Don’t Tell Mama, But Now I’m A Lobbyist!
By Steve Shaber and Tom West
A Raleigh lawyer wears a
t-shirt sporting these words: “Don’t tell Mama I’m a lobbyist. She
thinks I play piano in a cat house!” Hundreds, even thousands, of North
Carolina business owners and their employees, who never saw themselves
as lobbyists, will be entitled to wear this shirt starting January 1,
2007, when The State Government Ethics Act of 2006 (House Bill 1843)
takes effect. On that day, they will be lobbyists and have to register
as lobbyists, if they continue to do business as usual with state
executives. Here are the bare bones of this new law.
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It is a criminal as well
as civil statute.
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It applies to contacts
with (i) many people at the Legislature and (ii) many people in the
Executive Branch.
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The Executive Branch
officers and employees covered by the law include, among others:
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The Governor and all
the employees of the Governor’s Office.
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The Lieutenant
Governor and at least some of the employees in that office.
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The heads of all the
principal state departments and their chief deputies,
administrative assistants, and confidential secretaries.
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All exempt state
employees and their confidential secretaries.
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All state employees
designated by the Governor.
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Voting members of
state boards. There will be a list of these covered persons.
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Lobbying is any attempt
to influence “legislative action” or “executive action” (i) by
direct communication with people covered by the law or (ii) by
developing “good will” with these people. Lobbying also covers
contacts with the families of covered persons.
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“Legislative action” is
action with respect to bills, reports, nominations, appointments and
other such legislative matters.
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“Executive action” is
action with respect to executive policy, rules, procedures, requests
for proposals, and similar executive matters.
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A “lobbyist” is anyone
who gets paid to lobby. It is also someone who generally gets paid
for other purposes but spends 5% of his or her “actual duties” in
any thirty-day period performing lobbying activities.
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Lobbyists and their
principals must register, file reports, and avoid forbidden
behavior, whether they lobby the Legislature, the Executive or both.
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There is a State Ethics
Commission to help administer this new law.
This law’s boundaries and
pitfalls will become more obvious in time. Clearly, it makes an attempt
to separate the executive’s administrative functions from its
policy-making functions. Many of the routine conversations and letters
that business owners and employees are accustomed to having with
regulators will still be routine and outside this law. However, starting
January 1, many calls, conversations, e-mail and letters that used to be
business-as-usual will become government-regulated executive lobbying.
People involved in those activities will have to register as lobbyists.
Steve
Shaber &
Tom
West, partners in Poyner & Spruill’s Raleigh office, helped narrow
the scope of H.B. 1843’s restrictions on contacts with state executive
agencies. Steve can be reached at 919.783.2906 or
sshaber@poyners.com. Tom can be
reached at 919.783.2897 or
twest@poyners.com.
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