The Governor's Ethics Proposals

From today's HBJ Today, here's a brief look at Gov. Jodi Rell's ethics proposals. For the entire press release, click here.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell today said her proposals for the coming legislative session will include a sweeping ethics bill that will greatly increase the number and type of government officials required to file financial disclosures, make the spouse of a governor a "public official" for purposes of the ethics code and allow a judge to reduce or revoke the pension of a corrupt state employee or public official.

Under Rell's proposals, financial disclosures will be required from executive department division heads, all professional employees of the legislature (including chiefs of staff, committee administrators, attorneys, research analysts and fiscal analysts), any state employee whose responsibilities include participating in the award of contracts valued at $10,000 or more and chiefs of staff to both the governor and the lieutenant governor.

"We have long demanded that lawmakers disclose potential financial conflicts of interests - it is only right that we expect the same level of disclosure from the top-level officials who also deal with major state contracts," Rell said in a statement. "My bill would also strengthen Freedom of Information requirements so that the minutes of an agency's public meeting would have to be posted on its Web site within a week. And my legislation finally makes it clear that Connecticut will no longer allow corrupt public employees to benefit from a pension if they have been convicted of cheating the state."