Ethics overhaul needed.Byline: The Register-Guard Last month, Ted Kulongoski Theodore R. "Ted" Kulongoski (born November 5 1940, in rural Missouri[1]) is an American Democratic politician. Since 2003, he has served as the Governor of Oregon. He was re-elected in 2006. wisely vetoed a bill passed by the 2003 Legislature that would have strengthened undesirable bonds between lobbyists and lawmakers. Now, the governor has asked the Oregon Oregon, city, United States Oregon, city (1990 pop. 18,334), Lucas co., NW Ohio, a suburb adjacent to Toledo, on Lake Erie; inc. 1958. It is a port with railroad-owned and -operated docks. The city has industries producing oil, chemicals, and metal products. Law Commission to consider overhauling the state's ethics ethics, in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a laws. Last week, the commission accepted the task. It's a welcome development. The Law Commission, headquartered in the Willamette University Willamette’s College of Liberal Arts is the undergraduate school on campus. The oldest of the graduate programs is the College of Law, founded in 1883 and located in the Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center. Law School in Salem, was created in 1997 to conduct a continuing, substantive law The part of the law that creates, defines, and regulates rights, including, for example, the law of contracts, torts, wills, and real property; the essential substance of rights under law. revision program. The commission's 13 members include two appointed by the president of the Oregon Senate (one of whom must be a member of the Senate), two from the Oregon House (one of whom must be a House member), the deans of Oregon's three law schools or their appointees, three Oregon State Bar appointees, the state attorney general, the chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court The Oregon Supreme Court (OSC) is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States. and one member appointed by the governor. As the governor noted that the commission, by its makeup makeup In the performing arts, material used by actors for cosmetic purposes and to help create the characters they play. Not needed in Greek and Roman theatre because of the use of masks, makeup was used in the religious plays of medieval Europe, in which the angels' faces and its members' backgrounds, is particularly well-suited for the comprehensive - and complicated - task of taking apart the ethics laws and recommending how they should be reconstructed re·con·struct tr.v. re·con·struct·ed, re·con·struct·ing, re·con·structs 1. To construct again; rebuild. 2. . With luck, the commission's recommendations will be completed in time to be presented to the 2005 Legislature. The ethics bill that Kulongoski vetoed, House Bill 3328, would have permitted lobbyists to treat public officials' relatives to all-expenses-paid trips when they accompanied lawmakers on public business. The bill would have allowed public officials and their relatives to receive unlimited gifts from people or groups "with no perceived legislative or administrative interest." If any business, individual or organization can be forever designated as having no legislative or administrative interest with state government, it must be headquartered on Mars. The commission needs to examine the ethical issues that arise when spouses accompany public employees on official business trips. It would be wrong to ask taxpayers to foot the bill for spouses' travel. Trips for public business shouldn't be viewed as family vacations. The commission also should look into such issues as personal calls by public officials on state-owned cell phones. Other issues, such as those involving conflicts of interest, should also be explored. Oregon's ethics laws are fairly comprehensive already, but HB 3328 is a sign that revisions may be needed. The governor's commitment to an overhaul of the ethics laws and the commission's willingness to undertake the task should be applauded by all Oregonians. |
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