Is Greitens dragging his feet on ethics commission because of complaint against him?

Almost a month has passed since we urged Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens to get off dead-center and fill three vacancies on the state Ethics Commission.

Still, nothing has happened — and you can’t help but wonder if the reason is a Greitens-related complaint sitting before the commission.

Last month, three commission members — two Democrats and a Republican — vacated their seats when their terms expired. That created a problem. The commission no longer can conduct business because the panel remains one member short of a four-member quorum.

Greitens, whose job it is to fill commission openings, has said he’ll be appointing more members, possibly as soon as this week. But the word among some legislators from Greitens’ own Republican Party is that the governor may be intentionally dragging his feet. That could be because of a complaint filed in March by former Democratic Party chairman Roy Temple. He accused the governor of two misdeeds involving the charity he founded, The Mission Continues.

Temple contends that the governor falsely reported how his campaign obtained a donor list from The Mission Continues and that Greitens’ campaign failed to disclose that it had also received the charity’s valuable email list. Greitens used the donor list to raise money for his then-fledgling campaign. The governor’s use of resources from The Mission Continues has prompted subpoenas from the Missouri attorney general, the St. Louis prosecutor and a state House investigative committee. The matter has become another legal challenge for the governor, who faces a felony charge of invasion of privacy in connection with an extramarital affair.

The foot-dragging in filling vacancies on the ethics commission has prompted GOP state Sen. Bob Dixon of Springfield to step in and offer an unusual, but solid idea. Dixon has proposed that the size of the commission shrink temporarily from six to four members. That means the three remaining members could form a quorum.

“It just allows them to function,” Dixon said, according to a Missourinet story.

The Senate has given Dixon’s proposal first-round approval. The measure also provides what Dixon regards as a long-term fix. After initially shrinking, the commission would grow under Dixon’s legislation to ensure that obtaining a quorum might always be possible. Two new commissioners would be added in 2020 and in 2021, giving the commission a total of eight seats with each commissioner serving four-year terms. Two of the eight commissioners would see their terms end each year, making it easier to maintain a quorum even if seats are temporarily vacant.

That Greitens is now faced with the task of finding ethics commissioners who will be probing a complaint against himself should give every Missourian pause. It’s yet another weakness in the state’s attempt to safeguard its political process via its ethics commission. The agency remains understaffed and unable to levy the types of significant fines and penalties that would make it more effective.

Maybe the governor shouldn’t be the one to appoint all of its members so that a situation like the one now could be avoided in the future.

But that’s a fight for another day. For now, Greitens needs to appoint three commissioners, and the Senate needs to do its part by confirming the nominees before the commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting on April 25. No more delays. No more stalling. No more dithering. The commission has a job to do.

This story was originally published April 10, 2018 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Is Greitens dragging his feet on ethics commission because of complaint against him?."