The Citizens Advisory Board of the office of State Ethics met today and covered several issues of interest. Of particular note to the lobbying and state contractor community were two items. The first was the Legal Division’s request of the Board to issue and Advisory Opinion on the question of whether or not a state employee or public official may receive funding from a non-restrictive donor to attend a conference or other educational opportunity. The staff had indicated that the question had been raised so often that they felt it would be best answered by Advisory Opinion. The current gift law addresses the issue of restricted donors providing such funding but not non-restrictive donors. One Board member expressed his opinion that these questions were best handled on a case-by-case basis and that attempting to answer it by Advisory Opinion would be impossible given the many scenarios that could occur. The full Board, however, decided to have the Legal Division proceed with drafting an opinion.
Second, the OSE had been criticized by the media in the spring for failing to issue a press release when a public official paid a penalty for a late filing of their statement of financial interest (SFI). Such a penalty would fall under the UAPA code violations. Executive Director Carol Carson provided the Board with a Press Release Policy for the agency which stated that, while current policy is to issue a release for action brought under CGS 1-82 or CGS 1-93 that result in a probable cause finding or a public resolution only, going forward the agency will be adding new features to its website that will post when a public official or lobbyist has violated UAPA or 1-82 or 1-93. A master list, broken down by public official and lobbyist, and the web page with docket numbers and links will be “regularly updated.” In addition, the OSE will be finalizing its updating of the online archive of Advisory Opinions with summaries by the end of the summer.
Finally, the Enforcement Division reported that there were 58 delinquent client reports at the end of the second quarter filing period. They expect that 90% of those will file within the grace period. Any who fail to file will be sent notice of hearing with a date to appear in September. The Enforcement Division completed auditing all of the state marshals and is also compiling its report on the SFI audit it completed recently.
One final note - the OSE will be hosting Ethics Day on Friday October 1st - details to follow.
Tags: advisory opinion, lobbyist audit, Office of State Ethics, statement of financial interest, UAPA
