Demise of ethics commission: ‘They’ve missed another opportunity’

Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the demise today of legislation to create an independent ethics commission in Idaho. Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, said, “We put together a working group, and it didn’t function quite as well as we had hoped it would, as far as coming to consensus and so forth. So it’s late in the session, but we are putting together some things.” Hill and House Speaker Lawerence Denney said both houses are looking at possible changes in their internal rules to improve the House and Senate ethics committee processes; some other ethics reforms might also still come up. Denney said, “In the rule that we are looking at proposing, we will have training every year in ethics. … I think what we need to do is do a better job of training our members as to some of those subtle things that they need to be looking out for, the traps they can get caught in.”

Rep. Phylis King, D-Boise, who served on the ethics working group and proposed her own ethics commission bill this year, said, “I think it’s unfortunate. I think they’ve missed another opportunity to show we could make things work better here.” Forty-one states, including Washington, have independent ethics commissions. In Idaho, ethics complaints against lawmakers go before committees of fellow lawmakers appointed by the speaker and president pro-tem.