Legislature holds special session on bipartisan ethics reform

Yesterday Governor Jim Doyle called for a special session of the Wisconsin Legislature to convene today, January 11, 2007 at 10 a.m., the purpose of which was to take action on major, bipartisan ethics reform. According to a press release florm his office, "the sweeping measure will create an independent, non-partisan Government Accountability Board with funding and independent authority to investigate and seek prosecution." The Legislature will proceed with public hearings and final passage of the bill is expected in the coming weeks.

"One of my first orders of business after the election was to work with Democrats and Republicans to reach an agreement on far-reaching ethics reform," Governor Doyle said in his release. "Now I'm calling a Special Session of the Legislature to move forward on this bipartisan package, which will put real teeth behind our laws, and reaffirm public confidence in government."

Under this:
* The State Elections Board and the State Ethics Board will be merged to create an independent non-partisan Government Accountability Board, free from political appointees. Instead of the members being selected by politicians and political parties, a panel of Court of Appeals judges will select a pool of retired judges. The Governor will make appointments from that list and be confirmed by the Legislature;

* The Board will be given the necessary resources to conduct any investigations it authorizes. The board will not need approval from the Legislature or the Governor to proceed with any investigation it authorizes;

* The Board will have the authority to investigate criminal and civil matters. The board will be able to prosecute a civil matter itself while criminal matters it investigates can be referred for prosecution;

* The Board will be empowered to review existing Ethics and Election Board rulings and opinions in order to provide clear, consistent guidelines. The Board's mandate will be to ensure the effectiveness and independence of our ethics rules and election practices;

* The Board will oversee both a Division of Ethics and Integrity and a Division of Elections, with campaign finance matters now being handled by the Division of Ethics and Integrity. The staff of the Division of Elections will now be able to focus exclusively on managing, monitoring and administering elections, while campaign finance and ethics matters will be handled together. Right now, campaign finance issues are handled by the State Elections Board while ethics matters are handled by the Ethics Board.

Editorial note: Sounds like a nice start. Let's see how much opposition there may be to it and how it gets "tweaked" along the way.