Following an emergency session called by Gov. Jim Doyle on Jan. 11 to create a government accountability board, the Senate Committee on ethics reform met Thursday to debate several features of the bill that could make it less effective.
SB 1 aims to create a non-partisan Government Accountability Board with the authority to investigate and seek prosecution. It merges both the state Ethics Board and the state Elections Board into one entity and provides them with monetary resources.
While the Senate is prepared to take executive action on the bill as early as next Tuesday, many speakers giving testimony Thursday found issues with legislation.
Jay Heck, executive director for Common Cause Wisconsin, a non-partisan government reform group, said the amendment is a step in the right direction.
Heck said Wisconsin has waited years for ethics reform and urged the committee to make sure the act was 100 percent constitutional and tweak other problems with the bill.
Several speakers paid close attention to one amendment to SB 1 that stipulates if any part of the bill is found to be unconstitutional, the act becomes void, the board powerless, and legislation would have to start from scratch.
Loss of transparency, prosecution of government officials and the composition of the board raised concern for Heck and Kevin Kennedy, the executive director of the state Elections Board.
The stipulation in SB1 makes only the decisions of the board public and keeps their debate and advice behind closed doors. A major gripe with the current Ethics and Elections boards has been that non-partisan officials have acted in a partisan manner.
Without the public scrutiny of the board, Kennedy said there will ""be a reduction in the transparency of the administration of elections in Wisconsin.""
According to Kennedy, if the meetings are not public, it will result in a lack of discourse among voters.
""Providing transparency to the decision making of the new board will ensure an informed electorate,"" he said.
Kennedy suggested making the hearings public, but also asked the board to consider letting the new members of the non-partisan board to hold other non-partisan offices, such as membership on a school board, because it proved to be helpful in his experience.
""Having colleagues with experience in local government provided the staff with valuable insight into the impact of our administration and policy decisions,"" he said.
