State Representative Denny Hoskins (r – noun, verb, CPA) held an hour long “Idea Raiser” town hall starting at 7:30 a.m. in a meeting room at the Warrensburg branch of the Trails Regional Library. There were approximately fifteen people in attendance (in addition to media and library staff).

Representative Hoskins spent approximately the first fifteen minutes talking about bills that he is sponsoring or co-sponsoring in the upcoming session. In particular, he addressed ethics reform legislation:

Representative Denny Hoskins:…The other hot topic issue it, it seemed like it’s got a lot of press these days, is ethics. And, um, we’ve had, I’ve had two House colleagues and one Senate colleague that, um, um, basically resigned this past year, Jeff Smith and Steve Brown and [inaudible] El, El-Amin. Most of those names probably don’t, may not sound familiar because they’re from the eastern part of the state. But, with, uh, the situations that they were in and, uh, one [inaudible] accepted a bribe from a gas station owner. One of them, and then the other two, uh, basically lied under oath, under Federal oath, when they were, talked about some campaign, uh, finance literature, they lied under oath. Now the ironic thing is, um, you know, of course, bribes are never legal. So, [inaudible] you never want to accept a bribe, especially as an elected official. Uh, but then, number two, if my colleagues Jeff Brown and, uh, Jeff Smith and Steve Brown would have, uh, come clean and when they were under Federal investigation, they would have just told the truth under, when they were under oath they probably would have received a, uh, slap on the wrist a maybe a little bit of a fine. So, but because they chose to lie under oath Senator Smith’s facing about a year in prison and a fine and, uh, Representative Steve Brown faced a hefty fine and actually had to resign his license to the bar.

So, ethics has been a pretty big topic and currently there’s a couple different, uh, bills out there, ethics bills. Uh, Representative Tim Flook and Representative, uh, Kander, both from the Kansas City area, have proposed ethics, some ethics reform. Uh, Representative Steve Tilley has proposed another bill that I’m planning on being a co-sponsor on and just deals with some of the things,as far as [inaudible] lobbyists’s gifts and, um, other ethical, uh, I think issues.

Is it illegal to accept a meal or a gift from a  lobbyist? No, that, that’s not illegal. In fact, uh,just this past week, uh, everybody in the House and the Senate, we all got, I’m not wearing mine today, we all got ties. All, all the men got ties and it has a little picture of the Missouri State Seal on it. So, it arrived in our office and, uh, I imagine that that would be, uh, showing up on our lobbyist report. [audience laughter]

So, uh, ethics and ethics reform is, is a kind of a big, uh, heated topic it seems these days, just with like I mentioned with those three individuals and, uh, perception from the public…

What, nothing about public perceptions about the plane?

After his opening remarks Representative Hoskins asked attendees to share their concerns or ideas for the upcoming legislative session. The majority of the discussion was about the state budget and concerns about funding for education along with ideas about economic development.

Previous coverage on Show Me Progress about the need for ethics reform:

Republican-crafted Ethics “Reform” and the Missing Piece

Only 180 Days? (the Tilley Ethics Plan unveils itself)

Anonymous Republican state rep: “We need new leadership in the House”

Campaign Finance: It’s their world, the rest of us only live in it

Kander (D) and Flook (r): ethics reform legislation in Jefferson City

Kander (D) and Flook (r): ethics reform legislation in Jefferson City, part 2

Kander (D) and Flook (r): ethics reform legislation in Jefferson City, part 3