Ethics
At the March 18 Kansas Governmental Ethics meeting, the Commission passed a motion to make available the documentation from the Kris Van Meteren case from February to the Attorney General and the Shawnee County District Attorney. The information was to only be released if requested.
Ethics Commission chair, Sabrina Standifer, announced “… [...]
Continue reading about Van Meteren to appeal $7500 Fine for Free Speech in District Court
Today the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission meeting included a public hearing on a complaint against Carrol Haggard, a communications professor at Ft. Hays State University. Prof. Haggard failed to file a conflict of interest report, known as a Statement of Substantial Interests (SSI), which was due on April 30, 2008.
Continue reading about Fort Hays Prof Fined $300 by Ethics Commission
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (often called the McCain-Feingold Act) allows state and local political parties to use nonfederal funds for the purchase or construction of party office buildings. McCain-Feingold said that state law governs exclusively in regulating spending on state and local party buildings. Prior to McCain-Fiengold, this was never an issue [...]
The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission adjourned without a decision in the civil fine hearing against Kris Van Meteren in January. See the Meadowlark article, First Amendment Defense Thorny Issue for Ethics Commission, for details.
Briefly, Mr. Van Meteren brought a complaint to the Ethics Commission’s attention several months ago, and then talked to the the press [...]
Continue reading about “Free Speech” May Cost Kansas Citizen $7500
The top Meadowlark topics for 2008 were all about political money and governmental ethics. The following is a topic summary with details given below.
1. New reports for last minute political money can make a difference.
2. More transparency is needed in Kansas governmental ethics.
3. Why is franking abuse ignored?
4. Why do political appointments often correlate [...]
Continue reading about Political Money & Ethics were Top Meadowlark Topics in 2008
The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission met yesterday to review several matters, including six fines and three advisory opinions.
Continue reading about Fines and other actions by the Ethics Commission at their December meeting
Kansas law is quite peculiar in letting out-of-state PACs have fewer reporting requirements than in-state PACs. Out-of-state groups are allowed to spend huge amounts on Kansas politics and not have their “verified statements” shown online. There is no online list of out-of-state PACs that get to hide their political participation in Kansas’ elections. As [...]
Continue reading about Over $500,000 missing from online PAC reports in Kansas
