Senator’s resignation stirs debate
BOISE – Former Sen. Jack Noble’s historic flameout in the Legislature over the past month might be partly explained by the state’s lack of ethics laws regulating how much financial information lawmakers must reveal about their personal lives and businesses, some ethics experts say.
But if lawmakers review the rules governing their ethical behavior in the coming months or years, they could also consider other potential pitfalls, including disclosure requirements for lobbyists.
Idaho, Vermont and Michigan are the only states in which there is no financial disclosure required for legislative officials, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity.
“I see no reason why Idaho shouldn’t have a financial disclosure law,” said Patricia Fredericksen, an associate professor in public policy and administration at Boise State University who teaches a course on ethics.
“I think the majority of people who work in government try to do the right thing. But a few people who make bad decisions like this make it extraordinarily difficult for all of us.”
Noble, a Kuna Republican, resigned Monday, one day before the full Senate was expected to take up a damning ethics committee report saying Noble tried to enact laws that would have added value to his family business and then lied about it under oath.
Republican Sen. Monte Pearce stuck by the side of Noble, with whom he shared an office. Pearce acted as Noble’s counselor and friend at a time when others seemed to shun him.
“If you were in trouble, wouldn’t you want some of your buddies to come and help you?” said Pearce, a tall, beefy rancher from New Plymouth.
Pearce acknowledged that next year, lawmakers should review ethics laws.
“People have gotten loose, and some (others) have had the occasion to lie,” Pearce said.
In Fredericksen’s ethics class, discussions range from governmental corruption to torture and use of violence. While Noble’s lying under oath clearly doesn’t equate to those sorts of abuses, it’s still completely unacceptable, she said.
“I think it’s huge. Lying under oath – or even if you don’t take an oath – is a heinous thing to do,” Fredericksen said.
The Center for Public Integrity tracks a host of ethical issues in state governments, such as laws covering gifts, honorariums, nepotism and “revolving door” laws designed to make public officials and servants accountable.
Earlier this session, Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, sponsored legislation that would have required a one-year “cooling off” period for public officials – elected or state employees – to wait before they could take a job in a private-sector job where they have had significant influence.
The Senate State Affairs Committee – the same committee that initially questioned Noble’s truthfulness – rejected the proposal.
Leah Rush, director of state projects for the Center for Public Integrity, acknowledged that Idaho’s system “worked” in Noble’s case.
“While Idaho is one of the 27 states where legislators have sole oversight of their own conduct and it is only one of three states in the country with no mandatory outside interest disclosure, the mechanism in place appears to be doing its job,” Rush said in an e-mail interview.