If Maryland residents want to view the financial disclosure forms filed by legislators or other officials with the State Ethics Commission, they have to go all the way to Annapolis in person and request to see a paper copy. This despite the fact that these documents have been filed electronically for years. The commission also requires residents to provide their name and address — information which is then forwarded to the official whose records have been requested. By deliberately making it difficult and intrusive for members of the public to monitor public officials’ potential conflicts of interest, the commission is thwarting its own purported goal to prevent public corruption.
So it comes as good news that the Maryland Senate recently passed a bill that requires financial disclosure forms to be made available to the general public online beginning in 2013. In addition to that bill, introduced by Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, an amendment by Sen. Robert Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, would also require county executives, councilmembers and local commissioners to do the same.
The Senate killed another proposal to put online the disclosure forms of school board members, municipal officials and local candidates running on statewide slates. Opponents claimed that doing so would discourage some people from running for public office — indeed, it would discourage exactly the kind of candidates who don’t belong on the ballot.
The House of Delegates should pass this good government measure without delay, especially since Maryland’s record on open government is already mediocre at best. The Center for Public Integrity gave the state a D-minus, ranking it 40th among the 50 states for government transparency. Maryland was also ranked a dismal 46th by the State Integrity Investigation in the area of access to government information.
The legislature’s new attempt to improve Maryland’s track record on transparency came as a reaction to an embarrassing scandal involving former Senate Budget and Taxation Chairman Ulysses Currie, D-Prince George’s. He was censured by his colleagues last month for failing to disclose that he had been a paid consultant to a grocery store chain while voting on issues that directly affected the company. Although a jury acquitted Currie of federal bribery charges, he admitted in a tearful apology on the Senate floor that he had violated state ethics rules. But it was federal investigators, not state watchdogs, who brought Currie’s conflict of interest to light.
With the public’s trust in Annapolis already shaken, it won’t be easy to win it back. This reform is at least a good first step.
