Legislation to make it unlawful for state officials to leave their jobs and immediately go to work for industries they regulated – the so-called “revolving door” – is one of several ethics bills expected to be debated in the legislature this session.
BDN file photo
Rep. Adam Goode, D-Bangor
Rep. Adam Goode, D-Bangor, has sponsored legislation requiring executive employees “in a major policy-influencing position” to wait one year before accepting a job with “a business activity that is regulated by the state or quasi-state agency by which the former executive employee was employed.”
Goode said he decided to sponsor the legislation after reading a nationalreport last spring that gave Maine an “F” for its poor anti-corruption measures. Among the problems described in the report was the fact that Maine had no laws regulating revolving door employment for executive branch officials.
The story cited a case in 2007-2008, when Maine’s chief utilities regulator, Kurt Adams, negotiated for and ultimately accepted a job offer and “equity units,” or shares, from a prominent wind power developer while still head of his agency – and when the developer had business before the agency.
Adams left his job as the head of the state’s Public Utilities Commission in May, 2008 to work for First Wind. Later, Adams and company officials said that despite statements First Wind had made in federal filings about when it had granted him the shares, the company had made a mistake and had granted the securities only after Adams had left the PUC in mid-May.
Read the full article at the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting website or in the Sun-Journal:
http://www.sunjournal.com/news/maine/2013/01/30/legislator-s-ethics...
http://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/legislators-ethics-bill-would-slam-...
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