A special Task Force created to study the impact of moving the legislature from paper to electronic files will convene a public hearing Thursday afternoon to hear some of the concerns being expressed by lawyers, the State Librarian, lobbyists and members of the public. In what was purely a budgetary decision, the Committee on Legislative Management convened the Task Force to make recommendations on which printed documents should be eliminated in order to save money. Among the concerns raised: the elimination of written transcripts of committee hearings would damage the ability of courts to establish legislative intent and the inaccessibility of the electronic data when the website crashes or when bills are not available online (as has occurred in the past) would lessen government transparency rather than broaden it.
read more ››Important Public Hearing this Thursday on Legislature’s Move to Electronic Files - Could Mean Less Transparency
November 16th, 2010UAPA Fines Demonstrates Trend Toward Increased Compliance by Lobbying Community
November 16th, 2010One of the ways in which you can measure the agency’s performance, and the compliance of the communities that it regulates, is through the enforcement actions it takes under the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act. It is under this Act that the OSE opens contested cases, conducts hearings, and imposes penalties. If we look at the numbers from the lobbying community, we see a definite trend emerge.
read more ››Office of State Ethics Audits State Marshals’ Statements of Income and Finds Room for Improvement
October 28th, 2010The Office of State Ethics recently completed its first audit of Connecticut’s state marshals’ statements of income. Similar to the audits the agency conducts of lobbyists and public officials’ statements of financial interest, the SOIs are filings which indicate the state marshals’ income and provide a look into their dealings with court related business.
read more ››October OSE Board Meeting - 2011 Legislative Agenda Approved
October 25th, 2010The Board Members of the Office of State Ethics met last week to discuss, among other things, their legislative agenda for 2011. Most of the provisions in this legislative proposal were put forward in the last two years. Many may recall that the OSE had been unsuccessful in passing legislation due to the Senate Republican [...]
read more ››Report on Gov. Rell’s Use of State Funds for Public Opinion Poll Released
October 11th, 2010This past week investigators released their findings in a report on the use of UConn pollster Ken Dautrich’s time (and therefore state expense) when he assisted Governor Rell with a public opinion poll for her campaign committee. They found that his actions “either violated university policy, exhibited questionable judgment or created an appearance of a conflict of interest.” Do you think the investigators reached the right conclusion? Since the Governor is not seeking re-election, does it matter? What message does this send to other public officials and is Connecticut worse than other states when it comes to ethical missteps?
read more ››Office of State Ethics – Ethics Day Materials
October 10th, 2010At the beginning of the month the Office of State Ethics held its annual Ethics Day celebration. This year marked the fifth anniversary for the agency. After an initial presentation by Dr. Michael Rion, one of the first members of the Citizens Advisory Board, attendees broke up into two groups - one lead by the OSE’s legal division where recent advisory opinions were discussed and the other lead by the agency’s enforcement division which reviewed trends in audit and compliance.
read more ››Ethics Matters Conference this Friday in Hartford
September 27th, 2010The Office of State Ethics will celebrate its 5th anniversary in Hartford this Friday with its annual conference entitled “Ethics Matters.” This year’s conference includes a keynote address from the first Chair, Michael Rion, Ph.D., as well as break out sessions on the latest news from the Enforcement and Legal Divisions. It’s a great opporunity to get updated on what has been going on at the agency and to hear about the hot topics in the ethics world
read more ››Office of State Ethics Issues Audit Report on Statements of Financial Interest - Lobbyist Compliance Deserves Credit Too
September 22nd, 2010The Office of State Ethics last week issued a press release announcing its audit report on the completion of the annual statements of financial disclosure by the state’s public officials and top employees. The agency began auditing these SFIs last year so this was the first time that the annual report was able to compare results. On the lobbyist side of the regulated community, the OSE produced a similar review at the end of 2009 after conducting 80 random audits over a three year period.
read more ››Pendulum of Ethics Reform
September 7th, 2010Ethics reform was all the rage when Governor Rell took office. But vestiges of the Rell administration’s changes to the Office of State Ethics still linger and some are evidenced by the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board’s inability to fill its membership ranks.
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