Ethics Matters, Inc.

At the August 1st meeting of the County Commissioners , Commissioner Gene Ransom introduced further amendments to the County Ethics Law. These amendments were prepared by Ethics Matters at Mr. Ransom’s request.

Before our current Ethics Law was passed in November 2005, Ethics Matters had contended that it would fall short of meeting the minimum State standard for County ethics laws. Ethics Matters has continued to express its distress both to the County Commissioners and to the State Ethics Commission over the disservice to the County that is done by an unlawful Ethics Law.

In June, Mr. Ransom introduced two amendments to the County Ethics Law. At the hearing on the amendments, Ethics Matters, along with other Queen Anne’s County citizens, told the County Commissioners that the Ransom amendments were “a good first step,” but there were still deficiencies in the code that would keep it from meeting minimum State standards. A number of citizens stated that they wanted an ethics code that met more than the minimum requirements; they wanted a code the County could be proud of - a model code.

After introducing his two amendments, Mr. Ransom asked Ethics Matters to propose further amendments to the County Ethics Law in order to bring our law up to the minimum standard. Mr. Ransom introduced the amendments proposed by Ethics Matters on August 1 st

Besides providing Mr. Ransom with the amendments, Ethics Matters submitted them to the State Ethics Commission for comment. Mr. Hahn, Counsel to the State Ethics Commission, responded in a letter dated July 25, 2006 which discussed all the amendments currently before the Commissioners.

This Tuesday, August 15 at 2:30 in the Commissioners Meeting Room, the County Commissioners will have a workshop on all of the pending amendments to the Ethics Law. Mr. Hahn’s letter is certain to be part of the discussion. It is our understanding that Mr. Thompson, the County Attorney , will be present.

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