The former executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission said the loss of anonymity protection for people who file ethics complaints will result in fewer whistleblowers reporting what they believe are illegal acts.
SB103 by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, will require the Ethics Commission to tell a person under investigation who filed the complaint that sparked the probe. Legislators said public officials should know the identity of their accuser in an ethics investigation, just as they would in a criminal or civil trial.
Jim Sumner, who was executive director for 17 years before retiring in 2014, said the commission has always protected the identity of whistleblowers. The Ethics Commission investigates alleged violations of the ethics law and campaign finance law. If the five-member commission votes that it has found probable cause, it forwards the case to the state attorney general or a district attorney for possible prosecution. The purpose of the ethics law is to prohibit elected officials, public officials, and public employees from using their positions for personal gain.
“It is a bold move for an employee to step forward and file a complaint against somebody that they work for in a small municipality or a rural county or a state agency, against their boss, against their supervisor,” Sumner said. “I think with this now being changed in the statute, a lot of people who did feel comfortable making those bold moves, knowing that they would be protected, now will not...
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