Since the last OSE Board meeting, there have been a few developments that impact the regulated community. First, in an effort to move the lottery drawing of clients for audit closer to the registration period, the Office of State Ethics will be conducting this year’s drawing on June 17th as opposed to its July meeting which had been its practice in previous years. Their intent is to gradually move the drawings up to January so that the three year period of the audit coincides with the registration period and doesn’t capture half a year of a client’s registration as occurs now. The lottery drawing meeting is one of the most highly attended Board meetings of the year.
In other news, the Regulations Review Committee approved the agency’s request for an increase of the registration fee for lobbyists to $250 in odd years and $125 in even years. The last time the fee was increased was in 1996 and the increase represents a 67% increase over the previous fee structure. The new regulations went into effect at the end of May.
In other news, after an investigation conducted by an outside counsel, the former Chair of the Citizens Advisory Board Chairman G. Kenneth Bernhard agreed to pay a penalty of $3,500 for making political contributions while he as a member of the Board. Mr. Bernhard settled with the agency saying he wasn’t aware that the three personal contributions he made were a violation of the ethics code.
Tags: audit lottery, Kenneth Bernhard, lobbyist audit, lobbyist registration fee, Office of State Ethics
