Idaho's Senate minority caucus has backed its leadership's call for an ethics committee on non-disclosure of a conflict of interest by Senate Resources Chairman Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, and the ethics panel likely will be convened within the next 24 hours. "If that's what they decide, then that's what we'll do," said Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, just before the Senate convened at 4:30 this afternoon; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com. After the late-day session, majority and minority leadership will meet to receive the word from the minority caucus.

Senate Democrats filed an ethics complaint today charging that Pearce failed to disclose his conflict of interest - that he has oil and gas leases on his property in Payette County - prior to 22 votes in committee or on the floor of the Senate, before finally disclosing the conflict yesterday prior to a final vote on HB 464, a controversial bill that passed the Senate 24-10. Pearce, who wasn't immediately available for comment, told the Idaho Statesman today that he had simply not thought about the potential conflict until the final vote, and had held the leases since the 1980s.

Senate Minority Caucus Chair Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, said, "We were all in agreement that we would ask for an ethics panel to be put together. That was the decision of the caucus."

She said, "We've been talking all session about making sure that we operate in transparency." She said Senate ethics rules are "fairly broad and very loose," and while serving on a bipartisan House-Senate ethics working group this session, she concluded they need strengthening.

Meanwhile, she said, "We are responsible. ... The first line of fire is for us to monitor each other as senators, and that's why we're doing this."

Stennett, who serves on the Resources Committee, said, "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Sen. Pearce - I mean no ill will." Its clear that "it was required by the rules to say that he has a conflict of interest, and he never did," she said, until the surprise announcement Wednesday during the HB 464 debate. "We want to follow the process. ... We just felt like we couldn't be quiet about this."