House considers new ethics code

Proposed Government Ethics Act would prohibit accepting gifts for duties

The meeting of the House Constitutional Law and Ethics Committee came only days after a national watchdog group ranked Michigan last in the strength of its ethics laws. The Center for Public Integrity wrote the report.

"I don't think the response to this report should be that Michigan should rush out and require a very full, onerous disclosure on the part of public officials," Detroit College of Law Prof. Michael Lawrence told the committee.

But Lawrence said Michigan laws are inadequate. For example, state lawmakers don't have to disclose conflicts of interest when casting votes. The state also doesn't have any penalties for ethics violations.

Lawrence said he spent a year studying disclosure laws in other states and crafting a recommended ethics code for Michigan. The Michigan Law Revision Commission, a nonpartisan state group, worked with Lawrence.

Lawrence's proposed Government Ethics Act would include specific prohibitions against receiving gifts in exchange for official duties. The code also would require legislators to excuse themselves from votes if they have a conflict of interest.

The act would also establish an ethics board appointed by the governor to review complaints and examine lawmakers' conflict disclosure statements.

Lawrence said such a code would put Michigan in the middle of states in terms of state ethics codes. States at the top of the list generally have strict financial disclosures - something Lawrence doesn't recommend because he said it requires excessive bureaucracy.

"We need to approach the idea of a code of ethics from the standpoint that public officials would have nothing to fear from a code of ethics," he said.

Local governments and officials in towns of less than 25,000 would be able to opt out of the code as long as they developed ethics laws meeting state standards, Lawrence said.

Richard McLellan, chair of the Michigan Law Revision Commission, said his group will examine Lawrence's report and decide whether to endorse it. McLellan praised the vigilance of former Attorney General Frank Kelley for keeping ethics violations to a minimum in Michigan.

"Michigan is an extra-clean state," he said.

House Constitutional Law and Ethics Committee chair Mike Bishop (R-Rochester) said the proposed act would be a priority for his committee.

"It's too bad that we've come to the point where we have to legislate common sense. Someone who's running for office knows what's right and wrong," he said. "If we had more comprehensive laws on record that we can follow, we'll be better off in the future."

02-17-99