Jan 02, 2008
Cleaning Up: We need some ethics reform at work this week; more needed
- Fayetteville Observer

If you only look at the beginning and end of 2007 to assess North Carolina’s relationship with legislative ethics, it’s an ugly picture.  
 
As campaign-finance watchdog Bob Hall put it, “it was a year book-ended by the indictments of Jim Black and Thomas Wright.” But between those seamy bookends, some good things happened. Later this week, we’ll begin to see if they were good enough. 
 
Although he was indicted, convicted and is now serving time in a federal prison, disgraced former House Speaker Jim Black still was a driving force behind at least some legislation. Because of his felonious behavior in office, his fellow legislators continued to push ahead on ethics reforms in last year’s session.  
 
One of those changes will be on display Thursday, when a House select committee — chaired by Rep. Rick Glazier of Fayetteville — begins a hearing on allegations against Rep. Wright, a New Hanover County Democrat facing felony charges of fraudulently obtaining bank loans and pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds. The General Assembly voted last year to hold ethics hearings in public. This will be the first. The hearings bring a recommendation for Wright’s censure or removal from office. 
 
The timing of the hearing is itself good news. It comes only two days after the New Year holiday and less than a month after he was indicted by a Wake County grand jury. The swift convening of the House panel is itself a demonstration of the General Assembly’s resolve to improve its ethical performance and leave the remnants of the Jim Black era in the past. 
 
When lawmakers reconvene for their “short session” on May 13, they can further advance the cause of ethics by giving state and local prosecutors another tool to use against public corruption — investigative grand juries. State law permits them only in drug investigations. Attorney General Roy Cooper says corruption investigations must rely on federal investigative grand juries, such as the one that probed Black’s activities. “The state legislature needs to give state prosecutors these tools so we don’t have to rely on federal authorities as much in public corruption cases,” Cooper says. “It seems to me that these are common sense tools.” 
 
They certainly are. Our lawmakers can make them available with a simple vote. It’s a logical, and necessary, next step. 
 
Meanwhile, the Wright hearings will likely shine more light on other ethics reforms that are needed. Since this is also an election year, we expect legislators will pay careful heed. The voters certainly will.