Texas Ethics Commission Finally Talking Ethics

The Texas Ethics Commission has taken a baby step towards fixing their $2 Million/year Commission that is suppose to oversee ethics laws. It is not much of a step, but one in the right direction. From the Texas Tribune:

The commission adopted new rules last week that, beginning this summer, will require anyone running for office to use 19 defined subject categories to describe any goods, services or other things of value purchased by their campaigns.

No more will Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole be able to buy a cow with his donors money and list it as "Public Relations".  No more will State Representative John Davis use his donors money to buy a pair of $1500 cowboy boots and list it as "Miscellaneous". And no more will Senator Jane Nelson be able to give her donors money to her husband to buy a condo and list is as "lease".

This change in the rules might stop some illegal spending but there is much more the Ethics Commission can do. In 2007 a small group of citizens poured through hundreds of ethics reports and found over $3 Million in spending violations the TEC had overlooked for years. Because of the work of these individuals these violations have almost been eliminated. (almost)

The TEC was provided a detailed report  titled "Don't Mess With Ethics" on these violations and were provided suggestions on how to prevent the violations instead of spending tax dollars on investigating and then rolling over by issuing a slap on the wrist. These suggestions include:

Audit the Commission. Because of the complete failure of the TEC, the Legislature should consider requesting a complete audit of the Commission by the Texas Comptroller. The errors in this report were very easy to find. Why were these violations not discovered by the TEC and why have they allowed these violations to continue? The TEC is full of loopholes in the reporting process and the complaint process and is in need of a complete audit by an independent organization.

Fines Should Paid from Personal Funds. The TEC has decided that fines for ethics violations can be paid from campaign funds. This should stop immediately. If an elected official is fined for ethics violations, they should be held accountable and they should take responsibility for the violations. The fines should be paid directly out of their own personal funds and not from campaign contributions.

Require repayment to the campaign. If an elected official is caught converting campaign money to personal use, they should be required to pay the amount back to the campaign from their own personal funds. Currently it is up to the TEC to demand payment. Some have been allowed to keep tens of thousands of dollars of their campaign money they used for personal use.

Require Training. The TEC should require mandatory training by filers and treasurers to prevent the obvious errors such as those in this report.

Create a Citizen’s Commission. The Legislature should allow participation by a citizen group. This group could perform simple audits of incoming financial reports to prevent obvious errors.

Expand the TEC Authority to Perform Audits. The TEC cannot audit a candidate or elected official based on input from a citizen or organization. Instead a citizen must file a complaint, and it must be filed correctly, with little if any help from the TEC. This should be changed. If a citizen has concerns, the TEC should be able to perform a quick audit to catch the violation early and allow it to be corrected.

Perform Periodic Audits. The Commission should audit all incoming financial reports in January and June. This audit should be brief, looking for obvious errors in reporting. The filer should correct any obvious errors, with automatic penalties enforced.

Perform Automated Auditing. The TEC software for candidates and officeholders should have an audit function to catch possible errors and alert the candidate or the treasurer of the possibility of errors. Turbo Tax has this capability in their product for submitting IRS statements. From a technical perspective, this is a very simple thing to do.

Complaints Should be Public Record. Currently all complaints filed against an elected official for ethics violations are hidden from public scrutiny unless the complainant or official releases the information. The complaints should be made public and available for review on the TEC website.

Anonymous Complaints. If a citizen takes the time to correctly file a complaint and the complaint has merit, the TEC should take over the complaint removing the complainant from any adverse affects. The TEC should act like a District Attorney’s office where they take over a complaint.

Assess Automatic Fines. Fines when assessed against a filer should not be modified or reduced by the Commissioners. These types of fines for late filing or errors detailed in this report should be automatic. These fines should not be negotiable.

Enforce Fines. Many times fines are reduced by the Commissioners. There should be automatic fines for obvious errors such as the ones identified in this report. And based on the severity of the violations, additional fines should be assessed. The Commission should not reduce the automatic fines.

Website Modifications. The TEC website should be redesigned to give the average citizen a chance to review easily the expenditures and contributions of a candidate or office holder. Since all reports must be provided in electronic form, it should be easy to  access and easy to create reports.

Limit Use of Credit Cards. It is obvious from this report, with nearly $1 million in incorrectly reported credit card expenditures, that credit card usage is being abused. Either this situation should caught by early audits, or the use of credit cards for purchases should be banned.

End Car Leasing and Purchasing. Because of the possible abuse of leasing and purchasing cars, the TEC should immediately disallow the practice. Elected officials are provided a very generous reimbursement for the use of their personal automobile. If elected officials believe they need a BMW or Cadillac for Legislative purposes, they can buy the car themselves with their own money and be reimbursed for their mileage.

Mileage Reimbursement. If elected officials want to be reimbursed for mileage, they should be required to file a log of their mileage, as is required when filing with the IRS or for their place of employment.

Prohibit Payments to Relatives. There is a loophole in the law regarding renting from a family member for housing in Austin. Elected officials require housing during the legislative session and are allowed to use campaign funds for this purpose. If the officials use their campaign cash for rent, then they should not be allowed to pay this rent to a family member or relative.

Limit purchasing of entertainment event tickets. The Commission should look at the purchase of entertainment tickets very closely. To the average citizen, purchasing $15,000 for season tickets to a professional sporting event is not for “constituent entertainment”. Common sense tells this is for personal entertainment only.