CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The House of Delegates overwhelmingly passed a series of bills last week aiming to reform the state Ethics Act and improve government practices.
The bills deal with a number of different issues, including the level of buden of proof to prove a public official has violated the Ethics Act. Currently, violations must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the same as a criminal case.
“One of these bills would be to change that to clear and convincing evidence,” explained House Speaker Tim Armstead. “That’s still a pretty high standard, but it would be easier to make the case so to speak.”
A second bill would make fundraising efforts during the session more transparent by disclosing them within 10 days.
“People are always saying they think it’s unseemly that you’re raising money while you’re voting on bills and different things,” Armstead said. “This would disclose all that. If you have a fundraising event, you disclose that during session. We want to be above approach. If there’s even an appearance of impropriety, we want to address it.”
Another piece of legislation deals with the recusal of voting if there’s a conflict of interest, Armstead said.
“If they’re a member of a board, or a non-profit or something like that, they should at least recuse themselves when voting to put money into that entity,” he said.
Armstead explained that these bills had been in the making since the beginning of the 2016 session.
“We said from day one that we wanted to stregthen our Ethics Act and make sure we have high standards of integrity in our offices throughout the state,” he said.
The House of Delegates plans to pass additional reform legislation this week.