Senators in new panel on ethics get to work; members seek clarity

The state Senate’s newly formed ethics committee picked its leaders Thursday and then began asking about the particulars of that chamber’s revised ethics rules, approved last week by senators.

The committee picked as its first chairman Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View.

The eight-member panel approved a work plan to clarify and recommend any needed changes to the code of ethics; create an effective and reasonable financial-disclosure process and appropriate disclosure forms; and help create an ethics training course by the end of October. The committee will seek input from senators from Monday to July 23.

“There is a degree of anxiety out there” with the overhauled ethics rules, Irvin said during the Select Committee on Senate Ethics’ first meeting. The Senate will consider the committee’s recommendations for rule changes during its organizational session after the Nov. 6 general election, she said.

Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, said he worried the rules could lead to people who work for a living not being able to serve in the Senate.

There is a big difference between part- time citizen lawmakers and full-time lawmakers, he said, and nobody wants full-time state lawmakers in Arkansas.

The Senate’s overhaul of its code of ethics created the committee and prohibits members from certain activities that involve conflicts of interest. They also require more disclosure of other conflicts and of the personal finances of members.

Senate legal counsel Steve Cook told the panel that the rule changes were “fasttracked’ by Senate President Pro Tempore-elect Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, after different senators separately asked Bureau of Legislative Research Director Marty Garrity and Cook to review other states’ ethics laws. Cook said he intended to develop rule changes to consider this fall, and he and bureau legal counsel Jill Thayer worked together on the revisions.

Thayer said the rule changes are based in part on Alabama, Alaska, Ohio and Texas’ ethics laws, which “were the four that had the strongest ethics laws that seemed to go along with the directive that we were given.”

Federal investigations in the past few years have led to convictions of five former state lawmakers: Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith; Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale; Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale; Rep. and Sen. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff; and Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne.

Cook said the Arkansas Senate originally adopted its code of ethics after the 1997 regular session to implement starting in the 1999 regular session, and the changes approved last week are the first major overhaul since then.

Under the new rules, any senator who believed there was a violation of the code of ethics could file a complaint with the committee, which will investigate.

The complaint will list the name of the accused, the accuser, the provision violated and a description of the suspect activities. The committee could recommend that the Senate punish any violator with penalties ranging from a letter of caution to expulsion.

The new rules require any senator under felony criminal indictment in any federal or state court to relinquish any leadership position, including committee chairmanships and party leadership positions. Under the rules, if the indictment is dropped or the senator acquitted, the senator will resume the leadership posts.