Financial Disclosure

Maryland gets a grade of "D" when it comes to the information governors are required to provide about their finances, according to a national watchdog group. The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit dedicated to making the nation's institutions more transparent, gave the state a marginal rating of 62.5 on a 100-point scale measuring how extensively governors are required to report their personal finances and how accessible those records are to the public. Leah Rush, the center's director of state projects, said full disclosure allows people to know whether elected officials are acting in the public's interest or in their own. "Getting this information out in the public domain is an important function as far as gaining the public's trust in their government to be open about all the different hats public officials wear," she said.

AFTER A DECADE of dinners in Annapolis held in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., organizers are taking much-needed steps to tighten financial controls and increase disclosure to the public. Had these measures been in place earlier, all the controversy over the collection and distribution of the contributions could have been allayed in the first place.When The Sun last spring raised questions about the annual "Keeping the Dream Alive/Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Awards Dinner," the organizers' first reaction was to stonewall.

AFTER A DECADE of dinners in Annapolis held in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., organizers are taking much-needed steps to tighten financial controls and increase disclosure to the public. Had these measures been in place earlier, all the controversy over the collection and distribution of the contributions could have been allayed in the first place.When The Sun last spring raised questions about the annual "Keeping the Dream Alive/Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Awards Dinner," the organizers' first reaction was to stonewall.

An Anne Arundel County councilman, burdened with debt and unable to pay his taxes, received a no-interest $25,000 personal loan in April 1996 from a contractor who performs work for the county.Neither Councilman Thomas W. Redmond, a Democrat from Pasadena, nor the contractor, Stanley Bloom, a fence builder and a friend of Redmond's for more than 20 years, would say what the money was for yesterday .But the county Ethics Commission is investigating whether Redmond broke the law by not reporting the loan on his annual financial disclosure statement, said Betsy Dawson, the commission director.

WASHINGTON -- A Capitol Hill ethics flap over a congressman's oceanfront mansion and a tax-free exchange is focusing new light on how well-connected vacation home buyers play the real estate game for fun and profit.Until last month, the home -- named Northern Star -- was co-owned by House Democratic leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and his wife, Jane. How Representative Gephardt acquired Northern Star -- and how he defined it to his mortgage lender, the IRS and to Congress -- are the keys to the flap.

Baltimore officials and virtually all of the city's 25,000 employees will have to live up to a strict code of conduct that prohibits favoritism in hiring, forbids the personal use of government property and restricts political activities.Under an executive order issued by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke yesterday, city workers also must disqualify themselves from decisions involving businesses in which they or their relatives have a financial interest.The code of conduct, the first for city employees and unpaid members of city boards, restates the ethics law and sets new standards.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's income in 1994 was dwarfed by his enormous -- and rising -- private legal bills of more than $1.3 million, according to financial disclosure forms released yesterday at the White House.The bills have continued to accumulate during the first five months of this year, one White House attorney said, and appear to be headed into the $2 million range by the end of the year. They are nearly evenly divided between two large Washington law firms. One is super lawyer Robert Bennett's firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and From.

WASHINGTON -- In what has become an embarrassingpattern of ethics inquiries of top Clinton administration officials, Attorney General Janet Reno recommended yesterday that an independent counsel investigate the financial dealings of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown.Ms. Reno asked a panel of federal judges to appoint a lawyer to determine whether Mr. Brown broke any laws in accepting nearly $500,000 from a business associate and whether he made false statements on financial disclosure forms and an application for a mortgage on a townhouse in 1993.

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Janet Reno has asked a special federal court to name an independent counsel to investigate whether Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown violated federal law in his business dealings and personal finances while a Cabinet officer.In court documents, Ms. Reno asserted yesterday that Mr. Brown had received nearly $500,000 for his holdings in a company in which he had invested no money, and that there are allegations the payments may be linked to his position.The petition to the three-judge panel, filed Tuesday and unsealed yesterday, marked the fourth time in less than two years that Ms. Reno has invoked a Watergate-era law to seek appointment of an outside investigator to probe alleged misdeeds of Clinton administration officials.

Baltimore City officials would be prohibited from hiring their relatives, and City Council members could not contact judges about pending cases under a sweeping proposed code of conduct under consideration.The proposed code -- the first for city officials -- also would require officials to be familiar with financial disclosure rules, restrict their fund-raising activities and forbid the personal use of city property.It also states that provisions, including those involving conflicts of interest, apply to unpaid members of city boards.

Maryland legislators are all for transparency when it comes to those who work outside of the government. But they prefer to hide from scrutiny when it comes to their own finances and affiliations. State senators and delegates failed to pass a law in the 2008 legislative session requiring state officials to file financial disclosure documents electronically and ignored it in the most recent session. They so despise disclosure that the bill (SB190) did not pass even after an amendment exempting elected officials was added.

As government forms go, the 17-page financial disclosure required of members of the General Assembly is unambiguous. Lawmakers must list not only outside employment and investments but also gifts worth $20 or more. The ethics requirements of counties and other local government are typically just as crystal clear: Elected officials must not only report income but also recuse themselves from matters in which they have a direct financial stake. So while it's unwise to rush to judgment in the continuing federal investigation into state Sen. Ulysses Currie, the information that's come to light so far strongly suggests that the longtime Prince George's County lawmaker did not meet this minimum standard.

A project manager at the state Department of the General Services has been referred to the attorney general's office for criminal investigation because of repeated conflict-of-interest findings by legislative auditors, officials said yesterday. It is the second audit finding in three months of potential employee ethics violations at the Department of General Services. The state agency manages state buildings and hires and supervises private contractors who build facilities for Maryland government agencies with public money.

Maryland gets a grade of "D" when it comes to the information governors are required to provide about their finances, according to a national watchdog group. The Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit dedicated to making the nation's institutions more transparent, gave the state a marginal rating of 62.5 on a 100-point scale measuring how extensively governors are required to report their personal finances and how accessible those records are to the public. Leah Rush, the center's director of state projects, said full disclosure allows people to know whether elected officials are acting in the public's interest or in their own. "Getting this information out in the public domain is an important function as far as gaining the public's trust in their government to be open about all the different hats public officials wear," she said.

The Maryland Ethics Commission has failed to review thousands of financial disclosure forms submitted by state employees and in many cases hasn't checked to make sure they were filed at all, state auditors reported yesterday. More than 11,000 state workers, elected officials and board appointees are required to file the forms annually to ensure that any business interests and outside employment involving them and their families do not pose a conflict with state affairs. But auditors concluded that the Ethics Commission doesn't have nearly enough staff or technical resources to check that the paperwork is accurate or complete.

WASHINGTON -- Former FDA Commissioner Lester M. Crawford, who was charged by federal prosecutors yesterday with lying about owning stock and options in companies regulated by the agency, will plead guilty to two misdemeanors today, his lawyer said. Public corruption prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office said Crawford failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in income from exercising options, selling stock and earning dividends in Pepsico and other companies while holding top jobs at the Food and Drug Administration.

WASHINGTON -- Nearly all senior staff members of the Food and Drug Administration who sought permission to consult, lecture or perform other activities outside the agency from 2000 to 2003 filed incomplete applications, making it difficult to determine whether the work created conflicts of interest, according to a government review released yesterday. The agency approved almost half the applications after the activities had begun, said the report by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general.

Despite assertions to the contrary, Baltimore City Council President Sheila Dixon did not abstain from voting on city government contracts awarded to a minority-owned firm that employs her sister. Board of Estimates records show that Dixon voted three times in the past two years on a contract that ultimately awarded nearly $1 million of subcontracts to her sister's employer. The city's ethics law prohibits public officials from participating in "any matter" that involves a sibling's interest or the interest of a relative's employer.

Baltimore City Council President Sheila Dixon made a mistake by not disclosing that her sister works for a company that is regulated by city government, officials from the president's office said yesterday. An article in The Sun on Monday revealed that Dixon had not disclosed her sister's employment with fiber optic cable firm Utech, a minority subcontractor for Comcast of Baltimore, the city's cable provider. Baltimore's ethics laws require public officials to disclose whether siblings or other relatives work for companies that do business or are regulated by the city.

WASHINGTON - Erasing a lingering financial burden, former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton paid off their last legal debts in 2004 arising from investigations of them during their White House years, a financial statement released yesterday showed. In her annual Senate financial disclosure statement, Senator Clinton, a New York Democrat, reported that the couple had paid off the legal fees - which for 2003 they listed as between $500,000 and $1 million - for their defenses in investigations.