In Your State - California
WASHINGTON, December 13, 2001 — The Center interviewed ethics agency officials, scoured ethics agency Web sites and combed through pages of state statutes to conduct this survey of state ethics agencies. Below is a snapshot of answers for this state. See how this state ethics agency compares on staff and budget, oversight and enforcement power, among other topics surveyed. Find out what other type of ethics oversight this state has. Go to the methodology for an explanation of how the survey was conducted and what exact questions were asked.
Oversight Summary
Oversight Survey
California is one of 23 states in which an outside ethics agency oversees ethical conduct of state legislators. It is one of 10 of those states where the ethics agency also oversees both personal financial disclosure and campaign finance disclosure for members of the legislature.
California is among the 22 states that established outside oversight of ethical conduct and/or disclosure requirements of legislators in the post-Watergate 1970s.
California, along with Hawaii and Massachusetts, are the only three states that pick ethics agency commission members without any input from the legislature.
Budget
California is among 22 states that did approve a budget for its ethics agency
exceeding the rate of inflation, or 7 percent, between 1997 and 2000. Those
states include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia,
Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Tennessee,
Washington and Wisconsin. Six state ethics agency budgets — in Arkansas,
Georgia, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey and Washington — at least doubled during this
time period.
Conduct
To identify the extent of outside oversight applied to state legislators, the
Center included six categories of conduct often found in ethics law in the
survey of state ethics agencies: conflicts of interest, improper use of
office/abuse of power, nepotism, acceptance of honorarium and gifts and
post-term employment restrictions. Of the 23 states in which there is outside
oversight of ethical conduct, all have a provision dealing with lawmakers'
possible conflicts of interest. However, California's ethics agency does not
oversee two categories of conduct for legislators — abuse of power and nepotism.
Investigation
Of the 32 two states with outside ethics and/or disclosure oversight, only two
ethics agencies — in Florida and West Virginia — cannot initiate an
investigation or investigate an anonymous complaint. Only one agency, Alabama's,
cannot issue subpoenas.
Enforcement
Only Nebraska's ethics agency can directly prosecute criminal cases against
legislators; 25 more agencies can recommend criminal prosecution to the
appropriate authority, including California's ethics agency. Only Rhode Island's
ethics agency has the power to remove legislators from office; another 11 state
agencies can recommend removal as part of punishment, unlike California's, which
cannot.
Opinions and Investigative Findings
All 32 outside agencies that oversee some ethics and/or disclosure requirements
for legislators can issue advisory opinions. California is one of 18 states that
does publish legislator names within the advisory opinion reports, which cannot
be found on the agency's Web site. Copies may be requested from the agency.
Actual Findings
Just three states — Connecticut, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — have not
issued a finding against a legislator for violating disclosure-filing
requirements in the past five years. However, out of the 23 agencies that
oversee some aspect of legislative conduct, California's is one of 10 state
ethics agencies that has issued a finding against a legislator for violating
conduct laws in the past five years.
Meetings
California is among the 18 state agencies, of 32 with oversight of ethics and/or
disclosure laws for the legislature, that have at least one public meeting per
month; minutes for those meetings are on the Web site.
Note: Some information provided by the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws' "Ethics Update" 2000. For more information or to purchase the reference, visit www.cogel.org.