Gifts for Ceverha

I've blogged before about Bill Ceverha, the now-bankrupt former TRMPAC treasurer who sits on the board of the Employees Retirement System of Texas - see here, here, and here for background. Ceverha has been dogged by State Rep. Lon Burnham about some potential conflicts of interest between his service as an ERS Board Member, and his for-profit lobby practice. Burnham is still on the case, with a new complaint:

Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, urged the Texas Ethics Commission to reconsider its ruling that law does not require Bill Ceverha, a member of the Employees Retirement System of Texas board, to disclose the amount of a check given to him by Houston home builder Bob Perry, the state's largest individual campaign donor.

"Any appointed government official can receive a check from anybody for any amount and all they have to write on their disclosure form is 'check,' " Burnam wrote in a letter to the commission. "This is absurd — and dangerous."

[...]

Appointed public officials are required to disclose financial information to alert the public to possible conflicts of interest.

Ceverha disclosed receiving a check from Perry last year but did not give the amount. The ethics commission ruled last week that state law requires disclosing only the nature of a gift.

Ceverha said he followed state law. "I will do whatever the ethics commission says I should do, but I'm not going to respond to someone on a political vendetta."

As they say, the real crime is that Ceverha most likely is following the rules. Neat little system we have here, isn't it?

Posted by Charles Kuffner on February 03, 2006 to Scandalized! | TrackBack