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CENTRE — Director of the Alabama Ethics Commission James L. Sumner, Jr. was guest speaker at the Jan. 5 meeting of the Centre Lions Club, held at Lanny’s restaurant. 

Sumner, who has been in charge of enforcing ethics rules on the state’s estimated 295,000 public officials since 1996, said he is pleased with the results of the recent special session of the Alabama Legislature. 

“We finally got the teeth we need to do our job,” Sumner told the lunchtime crowd of around 50 members and guests. 

Sumner said “items number one, two and three” on his wish list for improved ethics enforcement has long been subpoena power, which the Republican-controlled Legislature granted.  

He said past fears of granting too much power to the Commission, often cited as a reason to withhold the ability to force testimony and dig for evidence, are unfounded. 

“Subpoena power is not for convicting someone, it’s for getting to the truth,” Sumner said. “We’re not political, we’re independent. We do everything we can to take politics out of the process.” 

Sumner said the ethics overhaul by the Legislature also provides a continuing path of communication and information for the Ethics Commission after it has completed a preliminary investigation and forwarded evidence of wrongdoing to local authorities. 

“Before, we got no feedback after we referred an investigation to the local district attorney,” Sumner said. “Now we’ll be able to find out the end results of our efforts.” 

Sumner said the estimated 650-plus lobbyists who work the halls of the State House in Montgomery will now be forced to operate under stricter rules. 

“Before, nothing under $250 spent on a legislator had to be reported,” he said. “Now, that amount is $25 per event, with a $150 per year maximum and it all has to be reported.” 

Sumner said his years on the job have provided him with the wisdom to know there will still be attempts to make “end runs” around the new regulations. But he said he and the Commission will interpret any remaining gray areas in the rules “as conservatively as possible.” 

“There are some broad definitions, for things such as ‘widely attended events’ where there are still possibilities for lapses,” he said. “But we will view those terms very narrowly when we apply them.” 

Sumner said Legislature's move to mandate ethics training for all public officials was another step forward.

“As recently as our last meeting we had officials before our board who said they had never taken any ethics training,” he said. “Now they’ll have to take those courses, either at one of our weekly seminars or online at our website.” 

On the Net: http://ethics.alabama.gov