Bill Text: WV HB2821 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Strengthening the Ethics Act financial disclosure filing requirements

Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-01-24 - To House Judiciary [HB2821 Detail]

Download: West_Virginia-2011-HB2821-Introduced.html

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H. B. 2821

(By Delegates Miley, Caputo, Morgan, Boggs,
Fragale, Fleischauer, Barker, Hunt, Frazier
and Moore)

[Introduced January 24, 2011; 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 and the person's spouse 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 and 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, and 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, lobbyists, economic development entities, state government, construction companies, 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 in this section 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 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 This section 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.