COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4016
(By Delegates Miley, Poling, Caputo, Morgan,
Boggs, Fragale, Fleischauer, Barker, Hunt,
Frazier and Moore)
(Originating in the House Committee on the Judiciary)
[January 15, 2010]
A BILL to amend and reenact §6B-2-6 and §6B-2-7 of the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, and to amend and reenact §6B-3-2
of said code, all relating to the Ethics Act; requiring public
servants to disclose additional information on financial
disclosure statements; defining a new term; requiring the
ethics commission to give public notice of delinquent filing
of statements; clarifying existing requirements; and
prohibiting certain public servants from becoming a lobbyist
during and for a period of one year following state government
employment.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §6B-2-6 and §6B-2-7 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted, and that 6B-3-2 be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. WEST VIRGINIA ETHICS COMMISSION; POWERS AND DUTIES; DISCLOSURE OF FINANCIAL INTEREST BY PUBLIC
OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES; APPEARANCES BEFORE PUBLIC
AGENCIES; CODE OF CONDUCT FOR ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
JUDGES.
§6B-2-6. Financial disclosure statement; filing requirements.
(a)
The requirements for filing a financial disclosure
statement shall become initially effective on the first day of
February, one thousand nine hundred ninety, for all persons holding
public office or employment on that date and who are otherwise
required to file such statement under the provisions of this
section. The initial financial disclosure statement shall cover
the period from the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
eighty-nine, for the period ending the thirty-first day of January,
one thousand nine hundred ninety. Thereafter, the Financial
disclosure statement shall be filed on the first day of February of
each calendar year to cover the period of the preceding calendar
year, except insofar as may be otherwise provided herein. The
following persons must file the financial disclosure statement
required by this section with the ethics commission:
(1) All elected officials in this state, including, but not
limited to, all persons elected statewide, all county elected
officials, municipal elected officials in municipalities which
have, by ordinance, opted to be covered by the disclosure
provisions of this section, all members of the several county or district boards of education and all county or district school
board superintendents;
(2) All members of state boards, commissions and agencies
appointed by the governor; and
(3) Secretaries of departments, commissioners, deputy
commissioners, assistant commissioners, directors, deputy
directors, assistant directors, department heads, deputy department
heads and assistant department heads.
A person who is required to file a financial disclosure
statement under this section by virtue of becoming an elected or
appointed public official whose office is described in subdivision
(1), (2) or (3) of this subsection, and who assumes the office less
than ten days before a filing date established herein or who
assumes the office after the filing date, shall file a financial
disclosure statement for the previous twelve months no later than
thirty days after the date on which the person assumes the duties
of the office, unless the person has filed a financial disclosure
statement with the commission during the twelve-month period before
he or she assumed office.
(b) A candidate for public office shall file a financial
disclosure statement for the previous calendar year with the state
ethics commission no later than ten days after he or she files a
certificate of candidacy, but in all circumstances, not later than
ten days prior to the election, unless he or she has filed a
financial disclosure statement with the state ethics commission during the previous calendar year.
The ethics commission shall file a duplicate copy of the
financial disclosure statement required in this section in the
following offices within ten days of the receipt of the candidate's
statement of disclosure:
(1) Municipal candidates in municipalities which have opted,
by ordinance, to be covered by the disclosure provisions of this
section, in the office of the clerk of the municipality in which
the candidate is seeking office;
(2) Legislative candidates in single county districts and
candidates for a county office or county school board in the office
of the clerk of the county commission of the county in which the
candidate is seeking office;
(3) Legislative candidates from multicounty districts and
congressional candidates in the office of the clerk of the county
commission of the county of the candidate's residence.
After a ninety-day period following any election, the clerks
who receive the financial disclosure statements of candidates may
destroy or dispose of those statements filed by candidates who were
unsuccessful in the election.
(c) No candidate for public office may maintain his or her
place on a ballot and no public official may take the oath of
office or enter or continue upon his or her duties or receive
compensation from public funds unless he or she has filed a
financial disclosure statement with the state ethics commission as required by the provisions of this section.
(d) The
state ethics commission may, upon request of any
person required to file a financial disclosure statement, and for
good cause shown, extend the deadline for filing such statement for
a reasonable period of time:
Provided, That no extension of time
shall be granted to a candidate who has not filed a financial
disclosure statement for the preceding filing period.
(e) No person shall fail to file a statement required by this
section.
(f) No person shall knowingly file a materially false
statement that is required to be filed under this section.
(g) The ethics commission shall publish either on the internet
or by printed document made available to the public, a list of all
persons who have violated any ethics commission's financial
disclosure statement filing deadline.
§6B-2-7. Financial disclosure statement; contents.
The financial disclosure statement required under this article
shall contain the following information:
(1) The name, residential and business addresses of the person
filing the statement,
his or her spouse, the names of any
dependants of the person filing the statement, and all names under
which the person
does or the person's spouse, or both, do business.
For purposes of this section, the word "spouse" means any
individual who is legally married to and co-habitats with the
person filing the statement.
(2)
The name and address of each employer of the person For
each position of employment held by the person filing the
statements and the person's spouse:
(A) The name of the employer;
(B) The address of the employer;
(C) The job title; and
(D) A general description of job duties.
(3) The name and address of each business in which the person
filing the statement
or that person's spouse has or had in the last
year an interest of
at least $10,000 at fair market value.
or five
percent ownership interest, if that interest is valued at more
$10,000.
(A) For the purposes of this subsection, business interests
include, but are not limited to, an interest in:
(i) Nonpublicly owned businesses;
(ii) Publicly or privately traded stocks, bonds or securities,
including those held in self-directed retirement accounts; and
(iii) Commercial real estate.
(B) For the purposes of this subsection, business interests do
not include specific holdings in mutual funds or retirement
accounts.
(4) The identification, by category, of every source of income
over $1,000,
including distributions from retirement accounts
received during the preceding calendar year, in his or her own name
or by any other person for his or her use or benefit, by the person filing the statement,
or that person's spouse, and a brief
description of the nature of the
services income producing
activities for which the income was received. This subdivision
does not require a person filing the statement who derives income
from a business, profession or occupation,
or who's spouse derives
income from a business, profession or occupation, to disclose the
individual sources and items of income that constitute the gross
income of that business, profession or occupation.
nor does this
subdivision require a person filing the statement to report the
source or amount of income derived by his or her spouse.
(5) If the person
filing the statement, or that person's
spouse, profited or benefitted in the year
prior to before the date
of filing from a contract for the sale of goods or services to a
state, county, municipal or other local governmental agency either
directly or through a partnership, corporation or association in
which the person,
or that person's spouse, owned or controlled more
than ten percent, the person shall describe the nature of the goods
or services and identify the governmental agencies which purchased
the goods or services.
(6) Each interest group or category listed below doing
business in this state with which the person filing the statement,
did business or furnished services and from which the person
filing
the statement, or that person's spouse, received more than twenty
percent of his or her gross income during the preceding calendar
year. The groups or categories are electric utilities, gas utilities, telephone utilities, water utilities, cable television
companies, interstate transportation companies, intrastate
transportation companies, oil or gas retail companies, banks,
savings and loan associations, loan or finance companies,
manufacturing companies, surface mining companies, deep mining
companies, mining equipment companies, chemical companies,
insurance companies, retail companies, beer, wine or liquor
companies or distributors, recreation related companies, timbering
companies, hospitals or other health care providers, trade
associations, professional associations, associations of public
employees or public officials, counties, cities or towns, labor
organizations, waste disposal companies, wholesale companies,
groups or associations promoting gaming or lotteries, advertising
companies, media companies, race tracks,
and promotional companies,
lobbying, economic development, state government, construction,
information technology and legal service providers.
(7) The names of all persons, excluding that person's
immediate family, parents or grandparents residing or transacting
business in the state to whom the person filing the statement,
owes, on the date of execution of this statement in the aggregate
in his or her own name or in the name of any other person more than
$5,000:
Provided, That nothing herein
shall require requires the
disclosure of a mortgage on the person's primary and secondary
residences or of automobile loans on automobiles maintained for the
use of the person's immediate family, or of a student loan, nor
shall does this section require the disclosure of debts which
result from the ordinary conduct of the person's business,
profession or occupation or of debts of the person filing the
statement to any financial institution, credit card company or
business, in which the person has an ownership interest:
Provided,
however, That the previous proviso
shall does not exclude from
disclosure loans obtained pursuant to the linked deposit program
provided
for in article one-a, chapter twelve of this code or any
other loan or debt incurred which requires approval of the state or
any of its political subdivisions.
(8) The names of all persons except immediate family members,
parents and grandparents residing or transacting business in the
state (other than a demand or savings account in a bank, savings
and loan association, credit union or building and loan association
or other similar depository) who owes on the date of execution of
this statement more, in the aggregate, than $5,000 to the person
filing the statement, either in his or her own name or to any other
person for his or her use or benefit. This subdivision does not
require the disclosure of debts owed to the person filing the
statement which debts result from the ordinary conduct of the
person's business, profession or occupation or of loans made by the
person filing the statement to any business in which the person has
an ownership interest.
(9) The source of each gift, including those described in
subdivision (2), subsection (c), section five of this article, having a value of over $100, received from a person having a direct
and immediate interest in a governmental activity over which the
person filing the statement has control, shall be reported by the
person filing the statement when
such the gift is given to
said
that person in his or her name or for his or her use or benefit
during the preceding calendar year:
Provided, That
effective from
passage of the amendments to this section enacted during the First
Extraordinary Session of the Legislature in two thousand five any
person filing a statement required to be filed pursuant to this
section
on or after the first day of January, two thousand five is
not required to report those gifts described in subdivision (2),
subsection (c), section five of this article that are otherwise
required to be reported
by a registered lobbyist under section
four, article three of this chapter:
Provided, however, That gifts
received by will or by virtue of the laws of descent and
distribution, or received from one's spouse, child, grandchild,
parents or grandparents, or received by way of distribution from an
inter vivos or testamentary trust established by the spouse or
child, grandchild or by an ancestor of the person filing the
statement are not required to be reported. As used in this
subdivision, any series or plurality of gifts which exceeds in the
aggregate the sum of $100 from the same source or donor, either
directly or indirectly, and in the same calendar year
shall be are
regarded as a single gift in excess of that aggregate amount.
(10) The name of each for-profit business for which the person filing the statement, or that person's spouse, is a member of the
board of directors or an officer, and a general description of the
type of business.
(10) (11) The signature of the person filing the statement.
ARTICLE 3. LOBBYISTS.
§6B-3-2. Registration of lobbyists.
(a) Before engaging in any lobbying activity, or within thirty
days after being employed as a lobbyist, whichever occurs first, a
lobbyist shall register with the Ethics Commission by filing a
lobbyist registration statement. The registration statement shall
contain information and be in a form prescribed by the Ethics
Commission by legislative rule, including, but not limited to, the
following information:
(1) The registrant's name, business address, telephone numbers
and any temporary residential and business addresses and telephone
numbers used or to be used by the registrant while lobbying during
a legislative session;
(2) The name, address and occupation or business of the
registrant's employer;
(3) A statement as to whether the registrant is employed or
retained by his or her employer solely as a lobbyist or is a
regular employee performing services for the employer which
include, but are not limited to, lobbying;
(4) A statement as to whether the registrant is employed or
retained by his or her employer under any agreement, arrangement or understanding according to which the registrant's compensation, or
any portion of the registrant's compensation, is or will be
contingent upon the success of his or her lobbying activity;
(5) The general subject or subjects, if known, on which the
registrant will lobby or employ some other person to lobby in a
manner which requires registration under this article; and
(6) An appended written authorization from each of the
lobbyist's employers confirming the lobbyist's employment and the
subjects on which the employer is to be represented.
(b) Any lobbyist who receives or is to receive compensation
from more than one person for services as a lobbyist shall file a
separate notice of representation with respect to each person
compensating him or her for services performed as a lobbyist. When
a lobbyist whose fee for lobbying with respect to the same subject
is to be paid or contributed by more than one person, then the
lobbyist may file a single statement, in which he or she shall
detail the name, business address and occupation of each person
paying or contributing to the fee.
(c) Whenever a change, modification or termination of the
lobbyist's employment occurs, the lobbyist shall, within one week
of the change, modification or termination, furnish full
information regarding the change, modification or termination by
filing with the Commission an amended registration statement.
(d) Each lobbyist who has registered shall file a new
registration statement, revised as appropriate, on the Monday preceding the second Wednesday in January of each odd-numbered year
and failure to do so terminates his or her authorization to lobby.
Until the registration is renewed, the person may not engage in
lobbying activities unless he or she is otherwise exempt under
paragraph (B), subdivision (7), section one of this article.
(e) No member of the legislature, secretary of a department,
commissioner, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner,
director, deputy director, assistant director, department head,
assistant department head, nor any appointed employee of a
constitutional officer who holds or held an other than clerical
position shall, during his or her public service or public
employment, or for a period of one year after the termination of
his or her public service or public employment, be allowed to
register as a lobbyist.