Ethics commission could supplant Public Integrity Unit
This is a terrible idea. The ethics commission has a long and undistinguished history of being toothless. The system is set up to fail. The commission grabs headlines by levying huge fines ($100,000 in the case of Court of Criminal Appeals judge Sharon Keller, $29,000 against Supreme Court justice Nathan Hecht), but the dirty little secret is that individuals can stall payment by going to court and engaging in endless appeals, as Keller and Hecht have done. Those fines will never be paid.
The biggest problem with allowing the ethics commission to be the body of last resort in ethics issues is that the governor gets four of the eight appointments to the commission. This is not enough to dilute the governor’s influence–particularly this governor and his penchant for cronyism.
This idea should be buried deep in the file labeled “If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It.” The Public Integrity Unit has done a solid job of prosecuting offenders. Just ask Kino Flores.
Stevie F. says:
This proposal seems like a bad copy of the Federal Elections Commission. The Governor’s office hands out too much money to have this kind of a role in choosing who gets to ask questions about contributors and what they get for their contributions.
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Reality Check says:
Oh the double mileage that could be billed or Kino like shakedowns that could occur if only the DA wasn’t involved.
The Ethics Commission is worthless in its current state!
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I'm Pavlov. Ring a Bell? says:
Non-issue: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/ethics-commission-drops-plan-to-take-on-criminal-e/nTJMR/
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Anonymous says:
HA
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jpt51 says:
Perhaps the move by the Sunset Commission is an attempt to head off what Harvey Kronberg wrote in todays Quorum Report. He noted a group is urging the investigation of contributor to Gov. Perry have been awarded state grants. It’s only a matter of time before our Slickhair fades quietly into the night. Let’s hope someone reserves a spot for him in the pokey north of Bastrop.
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JP says:
The ethics commission has problems for sure, but they’re not to blame for most of them. The legislature could enable them to do more, but chooses not to. At present they collect data and fine people for not presenting the data in sufficient detail. I was fined for aggregating categories on my C&E report. For example, if you spend $400 on gas on a credit card bill, you can’t report “$400/gas” you have to enumerate each individual gas purchase as a line item with the date of purchase and the address of the gas station. Thats what TEC is relegated to doing, and they have no tools to do anything else. Its a “gotcha” system where complaints are made, fines are levied for non substantive violations such as insufficient detail (aggregrating expenditure categories as cited above) and then your opponent is able to say Senator so and so was fined $xxx thousands of dollars for “ethics violations”. Aother problem is complaints made alleging use of campaign funds for personal use (airfare to Iraq to visit Texas National Guard units with the VFW in my case, which I chose not to bill the State for), and since a fine was paid for aggregating expenses as a result of the same complaint, it will be said I used campaign funds for personal travel, even though the ethics commission agreed it was a legitimate office holder expense. Iraq wasn’t exactly a vacation destination, particularly in 2005. JP
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Tom Barry says:
The proposal already has died.
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paulburka Reply:
November 29th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
And good riddance.
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WS says:
Ask Kino Flores? He got probation for significantly enriching himself at the public till.
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WatchDog says:
Ask Jessica Ferrar she got fined 20,000 dollars and she still has not paid it. Now Trey Martinez Fischer is under scrutiny for using MALC PAC money for “Car Service” as in “choffer me around” to the tune of thousands of dollars and uses MALC PAC money to pay his state office employees, district office employees and even employes at his law office. That will be a nice fine but the Public Integrity Unit needs to look into it just like the Ethics Cmmission is.
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Anonymous Reply:
November 30th, 2012 at 11:09 am
You mean Trey Fischer?
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City Slicker says:
Need to do away with TEC and hire a real prosecutor to go after real crimes. You would think that is what an AG is for?
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JohnBernardBooks says:
The democrats need the “public integrity unit” headed by such sleaze as Ronnie Earle to gin up phony indictments against republicans.
Time for it to go.
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Tom Barry says:
JBB,one thing to consider is that most officeholders in Texas are Republicans; therefore, it should not surprise anyone if more Republicans than Democrats get caught being unethical or crooked. Lack of ethics is not party-affiliated.
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Anonymous says:
JBB, there needs to be an entity in place to prosecute. They go afrer R’s and D’s. I will defend some of the things that go on with our elected officials, but some are criminal actions. Someone needs to go after them. Delay and Kino for example. And do not come back and say they are just D’s just going after R’s. Because that is not true.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
What don’t you get?
(R)Delay was convicted and (D)Flores got probation.
Travis county is infested with liberal democrats, the jury pool is tainted, throw in a corrupt prosecutor like Ronnie Earle and you get corruption not justice.
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hooboy! Reply:
November 30th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Please stop playing with the pig. You get dirty and the pig likes it.
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Bevo's Brain says:
The PIU should be over at OAG or at a revamped and revised Office of State Prosecutor – not housed with the DA in the People’s Republic of Austin.
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Anonymous says:
JBB: Both were convicted and Delay is not in jail.
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JohnBernardBooks says:
We all know Delay will never spend a day in jail. He is will be cleared when he can get a fair trial outside Travis cty.
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