The Missouri Ethics Commission currently has three members, which is not enough to decide complaints filed against elected officeholders or candidates for public office.
The commission lost half its members last week when their terms expired, and Gov. Eric Greitens has yet to fill them. James Klahr, the commission’s executive director, said it can still carry out some duties.
“Before this particular group ceased to be a quorum, they did provide authority for staff to settle certain matters that had already been referred to staff for civil action,” he said.
And while the ethics commission can still investigate complaints, it cannot vote on any potential sanctions until it has at least four members.
“We would not be able to take those before the commission unless and until we have a quorum of the commissioners,” Klahr said.
Meanwhile, some state senators have voiced concerns that Greitens will be choosing new commissioners who will then decide upon an ethics complaint that’s been filed against him. The complaint centers on a list of campaign donors from a nonprofit group created by Greitens before he became governor. The full Senate has to confirm the potential new appointees.
Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield, went so far as to call the situation a constitutional crisis while speaking on the Senate floor last week. He and fellow Sen. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, based their complaints on Greitens stacking the state education board and housing development commission with loyalists who voted his way on housing tax credits and on firing former education commissioner Margie Vandeven.
But Klahr said he doesn’t think that’ll happen this time.
“The (ethics) commission is really not a policy-making body,” he said. “I don’t know a lot about the details of what the board of education does or what the MHDC does, but I know that those are more in the realm of policy-making types of bodies.”
Klahr also said there’s been no pressure from the governor’s office to act on any specific issues supported by Greitens. He added that they do expect the quorum to be restored before the ethics commission’s next meeting on April 25.
Dixon and Schaaf both suggested that it would be in Greitens’ interest to not appoint anyone to fill the vacancies in time to investigate the complaint against him. But even if the governor fills them, Senate leaders aren’t certain there’s enough time to conduct background checks and other required procedures.
“We would hope our background checks would be judicious and timely,” said Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, R-Joplin. “We hope that it’s not postponed any longer than necessary, but if I have to call special meetings to get this done quickly, I’m happy to do that.”
The governor’s office has not responded to a request for comment about the commission vacancies.
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