Kansas conflict of interest statutes require many involved with state government to file Statements of Substantial Interest (SSI) forms once a year at the end of April. In state fiscal year 2008 there were 9225 individuals required to file, yet about 120 individuals have not yet filed the required report. Most of the individuals failing to file are at state universities.
At their monthly meeting last week the Ethics Commission discussed some alternatives to get these 120 to complete their reports.
However, a request by the Meadowlark under the Kansas Records Act (KORA) for the list of the 120 names for those failing to file was denied. Carol Williams, the Executive Director of the Ethics Commission said:
“The name of any individual who hasn’t filed a Statement of Substantial Interests is not public information.”
The reports that are filed are public records, so it’s unclear why those ignoring state law should be protected from public scrutiny for not filing.
The required form indicates there can be penalties for failure to file:
“Any individual who intentionally fails to file as required by law, or intentionally files a false statement, is subject to prosecution for a class B misdemeanor.”
From the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission 2008 Annual Report (pp. 8-9):
“Many state officials and employees are in a position to make or influence decisions which could directly affect their personal interests. The state conflict of interests laws prohibit such activity.”
“The Commission has found that the conflict statues are not widely understood either by state officers, state employees or the public at large, yet these laws are of fundamental importance to the workings of state government. They draw the line between private interests and public trust which must be guarded carefully.”
A breakdown of those filing in 2008 is shown in this table:
Summary of 2008 Statements of Substantial Interests Filings
| State Employees | 8767 |
| Board Members | 412 |
| State Candidates | 219 |
| Elected Officials | 187 |
| Appointees Subject to Senate Confirmations |
112 |
| General Counsel | 39 |
An individual can file in more than one of the categories listed above. The table above was corrected to show 8256 state employees per an E-mail from Carol Williams on Dec 1. According to Williams:
“There are no elected officials, no general counsels, and there are no appointees subject to Senate confirmation who haven’t filed. There is only one board member who hasn’t filed.”
The Statements of Substantial Interest are online at a page maintained by the Secretary of State. One must register and have a username and password to view the SSIs online.
While many file their SSIs electronically, a number of individuals still file on paper. The paper SSIs are scanned and put online as multi-page TIFF files, which can be difficult to read with many TIFF viewers. (The TIFF graphics file format has been said to mean “Thousands of Incompatible File Formats.” A PDF file would be a much better format for viewing by the public.) I found the free IrfanView program can be used to view the multi-page TIFF SSIs.
While one can view all the recent SSIs at the Secretary of State’s web site after registration, a number of SSIs are online and can be viewed without any registration. The Center for Public Integrity shows many of the SSIs for Kansas legislator buts only for the years 2002-2006.
The public should review SSIs to make sure government officials are making decisions for the public good and not for personal reasons.
Tags: Conflict of Interests, Ethics, Kansas Open Records Act, Statements of Substantial Interests
