Sad to see ethics committee bill gutted, pulled

State Rep. Jim Dines, R-Albuquerque, long a champion of transparency in government, did the unusual but ethical thing Tuesday — he pulled his ethics commission joint resolution from consideration in the Senate Rules Committee because protectors of the status quo gutted the transparency elements it contained.

Pulling it took courage and common sense.

Because why have an ethics resolution that — thanks to a substitute measure suggested by Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, and other committee members — would no longer:

(A) Give the commission exclusive jurisdiction for adjudicating civil complaints?

(B) Require public hearings?

(C) Make both the complaint and response public at some point, as well as the basis for dismissal of complaints?

Why indeed, unless your goal is to have a commission in name only — aka, political cover.

Whatever the reason, Ivey-Soto’s misguided committee substitute — he said he was only trying to help and not kill an ethics panel, and his suggestions did not draw objections from the panel’s Republicans — deleted those provisions.

Dines said the deletions would render the commission “a toothless tiger.” And, considering both recent and past scandals in New Mexico government, what’s the point of having one more powerless body just to assuage the public’s reasonable cry for more accountability and transparency in government?

“That’s not the kind of ethics commission the public wants,” said Heather Ferguson of Common Cause New Mexico. “The public feels, right now, that everything is cloaked in secret.”

The proposal had received the blessing of the House in a 50-10 vote last week (it’s worth noting that nine of the 10 no votes were Republicans). Yet the Senate killed another positive piece of legislation — for what? Not transparent and ethical government.

It’s a sad state when lawmakers — perhaps overly concerned with their own interest in keeping government actions in the dark — would reject such a reasonable and balanced approach.

Instead, it met the same fate as previous attempts to enact an open and meaningful ethics commission. Again, the losers are New Mexico citizens.

— Albuquerque Journal