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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal Releases Call for Ethics Reform Special Session



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Feb 5, 2008, News Report

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal last Friday released the call for his ethics reform special session. The call addresses reforms in the areas of financial disclosure, conflicts of interest, transparency for lobbyists, improving education and enforcement, transparency and public access to information, further combating fraud and abuse, and improving campaign finance laws.

"Every one of the 31 points in my campaign plan is included in this call," said Jindal. "We have had an historically inclusive process of meeting with every key stakeholder on ethics reform from sheriffs to district attorneys, local elected officials and legislators from all over the state and both sides of the aisle, good government groups, chambers of commerce organizations and others.

"If I would have told you months ago that I would be issuing a call today that included disclosure for elected officials at every level of government, capped meals, eliminated free tickets, and said legislators can't have a contract with the state, most would have said it could not be done. But we have done it. In this call today -- we have done all those items and more."

Among items outlined by the governor, is an online searchable database of lobbyist information including monthly reports on:

  • Compensation ranges
  • Subject matter of lobbying activity
  • Business relationships with statewide elected officials, executive department heads, legislators and their spouses.
  • Spending on spouses and dependant children of executive branch elected and appointed officials and legislators
  • Expenditure totals by category.

Click here for more detailed information.

JB

Comments

By Som Karamchetty, on Feb 7, 2008

All public officials (elected, appointed, and career) should have their lists of meetings with lobbyists, special interest groups, constituents, citizens, and others should be placed on a public web site. Attendees at formal and informal meetings within the government may be placed on government Intranets (not necessarily available to public). This measure will add accountability to the time of public officials and where they are getting their inputs from and who they are influenced by.

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