Voting & Democracy In the News

TRENTON — Lawmakers would no longer serve as prosecutor, jury and judge of their colleagues' ethical transactions under a measure passed by an Assembly panel Monday.

A bill pushed by Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., D-Camden, would restrict membership on the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards to retired judges and prosecutors, eliminating eight positions currently reserved for lawmakers.

The panel has been oft-criticized for letting its meetings get overrun by partisan posturing and not acting on ethics complaints.

"It's clear that the ethics committee's been broken. It's time to fix it. It's long overdue," Roberts said. "We should join the significant number of other states that realize that when you have legislators serving on the commission, even if it's not a real problem, it's a problem of perception that you have people regulating themselves."

The measure was unanimously passed by the Assembly State Government Committee, after Republicans tried to lump in more ethics reform, a move Democrats shot down.

Among the reforms proposed by Assembly members Sean Kean and Jennifer Beck, both R-Monmouth, and the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group were ones that would clarify that no lawmaker could advocate for legislative-approved grants to a group that employs lawmakers or their families, provide a written record of final decisions and allow the ethics panel to hire outside attorneys to avoid conflicts with the Office of Legislative Services.

Recently, the ethics committee dismissed several complaints aimed at lawmakers who directed grants to their employers or those of their spouses.

"The reconstitution of the joint committee, I think is an important first step," said Beck, who is not a committee member. "But we have the opportunity today to also address within the conflicts of interests law a specific provision, which would be a prohibition, so that going forward the new members will understand that the Legislature does not view that as appropriate action."

After Kean offered that and several other amendments, Democrats would not consider them, saying they weren't submitted in enough time.

"Much of what you say makes a lot of sense, but if you forgive me, I'm not very good on the fly," said Assemblyman Gary Schaer, D-Passaic, the committee vice chairman.

While Roberts first proposed the idea on May 3, legislation wasn't formally introduced until Thursday.

"The bill was introduced on Thursday; I didn't want to second guess the chairman," Kean said. "But at the end of the day it's a good bill."

Abigail Caplovitz Field of the New Jersey Public Interest Group said if enacted, New Jersey would join 23 other states with an independent ethics panel.

With Roberts' support, the bill will likely be approved by the full Assembly, but Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, refused comment on its prospects.