June 19, 2007, Oregonian

SALEM - The state ethics agency's shrinking staff would double under a budget approved Tuesday by the House. The 56-1 vote sends the budget bill, House Bill 5025, to the Senate.

The ethics commission is responsible for enforcing laws that govern the conduct of more than 5,500 public officials, lobbyists and their employers, but legislators had reduced its funding in the past decade. The agency now has only three employees - half of what it had in the early 1990s, and the 2007-09 budget would boost the staff to six employees.

Legislative leaders vowed to put increased attention this year on ethics laws - and funding for the agency that enforces them - after two legislators pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2005 and 2006 and the Oregon Law Commission recommended strengthening laws and enforcement.

In addition, The Oregonian reported last fall that beer and wine distributors paid $18,000 for seven legislators to travel to Hawaii in 2002 and 2004 and neither the distributors nor the lawmakers had reported the trips as required by law. The legislators and Paul Romain, a lobbyist for the distributors, each agreed to pay fines this year for ethics violations in that case.

The Legislature is still considering legislation that will strengthen ethics laws in several ways, including increasing the maximum penalty for ethics violations from $1,000 to $5,000, limiting gifts to public officials, and requiring more frequent financial disclosures by officials and lobbyists. In addition, the financial reports would be filed electronically by January 2010, much as campaigns began filing campaign finance reports electronically this year.

-- Dave Hogan (davehogan@news.oregonian.com)