclosure portal that will simplify access to the wide range of data available on the agency’s website. The disclosure portal provides a single point of entry to federal campaign finance data.”

Information can be accessed through interactive maps, easily readable charts, or by searching with a name or keyword. Data sets can also be downloaded as XSD, XML, or CSV files in order to perform your own analysis or data mashup.

The FEC promises the Campaign Finance Disclosure Portal will be regularly updated throughout the election cycle. With both the site and its Disclosure Data Blog, you can subscribe to its feed via RSS so that you can keep up with any updates.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Arizona: “Arizona lawmakers OK money for redistricting panel” by The Associated Press in the Arizona Daily Sun.

Arizona: “Arizona redistrict panel to get more cash” by Mary Jo Pitzl in the Arizona Republic.

Florida: “Down to the wire, Senators propose last-minute changes to new Senate map” by Mary Ellen Klas in the Miami Herald.

Florida: “Florida Senate panel approves redistricting plan” by The Associated Press in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Florida: “Fla. Senate panel approves redistricting plan” by Bill Kaczor in the Deseret News.

Kansas: “Kan. Senate delays vote on redistricting bill” by The Associated Press in the Salina Journal.

Kansas: “Kansas House votes down latest redistricting bill” by Fred Mann in the Wichita Eagle.

New York: “Between the Lines: Map Complete, Time to Sort Out Who’s Running” by Joshua Miller in Roll Call.

Thad Viers announced his resignation as State Representative for House District 68. The announcement came after Mr. Viers was charged with harassing his ex-girlfriend. She told investigators he continued to call, text and email for more than five months after they broke up, according to a Myrtle Beach police report.

Due to the vacancy, a special election will be held following the writ of election to be issued by the speaker of the house. There is currently an unrelated special election scheduled for Senate District 41 on July 17, 2012.

Photo of Thad Viers courtesy of the South Carolina House of Representatives website.