Governor Earl Ray Tomblin is
working on a deadline. By law, he has just more than a week to appoint the nine
people who will make up the newly restructured state Ethics Commission.
“By July 1, those nine new members
of the new Ethics Commission will be appointed,” Tomblin said.
In March, the Legislature approved
the changes to the Commission’s structure and reduced the number of members.
Currently, ten of 12 available seats on the Ethics Commission are filled.
As for the potential new
commissioners, “I think there will probably be a mixture of both. Some of the
members are recent appointments that I’ve made and they’ve only been there a
few months,” Tomblin said.
“I’m looking at those people, all
of the people who have sent inquiries that would like to serve and we’ll be
able to make those selections within the next week or so.”
Earlier this month, Rebecca Stepto
was named interim executive director of the Ethics Commission following the
June 5 firing of Joan Parker, the former executive director. Parker took over
that role in February of last year and was dismissed with a 5-4 vote. The reasons
for her firing have not been made public.
The Ethics Commission was created in 1989 as an independent,
bipartisan board to administer the Ethics Act. The mission is to educate public
officials covered by the Act, provide information to the public, interpret and
apply the provisions in the Act and enforce its requirements through the
investigation and complaint process.
