In answer to inquiries about the procedure by which the Ethics Board and Elections Board reached their accord last week with leaders of both political parties of both houses of the Legislature, the Ethics Board is supplying this brief account of the background that permitted the resolution.

Early last summer the Ethics Board created a special four-person investigation team:

-the recently retired head of the Department of Justice's criminal prosecution unit,
-a lawyer involved in complex civil litigation,
-a lawyer expert in criminal work, and
-the former chief of the white collar crime unit of the Department of Justice's Division of Criminal

Investigation,
This was an investigative dream team.

Members of the Ethics Board's staff and James Morgan, the Board's chairman, met with the investigation team to discuss the problem of possible illegal campaign activities by legislative employees, a serious problem that cast the Legislature and the state in a bad light. A solution seemed to be abolition of the caucus staffs and greater accountability of all legislative staff.

Accordingly, the Ethics Board put on hold all investigative activities while the Board determined if this major change could be realized. The Board did this with the comfort that the District Attorneys would continue their own fact-finding. While the District Attorneys investigated, the Ethics Board undertook the negotiations that would result in abolition of the caucuses.

The Board did this knowing that there had been earlier scandals in the states of New Jersey and Washington about campaign activity of legislative staff that had led to reforms to protect the public from legislative employees' using their government positions and resources for private campaign activities. The Ethics Board wanted to make a fundamental change in Wisconsin for the future and not limit its attention to past behavior.

It also was clear to the Ethics Board that the agreement of the leaders of both political parties of both houses could likely only occur BEFORE all the facts and potential liability were known. The uncertainty of whether any violation might be found, what the violation might be, and its significance created an opportunity to seek a fundamental change that would not be present if the Board continued its investigation.

Throughout the summer the Ethics Board's staff and chairman devoted their attention to negotiations to abolish the caucuses and to the adoption of rules of conduct for legislative employees. The Ethics Board's director has briefed both District Attorneys on the Ethics Board's course of action and why the Board undertook the course it did.

The party caucus staffs are gone. There are new, explicit rules for legislative staff and a new system of accountability in place to effect those rules. The cost savings for taxpayers approaches $3,000,000 annually. The Ethics Board has realized its objectives and has concluded its chapter in this matter.

The agreement approved by the Ethics Board and Elections Board did not include additional staff for legislators.

Meanwhile, the District Attorneys' examination of past behavior continues. We will learn later from them or from a court what personal liability, if any, will be assigned. This has been a good division of labor with the Ethics Board looking to the future and the District Attorneys identifying the specific circumstances of the past and applying the law to them.