H. B. 4016
(By Delegates Miley, Poling, Caputo, Morgan,
Boggs, Fragale, Fleischauer, Barker, Hunt,
Frazier and Moore)
[Introduced January 13, 2010; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §6B-2-7 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the Ethics Act; requiring public
servants to disclose additional information on financial
disclosure statements; and clarifying existing requirements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §6B-2-7 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. WEST VIRGINIA ETHICS COMMISSION; POWERS AND DUTIES;
DISCLOSURE OF FINANCIAL INTEREST BY PUBLIC
OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES; APPEARANCES BEFORE PUBLIC
AGENCIES; CODE OF CONDUCT FOR ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
JUDGES.
§6B-2-7. Financial disclosure statement; contents.
The financial disclosure statement required under this article
shall contain the following information:
(1) The name, residential and business addresses of the person filing the statement and all names under which the person
does or
the person's spouse, or both, do business.
(2)
The name and address of each employer of the person For
each position of employment held by the person filing the
statements and the person's spouse:
(A) The name of the employer;
(B) The address of the employer;
(C) The job title; and
(D) A general description of job duties.
(3) The name and address of each business in which the person
filing the statement
or that person's spouse has or had in the last
year an interest of
at least $10,000 at fair market value or
at
least five percent ownership interest, if that interest is valued
at more
than $10,000.
(A) For the purposes of this subdivision, business interests
include, but are not limited to, an interest in:
(i) Nonpublicly owned businesses;
(ii) Publicly or privately traded stocks, bonds or securities,
including those held in self-administered retirement accounts; and
(iii) Commercial real estate.
(B) For the purposes of this subdivision, business interests
do not include specific holdings in mutual funds or retirement
accounts if neither the person filing the statement nor an
immediate family member of the person are able to control the assets held in the mutual fund or retirement account.
(4) The identification, by category, of every source of income
over $1,000,
including distributions from retirement accounts
received during the preceding calendar year, in his or her own name
or by any other person for his or her use or benefit, by the person
filing the statement,
or that person's spouse, and a brief
description of the nature of the
services income producing
activities for which the income was received. This subdivision
does not require a person filing the statement who derives income
from a business, profession or occupation,
or who's spouse derives
income from a business, profession or occupation, to disclose the
individual sources and items of income that constitute the gross
income of that business, profession or occupation.
nor does this
subdivision require a person filing the statement to report the
source or amount of income derived by his or her spouse.
(5) If the person
filing the statement, or that person's
spouse, profited or benefitted in the year
prior to before the date
of filing from a contract for the sale of goods or services to a
state, county, municipal or other local governmental agency either
directly or through a partnership, corporation or association in
which the person,
or that person's spouse, owned or controlled more
than ten percent, the person shall describe the nature of the goods
or services and identify the governmental agencies which purchased
the goods or services.
(6) Each interest group or category listed below doing
business in this state with which the person filing the statement,
did business or furnished services and from which the person
filing
the statement, or that person's spouse, received more than twenty
percent of his or her gross income during the preceding calendar
year. The groups or categories are electric utilities, gas
utilities, telephone utilities, water utilities, cable television
companies, interstate transportation companies, intrastate
transportation companies, oil or gas retail companies, banks,
savings and loan associations, loan or finance companies,
manufacturing companies, surface mining companies, deep mining
companies, mining equipment companies, chemical companies,
insurance companies, retail companies, beer, wine or liquor
companies or distributors, recreation related companies, timbering
companies, hospitals or other health care providers, trade
associations, professional associations, associations of public
employees or public officials, counties, cities or towns, labor
organizations, waste disposal companies, wholesale companies,
groups or associations promoting gaming or lotteries, advertising
companies, media companies, race tracks,
and promotional companies,
lobbying, economic development, state government, construction,
information technology and legal service providers.
(7) The names of all persons, excluding that person's
immediate family, parents or grandparents residing or transacting business in the state to whom the person filing the statement,
owes, on the date of execution of this statement in the aggregate
in his or her own name or in the name of any other person more than
$5,000:
Provided, That nothing herein
shall require requires the
disclosure of a mortgage on the person's primary and secondary
residences or of automobile loans on automobiles maintained for the
use of the person's immediate family, or of a student loan, nor
shall does this section require the disclosure of debts which
result from the ordinary conduct of the person's business,
profession or occupation or of debts of the person filing the
statement to any financial institution, credit card company or
business, in which the person has an ownership interest:
Provided,
however, That the previous proviso
shall does not exclude from
disclosure loans obtained pursuant to the linked deposit program
provided
for in article one-a, chapter twelve of this code or any
other loan or debt incurred which requires approval of the state or
any of its political subdivisions.
(8) The names of all persons except immediate family members,
parents and grandparents residing or transacting business in the
state (other than a demand or savings account in a bank, savings
and loan association, credit union or building and loan association
or other similar depository) who owes on the date of execution of
this statement more, in the aggregate, than $5,000 to the person
filing the statement, either in his or her own name or to any other person for his or her use or benefit. This subdivision does not
require the disclosure of debts owed to the person filing the
statement which debts result from the ordinary conduct of the
person's business, profession or occupation or of loans made by the
person filing the statement to any business in which the person has
an ownership interest.
(9) The source of each gift, including those described in
subdivision (2), subsection (c), section five of this article,
having a value of over $100, received from a person having a direct
and immediate interest in a governmental activity over which the
person filing the statement has control, shall be reported by the
person filing the statement when
such the gift is given to
said
that person in his or her name or for his or her use or benefit
during the preceding calendar year:
Provided, That
effective from
passage of the amendments to this section enacted during the First
Extraordinary Session of the Legislature in two thousand five any
person filing a statement required to be filed pursuant to this
section
on or after the first day of January, two thousand five is
not required to report those gifts described in subdivision (2),
subsection (c), section five of this article that are otherwise
required to be reported
by a registered lobbyist under section
four, article three of this chapter:
Provided, however, That gifts
received by will or by virtue of the laws of descent and
distribution, or received from one's spouse, child, grandchild, parents or grandparents, or received by way of distribution from an
inter vivos or testamentary trust established by the spouse or
child, grandchild or by an ancestor of the person filing the
statement are not required to be reported. As used in this
subdivision, any series or plurality of gifts which exceeds in the
aggregate the sum of $100 from the same source or donor, either
directly or indirectly, and in the same calendar year
shall be are
regarded as a single gift in excess of that aggregate amount.
(10) The name of each for-profit business for which the person
filing the statement, or that person's spouse, is a member of the
board of directors or an officer, and a general description of the
type of business.
(10) (11) The signature of the person filing the statement.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to strengthen the Ethics Act
financial disclosure filing requirements.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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