HB 1175 - DIGEST

Declares an intent to: (1) Improve the ethical and moral standards, culture, and conduct of all elected senior leadership and staff to become the highest in the nation;

(2) Increase public confidence in the state's governmental processes, in the legislature, and the leadership of its public agencies to be the highest in the nation; and

(3) Improve ethics and integrity education and training programs and make the ethics and integrity of all clients, partners, and vendors be the best in the nation.

Requires the legislative ethics board to: (1) Develop a legislative plan to provide overall direction and accountability for legislators and staff;

(2) Coordinate and work with the executive ethics board and the commission on judicial conduct;

(3) Assess and evaluate the house of representatives' and the senate's ethical culture through employee and stakeholder surveys and publish an annual report that shall be made public; and

(4) Solicit outside evaluations, studies, and recommendations for improvements from academics, nonprofit organizations, the public disclosure commission, and other entities with expertise in ethics, integrity, and the public sector.

Requires the executive ethics board to: (1) Develop a governor's integrity and ethics award program, including criteria for determining annual award recipients;

(2) Develop a statewide plan to provide overall direction and accountability in all executive branch agencies and statewide elected offices;

(3) Coordinate and work with the commission on judicial conduct and the legislative ethics board;

(4) Assess and evaluate each agency's ethical culture through employee and stakeholder surveys and publish an annual report on the results to the public; and

(5) Solicit outside evaluations, studies, and recommendations for improvements from academics, nonprofit organizations, the public disclosure commission, or other entities with expertise in ethics, integrity, and the public sector.

Creates the governor's integrity and ethics award program to be administered by the executive ethics board.

Requires each head of agency to: (1) Develop an annual ethics and integrity plan for leadership and staff of the agency; and

(2) Create an independent advisory committee of employees and citizens.

Directs the governor to perform a government accountability and performance review on a quarterly basis.

Directs the joint legislative audit and review committee to audit the legislative ethics board and the house of representatives' and the senate's ethics and integrity programs.

Directs the state auditor to audit the executive ethics board.