05/18/06 Ethics Training Not Required For Pols

On the same day that a former legislative leader was sentenced to prison for illegal campaigning with state resources, the director of the state Ethics Board issued a statement that legislators are not required to receive ethics training.

"The rule's training requirement applies only to staff, and not to legislators," Director Roth Judd wrote to Assembly Speaker John Gard on Tuesday, the day former speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

The letter was in response to a query from Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, about the meaning of a rule adopted by the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization in 2001.

That rule requires that legislative employees attend periodic ethics training, but not legislators, Judd wrote to Gard, R-Peshtigo, who passed along Pocan's request for clarification.

This is the height of hypocrisy," Pocan said of the lack of training. "The public's trust in government is plummeting -- and rightly so. If the Legislature wants to prove to the public that we have integrity, the best thing we can do today is to pass meaningful ethics reform and to live by the same rules we expect others to live by."

Judd said in his letter that the rule did not require training for legislators because the Ethics Board's staff has for a number of years provided training to newly elected legislators, met periodically with legislators on a one-on-one basis to discuss ethics issues and distributed written guidelines to legislators. He said the rule also imposed strict prohibitions against campaigning on state time or with the use of state resources and strict time-keeping requirements in order to curtail improper staff activities.

However, Judd added, "The Ethics Board would certainly encourage continuing ethics training for legislators and would be happy to provide whatever additional training opportunities the Legislature requests."

Pocan agreed, adding he is still waiting to get a response from Gard other than the release of Judd's letter.

"John Gard should realize that lawmakers are responsible for the cloud of corruption looming over the State Capitol, and legislators should attend mandatory ethics training like all other legislative employees," Pocan said.

More legislators than staff were charged during the caucus investigation, he noted -- five legislators and one staff person.

"Especially in such an ethically challenged period, why are not legislators required to undergo ethics training? We have more contact with lobbyists and outside interests than our staff," Pocan said. "There is a training next week for staff, and I plan to attend. It looks bad if we exempt ourselves."

Gard's staff referred a question about whether ethics training would be required to Assembly Majority Leader Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, who did not call back by The Capital Times' deadline.

A bill authored by Rep. Don Friske, R-Merrill, that required all legislative employees to have ethics training that included portions of campaign finance laws was amended by the Assembly to specify that legislators would be included, but the bill was then tabled.

Pocan also called again for the Republican Assembly leadership to bring legislation forward that would combine the elections and ethics boards and give them greater enforcement and investigative power. The Senate approved the bill, and Gov. Jim Doyle said he would sign it, but the Republicans who control the Assembly decided not to bring it up.

\ E-mail: aweier@madison.com