LWVCT Testifies on SB 35 02/17/2012
CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee : February 17, 2012 Public Hearing Comments Submitted by Pat Reilly, Connecticut League of Women Voters, Ethics Specialist Comments On: SB 35 AAC THE OFFICE OF STATE ETHICS AND REVISIONS TO THE STATE CODES OF ETHICS **************************************** I am Pat Reilly, Ethics Specialist for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of SB 35 AAC THE OFFICE OF STATE ETHICS AND REVISIONS TO THE STATE CODES OF ETHICS. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, a statewide organization with over 2100 members, believes that the public should have confidence in the integrity of its government. Government officials and employees should be held accountable for carrying out their duties in both an effective and ethically responsible manner. To accomplish these ends, the League supports efforts to reform, strengthen and clarify Connecticut’s Code of Ethics for Public Officials, as well as measures to ensure the existence of a strong, independent and effective Office of State Ethics. The League generally supports the changes contained in SB 35, believing SB 35 provides the means to strengthening Connecticut’s Code of Ethics and the effectiveness of the Office of State Ethics, instilling public trust in government, and ensuring transparency and accountability. The League highlights its support for the following provisions.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify on this bill. CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee : February 17, 2012 Public Hearing Comments Submitted by Pat Reilly, Connecticut League of Women Voters, Ethics Specialist Comments On: SB 36 AAC REVISIONS TO THE STATE CODES OF ETHICS ************************************** I am Pat Reilly, Ethics Specialist for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of SB 36 AAC REVISIONS TO THE STATE CODES OF ETHICS. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, a statewide organization with over 2100 members, believes that the public should have confidence in the integrity of its government. Government officials and employees should be held accountable for carrying out their duties in both an effective and ethically responsible manner. To accomplish these ends, the League supports efforts to reform, strengthen and clarify Connecticut’s Code of Ethics for Public Officials, as well as measures to ensure the existence of a strong, independent, effective Office of State Ethics. In general the League is very supportive of Senate Bill 36.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify on this bill. LWVCT Supports HB 5026 02/16/2012
CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee, February 17, 2012 Public Hearing Comments provided by: Susan Voris, Election Laws Specialist, League of Women Voters of Connecticut Support for: HB5026 AAC The Secretary of State’s Authority Following a Declaration of an Emergency or Major Disaster My name is Susan Voris. I am the Election Laws Specialist for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut. As an organization, the League has been dedicated to improving the electoral process. The League supports HB5026 granting the Secretary of State power to act on behalf of municipalities during a declaration of an emergency or major disaster rather than having an aggrieved party take court action. The recent, intense late-October storm caused the Governor to call such a state of emergency just 10 days before a municipal election. Numerous communities were without power for days due to downed power lines and trees. As such several communities were concerned about their ability to conduct an election for many reasons including the public safety of their electorate. Had this storm occurred just a few days later, the question of whether an election could safely have been conducted in many communities is questionable. The League urges the Committee to support HB5026. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. ***** Via Email ***** Hon. Denise Merrill Secretary of the State 30 Trinity Street PO Box 150470 Hartford, CT 06115-0470 Dear Denise: Elise Low, Voter Service Chair of our East Shore League, recently contacted us regarding a problem she encountered while organizing a local debate. Based upon this information, the League is writing to request that your office review the election calendar as well as your office procedures regarding the publicizing of names of registered write-in candidates. In relation to notification, we specifically recommend that your office provide online posting of registered candidates as they are determined followed by any required written notice to local town clerks. The details are as follows. In the process of LWV-East Shore arranging to moderate and time an East Haven mayoral candidates debate with ETV on Oct. 3, station personnel contacted them on Sept. 29, inquiring whether the local League rules would allow a "rumored" write-in candidate to participate if he were deemed to be legitimate. Ms. Low checked and the Town Clerk had no knowledge of his certification as of that date. The would-be candidate contacted Ms. Low on Oct. 3 to complain that he had not been invited to participate in the "LWV" debate that evening and our good reputation was at stake. She told him that she would clarify the situation and cancel that evening's debate if necessary. She called the East Haven Town Clerk again who had no knowledge of his certification. She then called the election division of your office and discovered that this man was indeed duly certified to have his votes counted. She was told by Ted that he had a short list of such candidates, and said that notices would go out to the requisite Town Clerks in about two weeks. In the end, the East Haven debate was postponed to Oct. 20 and all three candidates agreed to the new date. As you know, the lack of timely information has many repercussions. Most importantly, the voters who use absentee ballots need a full list of candidates ASAP. Town clerks must have access to this information on a timely basis to provide it to the voters. Additionally, it makes the election season work of groups like the League of Women Voters more difficult by having to respond to calls from irate candidates, inquisitive press and requiring us to reschedule debates. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut knows of your commitment to reducing barriers to voting. We appreciate your making immediate changes to your office procedures to ensure that registered candidates are publicized in a timely manner. We also recognize that the election calendar deadline of late October for write-in candidates complicates the issue and that the calendar would be worthy of re-examination and possibly legislative change. If we can provide further information, please feel free to contact us or LWV East Shore Voter Service Chair Elise Low at elow@hotmail.com or 203/457-9888. Sincerely Cheryl Dunson President Pat Donovan Voter Service Vice President Office: 203/288-7996 cc: James Spallone, Deputy Secretary of the State Peggy Reeves, Assistant to the Secretary of the State for Elections, Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Elise Low, LWV East Shore 2011 STATEMENT OF INTEREST: ON-LINE VOTING 09/14/2011
The League of Women Voters of Connecticut believes in a representative government, based on the informed and active participation of its citizens. To that end, the League advocates that every citizen, including one who lives or serves in the military overseas, should be guaranteed the right to vote with confidence in the election process.
The League of Women Voters—through the consensus of its nationwide membership—determined that in order to ensure integrity and voter confidence in elections, the League of Women Voters supports the implementation of voting systems and procedures that are secure, accurate, recountable and accessible. Recently, LWV of the US added a requirement that voting systems be transparent—yielding the acronym SARAT as a guide for assessing voting systems. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut wants.... Dear Senator Williams, Senator McKinney, Representative Donovan and Representative Cafero: The General Assembly will shortly adopt joint rules that will govern the passage of legislation over the course of the next legislative term. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut believes that governmental bodies must protect the citizens' right to know by giving adequate notice of proposed actions, holding open meetings and making public records accessible. In the past, legislation has often been passed without adequate opportunities for the public and even legislators themselves to adequately review and comment upon proposed bills. We are all too familiar with the concept of last minute "rats" that find their way into proposed bills, as well as bills, originally intended for one purpose, which morph into something completely different through the use of last minute strike all amendments. An example of the latter phenomenon is SB1017, An Act Concerning Restoration Of A Swimming Pool In Manchester's Landmark Historic District, which became a bill to ban the use of transfats in Connecticut restaurants. An example of a "rat" occurred during the 2007 legislative session when an amendment was attached to a bill in the final 2 days of the session which would allow mining on New Britain Water Company lands. "Rats" and strike all amendments are known to create exceptions to existing law to benefit special interests and/or to prevent thorough public review and input on critical public policy issues. The League urges you to make this the session where the legislature adopts rules that will guarantee openness and transparency in the legislative process. Specifically, we ask you to adopt rules that: . Require public hearings on all bills and amendments which create an exception to an existing statute. . Require strike all amendments to be printed and on legislators' desks at least two days prior to final passage. The legislature took a historic step when it passed comprehensive campaign finance reform in 2005 with your leadership and support. It's time to take the next step and guarantee openness and transparency in the legislative process to instill public trust in that process. Thank you. Sincerely, Christine S. Horrigan LWVCT VP of Public Issues CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee March 21, 2011 Public Hearing Submitted by League of Women Voters of Connecticut Christine S. Horrigan, Vice President of Public Issues Support For: SB 1197 AA Establishing a Legislative Code of Conduct and House of Representatives and Senate Bipartisan Committees on Ethics The League of Women Voters of Connecticut believes that the public should have confidence in the integrity of its government and that government officials and employees should be held accountable for carrying out their duties in both an effective and ethically responsible manner. Consistent with this position, we support having a process in place that allows the legislature to discipline members whose actions call into question the integrity of the legislative body. Accordingly, we support the establishment of a bipartisan legislative ethics committee and a legislative code of conduct as outlined in SB 1197 and urge your support for this legislation. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut appreciates the GAE Committee’s continued hard work and dedication to the cause of ethics. We thank you for the opportunity to be heard and look forward to working with you to make sure that these reforms become reality. League of Women Voters of Connecticut · 1890 Dixwell Avenue Hamden, CT 06514 · 203/288-7996 Testimony Submitted by Christine S. Horrigan, Vice President of Public Issues Support for:
Click here to read the full testimony. CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee: March 7, 2011 Public Hearing Testimony Submitted by Christine S. Horrigan, Vice President of Public Issues Opposition to: SB 1009 AA CREATING THE OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY The League of Women Voters of Connecticut appreciates the opportunity to comment today on the Governor's plan to merge five watchdog agencies—the State Elections Enforcement Commission, Freedom of Information Commission, the Judicial Review Council, the Contracting Standards Board, and the Office of State Ethics—into one entity, the Office of Government Accountability. The League strongly opposes this plan as proposed in SB 1009. The League believes that the public should have confidence in the integrity of its government. To accomplish this end, we support measures to ensure the existence of strong, effective, independent watchdog agencies such as the current Office of State Ethics, the Freedom of Information and the State Elections Enforcement Commission. In addition, we support the allocation of resources necessary for these commissions to fulfill their responsibilities. Independence is critical to strong, effective watchdog agencies. In order to garner the public’s confidence, watchdog agencies must be protected from political pressure, free from conflicts of interest and immune to outside influences. The Governor's plan, as outlined in SB 1009, would compromise the independence of Connecticut's watchdog agencies in several ways:
Thank you. League of Women Voters of Connecticut · 1890 Dixwell Avenue Hamden, CT 06514 · 203/288-7996 CGA Government Administration and Elections Committee | February 7, 2011 Public Hearing Testimony Submitted by Christine S. Horrigan, Vice President of Public Issues Support For: HB 6272 AACREVISIONS TO THE STATE CODES OF ETHICS HB 6273 AAC THE OFFICE OF STATE ETHICS SB 880AAC THE PUBLICATION OF STATE AGENCY REGULATIONS ON THE INTERNET The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, a statewide organization with over 2100 members, believes that the public should have confidence in the integrity of its government. Government officials and employees should be held accountable for carrying out their duties in both an effective and ethically responsible manner. To accomplish these ends, the League supports efforts to reform, strengthen and clarify Connecticut’s Code of Ethics for Public Officials, as well as measures to ensure the existence of a strong, independent and effective Office of State Ethics. We also support measures designed to make government more open and transparent. HB 6272 AAC REVISIONS TO THE STATE CODES OF ETHICS The League supports the changes contained in HB 6272 generally; however, we believe that certain provisions merit special consideration. The League supports expanding the list of potential conflicts of interests under the Code of Ethics for Public Officials (C.G.S. §1-86(a)) to include “employer other than the state” as proposed in Section 9 of HB 6272. Public officials and state employees must be prohibited from using their positions to financially benefit their other employers if the public is to have confidence in the integrity of its government. The League also supports adding gifts to state employees to the list of gifts that lobbyists must report as proposed in Section 16 of HB 6272. Lobbyists should be required to disclose gifts to state employees as a means of instilling public trust in government and ensuring transparency and accountability. This is particularly important given the widespread scope of administrative lobbying. While the League supports HB 6272 in its entirety, we believe that the above provisions in particular will increase transparency and public confidence in our government. The League strongly supports HB 6272. HB 6273 AAC THE OFFICE OF STATE ETHICS The League believes that the statutory changes contained in HB 6273—staggering the term of appointments to the Citizen’s Ethics Advisory Board, permitting CEAB members to continue serving beyond their terms for the limited purpose of adjudicating at a board hearing, and requiring prospective members to certify their awareness of special restrictions placed on board members—are crucial to the effective functioning and governance of the Citizen’s Election Advisory Board. Without these changes, the CEAB may face periods where it is unable to function due to a lack of a quorum and individuals subject to disciplinary action may “game” the system by stretching out the hearing process until the expiration of the term of one or more members of the CEAB. Excluding justices of the peace and notary publics from the term “public official” will allow such individuals to serve on the CEAB and make it easier to fill vacancies. In addition, the League believes that clarifying and expanding the prohibitions against political contributions and other political activities by CEAB members and employees of the Office of State Ethics, as proposed in Section 1 of HB 6273, will help to restore and maintain public confidence in the integrity of government. The League strongly supports HB 6273. SB 880 AAC THE PUBLICATION OF STATE AGENCY REGULATIONS ON THE INTERNET The League believes that democratic government depends upon the informed and active participation of its citizens and requires that governmental bodies protect the citizens’ right to know by making public records accessible. As a matter of transparency, efficiency, convenience and economy, we support requiring state agencies to post their regulations on their websites. Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony on these bills. League of Women Voters of Connecticut · 1890 Dixwell Avenue Hamden, CT 06514 · 203/288-7996 | Advocacy:
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