ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS

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Legislative Ethics Committee: A Waste of Time

Editorial, The Press of Atlantic City, October 26, 2006

Some news stories provide a graphic, indelible image of what's wrong with the system. Example: This week's tumultuous meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethics.

The committee - which hasn't met since May 2005 - spent six hours arguing over procedural matters. It took two hours to pick a chairman. And the committee took no action on 32 pending cases of ethics complaints against lawmakers.

Get the picture? This is a committee that is toothless, ineffective and unable - or unwilling - to take action against its own members. In its 34 years of existence, it has sanctioned a grand total of four legislators.

The committee shouldn't bother meeting again. Don't waste taxpayers' time. Lawmakers know this watchdog is snoring - heck, lawmakers like state Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden, have virtually banked their careers on it.
The Joint Legislative Committee on Ethics came out of hibernation this week because of a scandal over one of the many public jobs Bryant has held in addition to his Senate seat. This time, though, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the state attorney general are investigating the matter - a virtual no-show job, allegedly in exchange for Bryant steering funding to his "other" employer, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. The legislative ethics committee deferred action on the Bryant case, saying it didn't want to interfere with the state and federal probes. No surprises there.

The legislative committee - composed of eight lawmakers and eight public members - is virtually useless. But the state recently strengthened the commission in charge of ethical standards for the executive branch - the State Ethics Commission - after an "ethics audit" by then-Gov. Richard J. Codey. One big change is that a majority of commission members now come from the public rather from inside government. The people who advised Codey on that issue - Seton Hall professor Paula A. Franzese and former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. O'Hern - recently recommended that the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethics be merged into that newly empowered State Ethics Commission.

That suggestion is an excellent one. The Legislature cannot police itself - it needs independent oversight. The most compelling argument is the record of the committee itself.

In 34 years, four legislators have been sanctioned for ethical violations.

In New Jersey.

Come now.

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