Joint Commission on Public Ethics Releases 2013 Annual Report

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics ("Commission") today released its 2013 Annual Report highlighting its work for the year, including: the regulation of $210 million in State and local lobbying; resolving enforcement actions with more than $450,000 in penalties; the first-ever independent ethics investigation of a sitting lawmaker; and the implementation of significant new financial disclosure requirements that, for the first time, revealed details of outside income reported to the Commission by State officials.

The report also shows that a record $191 million was spent in 2013 on compensation for inhouse and retained lobbyists across the State, while spending on advertising for lobbying campaigns dropped significantly for the second straight year, to $4.8 million.

Top spenders on lobbying for the year included a top tobacco manufacturer and tobacco retailers, as well as teachers’ unions, hospital groups, and a top public employees’ union.

Also, in conjunction with the report, the Commission published on its website today the complete source data filed by lobbyists and their clients for 2013.

In 2013, the Commission was engaged in a broad array of activities. Highlights from the past year include the following:

• For the first time, making the Financial Disclosure Statements filed by the four statewide elected officials and all Members of the Legislature accessible to the public on the Internet. Additionally, for the first time, the Financial Disclosure Statements include the values of filers’ investments and outside incomes.

• The review and administration of more than 40,000 lobbyist and client filings and contracts received.

• The review of more than 200 potential investigative matters and the resolution of 15 enforcement actions generating more than $450,000 in penalties.

• The processing of more than 27,000 financial disclosure statements filed by state officials and employees in the executive and legislative branches of government.

• Providing written guidance on more than 500 requests, including informal opinion requests on the application of various aspects of the Public Officers law, outside activity approval requests from State officers and employees; and travel reimbursement requests.

• The development of a new two-hour Comprehensive Ethics Training Course that was completed by more than 23,000 State employees.