Kansas ethics panel to redo hearing after questions over director’s law license, statehouse probe
The Kansas Governing administration Ethics Fee moved Wednesday to grant a new hearing in a circumstance involving an Overland Park civic team, immediately after thoughts have been raised about the legislation license of the body’s director, Mark Skoglund.
The shift arrives weeks immediately after Skoglund’s law license was applied as pretense by legislators to make a coverage modify that would have proficiently removed him from business.
While lawmakers sooner or later backed off on the prepare, it was afterwards exposed the proposal was available as the Ethics Commission was investigating a single of the state’s most superior-profile groups and, likely, Republican legislators.
The questions about Skoglund’s standing as an lawyer came just after he testified in the scenario of Refreshing Vision OP, an Overland Park civic group that the Ethics Fee later on decided to be a political committee.
Group customers argued New Eyesight OP, included as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, was founded merely as a way of working on neighborhood challenges. But the Ethics Fee claimed mailers the group despatched in the 2021 mayoral election ran afoul of the state’s marketing campaign finance regulations.
Extra: Legislators stroll back again energy to oust ethics panel director. Kansas Chamber subpoenaed.
Case in problem will involve Overland Park civic team
Skoglund was the lone witness in the circumstance and was not positioned under oath, ostensibly simply because he is an lawyer. It was later on stated by a member of the fee that he was obligated to be forthright because of his status as a attorney.
Skoglund’s legislation license is presently suspended, even though he claimed at the time this was owing to his final decision not to fork out requisite service fees and comprehensive continuing instruction necessities.
But Joshua Ney, an lawyer retained by Refreshing Eyesight OP, filed a movement searching for to dismiss the circumstance or attain a rehearing, arguing Skoglund misrepresented his status as an legal professional, a little something which would be a violation of state statute.
Skoglund explained in an affidavit that the situation was not “material” to the discussion and later sought to amend his testimony to proficiently be sworn, a go he argued negates the basis for the motion.
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“The situation of whether or not his license is suspended is immaterial,” Brent Berry, the ethics commission’s lawful counsel, said all through a hearing Wednesday. “There is no moral obligation to cure or proper a assertion by one more specific when it is not product to a case.”
But Ney argued the unsworn testimony ought to not have been admitted as evidence, leaving no foundation for the ruling versus Contemporary Eyesight OP.
What’s more, he said there was no foundation for allowing Skoglund to “cure” his testimony just after the truth, arguing it trampled on the rights of his consumer to issue the director.
“The procedural or because of-procedure violations of my clients’ legal rights outweigh any complex violation that may possibly have been alleged,” he claimed.
No motive was supplied publicly for why a new hearing was granted. The decision was made following the fee went into a shut-door conference for 10 minutes to explore the make a difference.
Far more: Kansas governmental ethics chief under fireplace amid regulation license queries
Likely probe into Kansas Chamber, legislators revealed
Legislators attempted to oust Skoglund very last month by inserting a requirement into an unrelated monthly bill that would have demanded the chief of the company charged with administering and enforcing the state’s campaign finance and ethics regulations have a legislation license in very good standing for three several years as of July 1, 2022.
Skoglund would not have fulfilled that conditions.
In the resulting chaos, it was verified by the Kansas Chamber that it experienced been subpoenaed by the Ethics Fee, nevertheless it denied wrongdoing and claimed the motion was part of an “extreme fishing expedition.”
The legislative brouhaha was alluded to by John Solbach, who presided about the hearing, stating “we are a creature of the Legislature” and appearing to admonish Ney for involving legislators in the case.
“I know that you or your customer has gone to the Legislature to remind us we are a creature of the Legislature,” Solbach said. “We realize that.”
Afterwards in the hearing, Berry objected to allowing for Skoglund to be deposed in the Fresh Eyesight OP situation, expressing Ney “has ulterior motives” in the issue, even though he was “not at liberty” to say why he thought that to be genuine.
“I get concern with that illustration,” Ney stated in reaction.
Andrew Bahl is a senior statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be arrived at at [email protected] or by telephone at 443-979-6100.
This posting at first appeared on Topeka Money-Journal: Kansas Ethics Commission to redo hearing immediately after regulation license issues
