Ethics panel adopts cooling-off rules, again

The Oklahoma Ethics Commission on Friday adopted for the second time rules that bar legislators and other elected officials from becoming state lobbyists during their first two years out of office.

The vote also puts the restriction on departing state agency heads.

The watchdog agency adopted the same rules in February but they never went into effect because of legislative opposition.

The House voted 64-27 to reject the rules and the Senate voted 34-8 against them. Gov. Mary Fallin agreed with that outcome, saying the Ethics Commission had overstepped its authority.

Despite the opposition, the five commissioners were unanimous in adopting the rules again.

“We don’t have to have a criminal to know that something is wrong,” the Ethics Commission chairman, John Hawkins, said Friday. “We ... have a responsibility to try to protect the rights of the citizens of the state of Oklahoma.”

The rules will go into effect next year, when the regular legislative session ends, unless legislators reject them again.

Two-thirds of all states have so-called “coolingoff” periods, the Ethics Commission said. Those cooling-off periods typically range from six months to two years.

Cooling-off periods are intended to assure that an elected official or agency head makes a decision in the public interest and not to benefit a potential future employer.

The Ethics Commission’s executive director, Ashley Kemp, said they also have been called “conflict-of-interest protection periods.”

“I have ... become convinced that there is a problem that needs to be addressed in the state of Oklahoma,” Kemp said.

Speaking in favor of the rules Friday was Rep. Tom Gann, R-Inola.

“It’s something we desperately need,” Gann said. “I feel it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the House.”

He also said, “It’s reasonable. It happens here in the corporate world.”