Mar 18, 2007
Ethics in the Dark?
Editorial - Wilmington Star-News

North Carolina legislators took two steps forward and three steps back last year when they tightened their ethics rules and then told the public it couldn't watch them being enforced. 
 
Or not being enforced, as the public will reasonably assume. 
 
The old rules, weak as they were, at least provided for public disclosure of substantiated accusations and for public hearings on their merits. The new rules make most of the procedures secret. 
 
No one seems to want credit for the new "trust us" policy, which was passed by a legislature controlled by Democrats. But the House's top Republican, Rep. Skip Stam, apparently thinks it's fine. "I'd like to see how things work before we change them," he says. 
 
One of his GOP colleagues, Rep. John Blust, doesn't need to see how things work. As he points out, "Sunshine is the best way to have accountability." 
 
Gov. Mike Easley was against secrecy from the start, and now some of his fellow Democrats in legislative leadership positions say he's probably right. They say they're willing to reconsider. 
 
Good. As doctors, lawyers, judges and political candidates point out, ethics accusations against them become public knowledge once substantiated. Hearings are open to the public. 
 
But Julia Howard, a veteran Republican, remains unconvinced. As she put it, "Tell me if it's broke." 
 
It's broke.