Ethics panel recommends rule change

The state Senate’s Select Committee on Ethics recommended a rules change on Wednesday to require posting senators’ declared conflicts of interest on the General Assembly’s website.

The Senate’s ethics rules, earlier overhauled and approved June 19, prohibit members from certain activities involving conflicts of interest and require more disclosure of other conflicts and personal finances.

Among other things, the rules bar a senator from participating in discussions and voting in committee or the Senate on a matter that financially benefits him, his family or an associated business, including a

business that employs the senator or from which he or she receives compensation as an attorney or consultant.

But a senator may discuss or vote on those matters if he or she publicly discloses ahead of time any related compensation or financial interest that he or she or a relative has.

Rather than require senators to enter a written statement detailing conflicts of interest into the Senate journal, Sen. Will Bond, D-Little Rock, proposed revising the rules to require posting that information on the General Assembly’s website. Bond said the public needs easy access to this information.“I am assuming that we will do some big declaration where we list the areas that we think we have potential conflict and if something besides that [comes up], then we’ll come back and we’ll stand up on the floor and say, ‘I have an issue with this,’” said Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville.

Under a rule change recommended Wednesday, unless information regarding conflicts of interest was previously disclosed, that information will be required to be read aloud, as needed, by committee staff or by the secretary of Senate.

Under the proposal discussed Wednesday, when the Legislature is not in session, senators will be required to provide a written statement detailing any new conflicts of interest with the staff of the interim legislative committees under this proposal.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said that if he had a brother who owned a bail bonds company, “it is not right for me to run bail bonds legislation picking winners and losers in that area and the rest of the world not understand that my brother owns a bail bonds company.

“That when’s disclosure should be taking place,” he said.

“But I do know, if I know my brother’s profession and he is calling me wearing me out and it is going to derive a financial benefit or upper hand to him, I should have a responsibility to walk away or disclose,” Dismang said.

Under the rules revised in June, any senator who believed that there was a violation of the code of ethics could file a complaint with the Senate ethics committee.

The complaint will list the name of the accused, the accuser, the provision violated and a description of the suspect activities. The committee could recommend the Senate punish any violator with penalties ranging from a letter of caution to expulsion.

Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, said Wednesday, “I’ll tell the question [that] comes up a lot is … do we really think senators are going to self report or report on themselves for the alleged violations, and I do.

“My response has been that, ‘Yes, most of the people that you send [to the Senate] have more loyalty to the institution and to Arkansas than they do to each other and will do the right thing to protect the institution,’ ” he said.

“I think that needs to be made clear in here. It is not a culture of protecting each other. It’s a culture of protecting the institution,” said Hendren, who is in line to become the Senate’s next president pro tempore at the start of the regular session on Jan. 14.

The only complaint filed under the old ethics rules was in mid-November 1999, when a petition signed by 28 senators accused Sen. Nick Wilson, D-Pocahontas, with violating the ethics code and the Arkansas Constitution.

Wilson was convicted of two counts of tax evasion and one of conspiracy in federal court. Wilson resigned Dec. 31, 1999, without the Senate acting to expel him.

The Senate’s overhauled rules also will require senators to file annual financial disclosure statements with the secretary of the Senate with more detail than is required on the state’s annual Statement of Financial Interest, which goes to the secretary of state’s office.

The Senate statement would list sources of income in categories of less than $1,000; from $1,000 to less than $12,500; from $12,500 to less than $50,000; and of at least $50,000. The Statement of Financial Interest has two categories: sources of income above $1,000 and sources above $12,500.

These new reports won’t have to be filed until Jan. 31.The rules require any senator under criminal indictment in any federal or state court to relinquish any leadership position, including committee chairmanships and party leadership positions. If the indictment is dropped or the senator is acquitted, the senator will resume the leadership post, under the rules.