news-record.com

RALEIGH — Since the North Carolina State Ethics Commission was created in 2006, it has fielded more than 2,000 questions from legislators, lobbyists and volunteer board members, estimates executive director Perry Newson.

Those covered by the state's ethics law — as well as the public — will know what advice the commission gave in "about a dozen" cases by the end of the year, Newson said. The commission plans to publish by Jan. 1 redacted versions of formal opinions, edited so those reading would not be able to tell who asked for the advice.

Formal opinions by the ethics commission represent a body of legal precedents that fill in the fine points of the state's ethics laws and regulations. They also grant immunity from punishment to those who request them and follow their advice.

Because the commission writes and vets virtually all of those opinions in closed session, those precedents are known to only a few right now.

Legislators undertook a comprehensive rewrite of the state's ethics and lobbying laws in 2006 and added more regulations in 2007. The actions were prompted by a series of ethics scandals, the most prominent of which led to the downfall and eventual guilty plea of Democratic House Speaker Jim Black this year.

There are several reasons that relatively few opinions will be issued compared to the number of requests, Newson said.

First, some of those calls simply asked for clarification on filing forms or other administrative matters. In other cases, the commission issued detailed letters or e-mails but not formal opinions.

"We have a backlog of these formal opinions," Newson said. "For every formal opinion, we can turn out 10 or 11 detailed letters."

Those informal letters do not become part of the public record, even in redacted form.

And in the case of legislators who ask for opinions, the General Assembly's own Joint Legislative Ethics Committee gets to review and revise the opinion first.

That additional hurdle would apply to cases such as those of the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus and its related foundation. Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, has asked for an ethics opinion about whether fundraising and other activities by the foundation are appropriate, but those opinions have not yet been made public.

The commission is required to publish opinions once a year.

"I hope that as we get going we will be able to do that on a more regular basis," Newson said.

At a meeting Friday, Newson asked for permission from ethics commission members to pursue more funding for his agency. They need more staff to handle the drafting and issuance of advisory opinions, Newson said, as well as more help investigating complaints and handling training for those required to report their financial dealings under the ethics laws.

Commission members endorsed that idea.

"We need to have more written advisory opinions published," said Ethics Commission member Jane Finch at the group's meeting Friday.

The more that are published, she said, the fewer questions that would come into the commission.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mbinker@news-record.com