ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ...

End the charade on ethics panel

Editorial, Asbury Park Press, October 25, 2006

The unseemly behavior exhibited at Monday's legislative ethics panel meeting offered further evidence that such panels should consist of only public members. This particular panel should be disbanded and folded into the State Ethics Commission, as recommended nearly a year ago in an ethics reform study commissioned by then-acting Gov. Richard J. Codey.

The meeting was dominated by legislators who spent most of their time bickering along partisan lines, accomplishing next to nothing. It was the panel's first such meeting in 17 months. With the ethical lapses that seem to surface daily in Trenton, that alone is unconscionable. Then the panel spent four hours in a stalemate arguing over who would be chairman.

The voice of reason came from the public members. After noting that all but five minutes of the first two hours of discussion were monopolized by legislators, public member William Kersey said: "You've had the debates. You've had the name calling. You've had the arguments. You've had the back-and-forth - no member of the public has any input . . . you (legislators) need to get your acts together."

The panel of 16 - eight public members and eight legislators evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans - also spent a half hour debating, and ultimately rejecting, the minutes from the May 2005 meeting.

The Republicans objected to the chairmanship of Raymond Bramucci - a former state labor commissioner under Gov. James J. Florio - until he pledged to expeditiously handle more than 30 complaints filed by Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan accusing lawmakers of steering state money to themselves, their families or politically connected firms.

If history is any guide, no action will be taken on the complaints. Only four lawmakers have been cited for ethical lapses in 32 years. And five ethics committee members are among the legislators named in the 30 complaints.

Because the legislative ethics panel has been dominated by legislators not willing to rat out their colleagues, it has been toothless since its inception. It should be merged into the seven-member State Ethics Commission that oversees state employees and the executive branch. That body has four public members and three executive branch employees. We would prefer that all seven of its members be public members. Gov. Corzine should take the lead in ensuring that complaints lodged against lawmakers are heard by a panel that will operate objectively and free of partisan considerations.