Ethics Panel Urged for State Lawmakers

The Assembly Select Committee on Ethics, seeking to remove the cloud of scandal hanging over the Legislature, called Monday for creation of a permanent Assembly ethics committee to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by state legislators.

The committee also proposed that legislators, staff members and lobbyists be required to attend instructional courses on ethical behavior at the beginning of each legislative session.

Agreement on the two proposals came at the first of five unusual sessions scheduled by the committee in which the members will meet in public to draft an ethics code for the Assembly and, potentially, other state officials.

Corruption in Capitol

The committee was created by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) in January in response to the FBI’s undercover investigation of corruption in the state Capitol.

So far, the federal probe has resulted in the indictment of Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) on 10 counts of extortion, racketeering and money laundering in connection with various bills he carried or voted on. At least five other state elected officials are still under investigation by the FBI.

Over the last several months, the Select Committee on Ethics has held numerous hearings to take testimony from legislators and members of the public on specific steps to curb the influence of money in state politics.

Committee Chairman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) said he hopes that the panel can reach agreement within the next several weeks on a series of proposals to upgrade the Assembly’s standards of behavior and crack down on abuses by individual lawmakers.

“Adopting a comprehensive package drawn from the proposals before us should go a long way towards reassuring the public that public service is indeed a public trust,” Vasconcellos said.

Members of the select committee quickly agreed that the Assembly should create a permanent, six-member ethics committee to investigate allegations of misconduct by members of the lower house.

The bipartisan panel would have the authority to recommend to the full Assembly that a member should be reprimanded, censured or expelled. And it would have the power to refer any cases for criminal prosecution to a local district attorney, the attorney general or possibly a special prosecutor appointed by the committee itself.

Under the system now in operation, both the Assembly and Senate appoint members to a Joint Legislative Ethics Committee that has the power to investigate conflict-of-interest cases. However, the joint committee has very narrow authority over abuses by individual members and has met only once in more than three years.

Under the Assembly proposal, the Senate would decide for itself whether to create its own ethics committee to investigate charges of wrongdoing or to continue relying on the joint panel.

The proposal to require that lawmakers, staff members and lobbyists attend an ethics course is an attempt to encourage them to uphold a high standard of behavior and explain what would constitute a violation of ethics laws.

Among the issues that will be taken up by the select committee at future meetings are various proposals to limit gifts and outside income while giving legislators an increase in pay. The committee will also consider strengthening the Legislature’s conflict-of-interest laws.

The committee’s deliberations could result simply in new rules for the Assembly or could lead to legislation that would be binding on both houses and officials of the executive branch.