The Office of State Ethics held its End of the Session Wrap-Up today at the state capitol and, although it was sparsely attended, some interesting information was discussed by the Executive Director and staff of the agency that regulates lobbyists in Connecticut. The Enforcement Division addressed concerns that arose in February when the OSE sent delinquency letters to client lobbyists who did not file monthly financial reports, even though they had no expenditures to disclose. The agency has begun reviewing monthly reports by clients and is enforcing the code which states that if a client pays “or agrees to pay” $100 or more in a month, then it must file a financial disclosure report. Until this year, the agency had not enforced this part of the code and had permitted clients to not file reports if they had zero expenditures. Now clients will be required to file reports that indicate that no funds were expended. The enforcement will take effect in earnest next year but lobbyists are encouraged to begin this practice now.
The agency revealed at the session today that it would be responding to a request from legislators to provide photo ID of all communicator lobbyists on the required badges but also in some other reference format. The agency has not decided whether or not this would be provided electronically on the web or if it would be distributed upon request. The OSE stated that they would most likely be obtaining the photographs from the DMV or would ask lobbyists to provide a picture for the ID. The photo would be presented along with the communicator lobbyist’s name, list of clients and contact information. There was concern expressed by the lobbyist community that this would pose a security and privacy issue. The OSE indicated that they welcomed input from the regulated community.
Finally, the amended regulations for the Office of State Ethics which provide for an increase in the registration fees for lobbyists from $150 to $250 will go before the Regulations Review Committee for a vote on May 25th.
More to come….
Tags: enforcement, fee increase, financial report, lobbyists, Office of State Ethics, photo ID
