John Richardson
FINAL REPORT OF THE ETHICS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Presiding
Officers’ Advisory
Committee on Legislative Ethics December 5, 2006 Senator Beth Edmonds, President of the Senate Dear President Edmonds and Speaker Richardson, On behalf of the members of the Presiding Officers’ Advisory Committee on Legislative Ethics, I present to you our final report and recommendations. As chair of the committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to oversee this very important project and for appointing such an intelligent and collegial group of people to serve on the committee. The Advisory Committee received public input and discussed several important and difficult issues related to legislative ethics, among them the definition of “conflict of interest,” limits on legislators’ interactions with state agencies, and the Ethics Commission complaint process. The proposals we include in our report are the result of many hours of debate, after which we reached consensus on most issues. We were not able to cover the entire range of issues relating to legislative ethics, and we urge you and the next Legislature to continue to work on improving legislative ethics laws and training. The importance of legislative ethics laws in promoting public confidence in the legislative process cannot be overstated. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve on this committee. I look forward to helping promote the committee’s recommendations in the upcoming legislative session. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Dr. Sandra Featherman, Chair Download the Report (Microsoft Word document)
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