With all the tempest over House Speaker Jim Amann’s role as fundraiser for his employer and role in the House, it is a surprise that the disclosure of who the employer of each legislator was has been dropped form the comliance forms issued by the state ethics office.
Form the Courant:
State legislators no longer have to disclose where they work in the private sector, removing one of Connecticut’s oldest and most basic safeguards against conflicts of interest.
The disclosure requirement disappeared without fanfare or legislative action, the victim of a legal interpretation by the new Office of State Ethics.
The absence was discovered as The Courant obtained copies of the annual financial disclosure forms that legislators were required to file this month.
“I’m shocked,” said Andy Sauer, the executive director of Common Cause. “It’s bewildering.”
Legislators said they were surprised to find for the first time in about 25 years that they were not asked to disclose the source of outside income.
“If you don’t know where people work, how can you detect a conflict?” said Rep. Christopher L. Caruso, D-Bridgeport. “That’s a monumental oversight.”
As explanation, the Office of State ethics said there was no law that required the disclosure. Barbara Housen said to the Courant that the forms should reflect what the statute requires. Notably not a single legislator who filled out the forms this year noticed that there was no line for name of employer. The feigned shock over the situation is somewhat disingenuous. They filled out the form and didn’t notice until the Courant started calling them for comment. I suppose it was more important to deal with the myriad frivolous bills that were worked on then maintaining the appearance of a concern for conflicts of interest.
And let’s not forget that the legislature is going to ignore the request to adopt GAAP, and continue to argue over spending projected revenue instead actual revenue, furthering the unstable and non transparent accounting of the state’s business.
source: Courant, Ethics Safeguard Vanishes, By MARK PAZNIOKAS, May 18, 2007
