PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The Rhode Island Ethics Commission is considering an election-season blackout on ethics complaints.
The nine-member commission voted unanimously Tuesday to begin the process of establishing the moratorium. Lawmakers don’t want the commission to accept frivolous, politically motivated complaints before elections.
The move comes as the state’s General Assembly is debating legislation that would give the ethics commission more oversight over legislators.
Democratic leaders have called for a November ballot initiative asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment giving the commission power to investigate and punish lawmakers for conflicts of interest.
But the same lawmakers who advocate giving the commission more oversight don’t want it to accept frivolous or politically motivated complaints in the months before elections.
The commission’s action Tuesday heads off a plan that would have included the moratorium in the constitutional amendment.
Open government advocate John Marion of Common Cause Rhode Island said lawmakers’ concerns are valid, but his group asked the commission to create its own rules rather than having it enshrined in the Constitution.
“The Constitution really shouldn’t be micromanaging policy,” Marion said. “The Constitution should be larger principles.”
Ethics Commission Chairman Ross Cheit said Tuesday’s vote sends a strong message that commissioners take the election-season concerns seriously and are also supportive of the General Assembly’s moves toward ethics reform.
Lawmakers have been immune from the commission’s oversight over possible conflicts of interest since a 2009 ruling by the state’s Supreme Court.
“The General Assembly has taken a really important step, and I think we’ve taken a similarly important step,” Cheit said.
The moratorium that the ethics commission creates through its own rule-making process is likely to be different from the one proposed by lawmakers.
Marion said the blackout period proposed by lawmakers would be too long, stretching from June to November. He also said the moratorium on ethics complaints should only include those initiated by the public, not those the commission deems important to investigate on its own.
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