The Thicket at State Legislatures

New York Waives Revolving Door Law for Laid-off Employees

by Peggy Kerns

With New York state employees facing layoffs and terminations, the New York State Commission on Public Integrity has made it easier for them to look for a job.

The Commission waived a 2006 advisory opinion that required employees to wait 30 days before pursuing employment with someone who has business pending before his or her agency.  The Commission responded to a request from the State Department of Environmental Conservation to provide waivers to employees who have been targeted for layoffs. 

The primary concern expressed in the advisory opinion was that the 30-day rule would not provide enough time for employees to search for outside employment until they were close to leaving their public jobs.  The Commission left in place guidelines to prevent conflicts of interest.

This seems like a compassionate thing to do in hard economic times. The trick will be how well New York can maintain the balance between giving a break to laid-off employees and yet preventing the conflicts of interest that revolving door laws are intended to guard against. We were unable to find any other state revolving door laws that exempt layoffs.

Strange Bedfellows: Civility in an Unexpected Place

by Peggy Kerns

Fresh from a successful campaign to defeat three ballot proposals in the 2010 Colorado general election, a mixed coalition of 60 organizations developed a statement of how they would work with public officials and each other. On Tuesday, they released An Open Letter to Colorado's Elected Leaders.

In their call for civility, the coalition of business leaders, labor unions, non-profit organizations and advocacy groups pledge to approach the Colorado General Assembly and the 112^th Congress "in a thoughtful and respect-filled manner" and they asked elected officials to do the same.

While acknowledging the many challenges that the state and nation face, the letter appeals for a civil dialogue with the...

understanding how we approach each other and elected officials… is as critical as the methods we use and the outcomes we choose.

However, we know that direct attacks and unfounded statements that are uttered in the heat of debate are harmful and only lead to further deterioration of the civility and respect that should be the cornerstone of our democratic process.

According to Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Kate Horle, the release of the letter had nothing to do with tragic events in Tucson over this past weekend. "It's just weird timing," she said. "This has been in the works for weeks."

Karen McCarthy, Former Legislator, President of NCSL and Member of Congress

by Karl Kurtz

Former Rep. Karen McCarthy, president of NCSL July-December 1994, died Tuesday after suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Rep. McCarthy's served as president of NCSL, July-December 1994, while she was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. Her term as president was cut short when she was elected to Congress in November 1994.

The Kansas City Star yesterday re-published a remarkable profile, "McCarthy's trailblazing career was no bed of roses," that first ran on its front page in July 2009. The article by Steve Kraske, a reporter who covered Rep. McCarthy throughout her career, is a sympathetic but honest reminiscence:

We’re retracing a nearly 30-year career in elected office that saw McCarthy become an early trailblazer for women in a state Capitol dominated by men. A woman who became president of the National Conference of State Legislatures. A Democrat who easily defeated an 11-candidate field to cruise into Congress.

Her work on the environment, tax policy and bistate issues touched thousands of Kansas Citians. Harper’s Bazaar magazine once listed her as a logical candidate -- along with Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice -- to become the first woman president.

Her rise in public office was as dramatic as her fall, like a Fourth of July firework that shoots skyward, then fades.

In Washington, McCarthy confronted alarming staff turnovers, ethics violations and, by her fifth term, the specter of challengers from within her own party. And, finally, an admission of alcoholism.

As president of NCSL, Rep. McCarthy was charming and assertive. But her campaign for Congress was in full swing during her term and occupied large portions of her time.

She was the first president of NCSL to resign in midterm. Ohio Rep. Jane Campbell was chosen to replace Rep. McCarthy and serve out the remainder of her term.

Deontology and Ethical Values in Algeria

by Peggy Kerns

Why are these people in the photo enjoying themselves?  Because they are discussing ethics!  These members of the Algerian Parliament are analyzing an ethical dilemma in a workshop NCSL faculty recently presented in Algiers to the Algerian Parliament and staff.  The photo shows a wonderful moment.  The men called out, “We need a woman!” So a woman joined the group to discuss the case of a parliamentarian who devotes long hours to his public duties and fears he neglects his family.   

The faculty included former Kansas State Senate Majority Leader Lana Oleen; Counselor Rebecca Lennahan, former Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Service Staff; and Peggy Kerns, director of NCSL’s Center for Ethics in Government and former Colorado representative.  We were accompanied by Christy Delafield, project coordinator, NCSL International Programs and hosted by Dr. Boualem Tatah, Director of the Department of Legislative Training and Research of the Algerian National Assembly.  The project is funded through the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).

The purpose of the 2-day workshop, Parliamentary Ethics and Deontology of Elected Officials in the Exercise of their Mandates, was to guide participants to acknowledge their own ethical values and how they apply these values to their personal and political lives.  We also offered tools for participants to use in making ethical decisions when these values might be in conflict.  Dr. Tatah chose the word “deontology” to identify best practices in ethics.

The faculty led the MPs (members of parliament) and staff in discussions, translated into French and Arabic, of why ethics is important in the public sector, definitions of ethics, and the difference between ethics as laws and ethics as values. Highlights included viewing of NCSL’s video, Reflections: Being Ethical in Today’s Legislature and an exercise where participants brainstormed and then voted on their top six ethical values and described their meaning.  Becky Lennahan followed with a description of the process she and other NCSL members used when they developed the Model Code of Conduct for Legislative Staff. 

Tough Legislative Issues Discussed On NPR

By Meagan Dorsch

Some of these issues on the agenda of NCSL's Spring Forum last week caught the eye of National Public Radio, who put together a story for its Weekend Edition on some of the more challenging issues that states are facing. Representative Sharon Schwartz from Kansas and Speaker Terri Norelli from New Hampshire were asked by National Public Radio to speak on budget and health care issues impacting their states.

The National Conference of State Legislatures Spring Forum allows lawmakers and legislative staff to work with fellow colleagues to examine how federal issues affect the states and develop states' advocacy positions before Congress and the administration.

Former speaker of the U.S. House of Representative, Newt Gingrich, spoke to legislators and staff about civility in politics. U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, stressed that green energy will be the new industrial revolution for states and our nation.

State leaders discussed and shared possible solutions to issues like redistricting, four-day work weeks, budgets, health care reform, education reform initiatives, credit card reform and high-speed rail proposals. Last weeks meeting provided an forum for state legislators and staff to meet with colleagues who are leading reform efforts in their respective states.

NPR's interview (6:32) gives a snapshot of the tough issues that not only Kansas and New Hampshire are facing, but what state legislatures are grappling with across the country.

Many of these tough issues will be discussed NCSL's Legislative Summit in Kentucky this summer. The summit will host over 150 policy sessions for legislators and staff that give information, ideas and solutions to the critical problems facing state legislatures today. 

Mad in March for Ethics Reform

by Natalie Wood

While you’re busy tracking your brackets, we at NCSL’s Ethics Center are tracking legislation in our own version of March Madness. Seven legislatures adjourned their 2010 regular sessions by mid-March, and five of them--Indiana, New Mexico, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia--took on the issue of ethics reform.

Indiana’s House Enrolled Act 1001 passed with unanimous consent in both chambers and was signed by the governor this week. Changes include a one year revolving door provision, a revised monetary threshold for lobbyist gift reporting, a conflict of interest reporting requirement for lobbyists, and a requirement that university legislative liaisons register as lobbyists. Some have called it “the most sweeping legislative and lobbying reforms in decades,” while others claim it serves as a “starting point,” and plan to push for more change in 2011.

The Utah Legislature, after tweaking gift disclosure, mandating ethics training, and instituting a revolving door provision last year, once again broached ethics – this time focusing on ethics oversight, namely the creation of an ethics commission.  HJR15 would establish an independent ethics commission in the state constitution, pending voter approval, and SJR3 would modify the legislature’s joint rules to outline the makeup of the new panel and establish how it will review complaints. A citizen’s group is gathering signatures to put a competing ethics commission proposal on the ballot this fall. The legislature also passed rules that ban gifts over $10 from lobbyists to legislators, with some exceptions, and requires other gifts to be reported. The issue of ethics has been a hot topic in the press and at the Capitol for the past few years, largely due to allegations and scandals implicating legislators, two of whom resigned during the 2010 session.

Ethics and Values in Cape Town

by Peggy Kerns

I was fortunate to be part of an NCSL team that traveled to Cape Town, South Africa to conduct a Legislative Leaders Workshop in February.  Our audience included members of parliament from the Western Cape and women legislators from five other provinces, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Limpopo, North West and the Northern Cape.  Also attending were Texas Senator Leticia Van de Putte, Wisconsin Senator Spencer Coggs and NCSL staff members Bruce Feustel and Maggie Lamborn. 

As director of NCSL’s Center for Ethics in Government, I was primarily responsible for a session about ethical challenges in legislatures.  I’ve done this type of seminar many times with legislators and legislative staff in the states.  It’s always fun—and often fascinating.  I wasn’t disappointed this time.

In the first part of the session, members of South African group discussed how they defined ethics.  They had no trouble agreeing on a definition: “Ethics is standards, a system of values, the way you conduct yourself.” We then built upon this definition.  With the help of Senators Van de Putte and Coggs, and recorder Feustel, we led the group through a brainstorming session about values that are important to them in their official capacity, asking, “What values do you bring to your job?”

The participants called out any value that popped into their head.  We ended up with 20 words – not all were ethical values, but they reflected words that individuals felt were important.  Now the task was to narrow the list down to five values.  People argued their points: Is commitment the same as dedication?  Is conviction similar to courage?  Can I be compassionate and not be tolerant?  Is power an ethical value?  Someone said, “visbyt,” an Afrikaner word that means perseverance or someone who can get through anything.  Finally, one person completed the list by saying, “Be superman.”

The group voted and what emerged was a list of their top five ethical values: integrity, honesty, respect, tolerance and commitment.

New York Senator Expelled

From the New York Times:

The State Senate on Tuesday expelled a senator convicted of domestic assault, the first time in nearly a century that the Legislature has forced a member from office.

The Senate voted 53-to-8 to immediately oust the senator, Hiram Monserrate, a Queens Democrat convicted last fall of a misdemeanor for dragging his companion down the hallway of his apartment building.

The expulsion leaves the fragile balance of power in the Senate divided between 31 Democrats and 30 Republicans. Because legislation requires 32 votes to pass, Democrats will be unable to approve bills with just the support of their own conference. In an effort to minimize the disruption, Gov. David A. Paterson late Tuesday called a special election for March 16. 

Monserrate claims that the Senate does not have the power to expel a member and plans to challenge the action in court, but, according to Elizabeth Benjamin in The Daily Politics, the snowstorm is hampering his efforts:

Monserrate's attorney, Norman Siegel, told me this morning he has prepared a 45-memo on why last night's vote was unconstitutional. But he hasn't been able to file anything today because the courts are closed.

"It's a unique situation," Siegel said. "We're ready to file, but we can't file because of the alleged blizzard of 2010. I don't have the keys to the courthouse door. When the court opens, we will file."

"Alleged blizzard?"  Spoken like a lawyer.

According to NCSL's Brenda Erickson, this is the 35th expulsion of a lawmaker from office by a state legislature in American history.

Women in State Legislatures

Women hold 24.4 percent of all state legislative seats in the 2010 session, for a total of 1,802 women serving in the fifty states. But how does that compare to years past?

Though it’s been documented that there is no bias at the ballot box that affects women’s chances of electoral success, there has not been a substantial increase in the numbers of women running for the legislature in each election that would translate to more women holding seats.

Katie Ziegler, coordinator of the Women's Legislative Network at the National Conference of State Legislatures, sits down and explains to us why women currently hold a smaller number of seats in state legislatures and if the number is expected to change in 2010. Check to see how many women hold legislative seats in your state.

Unusual Number of Speakers have Stepped Down: Is it Because they are Young?

by Karl Kurtz

Writing in Southern Political Report, Tom Baxter reviews the cases of three southern speakers of the house who have had to step down from their positions because of wrongdoings in the last two years--Glenn Richardson in Georgia, Ray Sansom in Florida and Lance Cargill in Oklahoma--and concludes:

While the circumstances have differed, there is a pattern here. There was a time when powerful speakers like Tom Murphy in Georgia and Liston Ramsey in North Carolina held an iron grip on the chambers in which they presided. Sometimes their influence rivaled that of the governors of their states.

They weren’t by any means immune to charges of corruption, but they derived their power from people they’d known for a long time, and from whom they could expect total loyalty. On balance, they probably had more reporters keeping an eye on them, but fewer cameras, and no bloggers.

More important than anything else was the perspective from which they approached the job: They were old men. If they were not really so long in years when they picked up the gavel, they soon acted as if they were.

 You don’t have to look flashy on television or campaign with a spring in your step to rule over a large room full of ambitious legislators. You have to command respect, and sometimes fear, and you have to know with a level-eyed certainty how far you’ll let yourself be pushed before you exert the energy to slap back. You don’t do anything dramatic – least of all trying to kill yourself – to get attention.

It’s harder these days for legislators to reach that stage in life before the gavel is entrusted to them, and harder for them to surround themselves with loyal lieutenants in a two-party system -- even harder when term limits are involved, as they are in Florida. Which probably means we haven’t seen the last speaker who will fall from grace.

It's an interesting argument.  While I agree with the general point that younger leaders may not be as grounded as older ones and therefore more susceptible to bad behavior, the evidence does not necessarily support Baxter's specific argument.  If you count house speakers outside the south, as Josh Goodman does in Ballot Box, you can add Massachusetts Speaker Sal DiMasi and former Pennsylvania Speaker John Perzel to the list of leaders who have recently been charged with misconduct.  DiMasi and Perzel were both long-time veterans of the legislative process and didn't fit the mold of the younger speakers in the south.

On the other side of the ledger, there are plenty of relatively young and inexperienced legislative leaders who have been effective leaders and compiled positive records of accomplishmentwith no hint of scandal or malfeasance.