Perhaps your heard about North Carolina Senate Bill 493 and the Proposed House Committee Substitute, short title, 2014 Regulatory Reform Act? Without a doubt it is the good, the bad and the ugly all rolled into one. You can read the entire bill here.
The ugly is the repeal of protest petitions state wide. The good is stricter ethics for politicians at the local level and actual punishments for breaking the law. The Ethics portion begins on page 16.
The bill requires local officials in jurisdictions of 75,000 people or more to comply with sections GS 138 A-3 and newly formed 160 A-88 which is included in the bill.
It only took me a little while to get my hands on a copy of the 9 page North Carolina State Ethics Commission 2014 Statement of Economic Interest that is required not only of politicians at the State level but of some if not all state employes. The new state regs apply to at least some city employees as well.
As you can see, it is much more detailed than has been previously disclosed by the Greensboro City Council. For example: with this form, Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann will have to disclose who her employer is, gifts she received in excess of $200 in value, transferals of assets and that the penalty for false information is in-fact, a Class H felony with incarceration ranging from 4 to 25 months. I wonder how Nancy would look in prison stripes?
No one on either side of the isle likes this bill but it has been crafted as such a grab bag of every little thing everyone wants that no one on either side is going to try to stop it. Oh sure, a few might bitch but when time comes to vote the bill will pass like it or not. Things will be done differently in Greensboro next year, Greensboro developers will get the repeal of protest petitions they've been pushing for and now City Council has to disclose the gifts those developers have been giving them.
Hey Mayor Vaughan, remember when at the city Council meeting in front of the TV cameras you told me the short session in Raleigh wouldn't allow for enough time for state lawmakers to take up the ethics issue? Well it might be Raleigh didn't hear you but Raleigh damned sure heard me.
And they're hearing me a lot more from me than you could ever possibly know.
