Ethics panel works quietly to discipline public officials

[sonias]

AAS 6/19/08
Ethics panel works quietly to discipline public officials
Agency lags behind those who police doctors, lawyers and builders

The Texas Ethics Commission, according to its Web site, appears to have settled only one case so far this year: fining a Dallas constable candidate $100 for posing in front of a state seal on her campaign Web site.

Actually, the commission that enforces the state's election laws has settled 43 cases against politicians so far this year. Unlike the agencies that police lawyers, doctors and builders, however, the Ethics Commission does little to bring attention to the politicians it punishes.

Its deliberations, by law, are behind closed doors. Its decisions, by its own choice, are not announced to the media. The order settling a case becomes public only after the offender signs it. The commission then notifies the person who filed the complaint by letter and, as a result of a change in the law in 2003, posts the order on its Web site.

The site is not always user-friendly. The order is listed on the site under the year the complaint was filed, not the year it's resolved.

Most of the 2008 sanctions can be found listed under 2006 or 2007, for example. In one instance, Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, told reporters that he had settled a case months ago (for paying his wife with more than $50,000 in campaign money) that won't appear on the commission's Web site until after the November election.

Surprised? Of course not. The TEC is another one of those almost worthless agencies. No teeth and no real commitment to doing much of anything. The Texas Ethics Commission, "taking ethics out of the public eye". :grr:


Sonia

[hobbit709]

1. Texas politicians have ethics?

It's unusual when you find one that does. Most of them think it's a word between easy and and exorbitant in the dictionary.

[sonias]

2. Many of them do not

The TEC however is an enabler instead of a watchdog agency. They do absolutely nothing unless a citizen does the work and files a complaint. Our own johncoby2 and Muse do a whole lot of research and are responsible for many of those legislators getting any kind of review.

Kudos to them! :yourock:


Sonia