State Senator Gayle Slossberg
May 5, 2008
Slossberg: Connecticut Taxpayers Deserve Strong, Meaningful Ethics Reform
Leads Senate in removing pension double-standard, sends bill back to House
State Senator Gayle Slossberg (D-Milford), Senate chair of the General Assembly's Government Administration & Elections Committee, today led the Connecticut Senate in stripping an amendment Senate Bill 333 that would require a dual standard for the revocation of public pensions from corrupt employees and sending it back to the House of Representatives for reconsideration.
"The taxpayers in this state expect that, when someone who works in the public trust is convicted of a crime they will no longer receive a public pension. It makes no difference whether that person is an elected official or a public employee," said Senator Slossberg. "The state Senate today has said that we will expect no less than a strong policy that protects the public interest. We're sending a strong message that corruption will not be tolerated in our state at any level."
The Senate voted to remove the amendment, which would apply a lesser pension revocation penalty to state or municipal employees convicted of corruption than to elected officials, and re-approved the bill in a 35-to-1 vote.
The legislation-first approved in the Senate on April 16-consists of several major reforms, including:
- Revocation or reduction of pensions for all state employees, public officials, officials of quasi-public agencies and municipal officials who plead guilty or no contest or are convicted of a crime related to their position;
- Creation of the Class A misdemeanor of failure to report a bribe;
- Limitation of gifts given under the "major life event" exception in ethics law to a value of $1,000 or less;
- Addition of the governor's spouse to the definition of "public official" for purposes of the state Code of Ethics for Public Officials;
- Requiring public agencies to post the minutes of a public meeting on the agency's
- Web site within seven days of a meeting, post the schedule of regular public meetings for a calendar year by January 31 of that year, and post notice of any special meeting on the agency's Web site not less than 24 hours before the meeting;
- Prohibiting chiefs of staffs of legislative caucuses and all public officials from soliciting campaign contributions from their respective staff and barring the governor and lieutenant governor's chiefs of staff from soliciting campaign contributions from commissioners and deputy commissioners;
- Mandatory ethics training for all new legislators and refresher courses for incumbent legislators every four years or when the Code of Ethics of Public Officials is significantly updated;
- Prohibiting ex parte communications between Office of State Ethics (OSE) employees who are investigating an ethics complaint and board members concerning the subject of the complaint, authorizing OSE employees to issue subpoenas only after affirmative action by the board and prohibiting absentee voting by board members; and
- Prohibiting state contractors from offering employment to a state employee who participated in a significant way in the awarding of a state contract to that company.
The legislation now returns to the state House of Representatives.
The 2008 regular legislative session adjourns on Wednesday, May 7.
|
Senator Slossberg’s |
Listing of Senator Slossberg’s recent press releases and a Press Kit with official head shots and bio. |
Press Aide Jaclyn Falkowski |
