Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly issued statements Tuesday saying the Bryant verdict showed the need to do more to build on ethics rules, and Gov. Corzine said last week that the ethics package he proposed in September and economic-recovery bills were his top priorities for the rest of 2008.
But none of the plans on the table would directly address some of the key issues in the Bryant case.
Bryant was found guilty in large part because he did little work in his $35,000-a-year job at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey while as a senator he steered millions of dollars to the school. Prosecutors called it a "sham" job that boosted his pension in exchange for influence.
While the case showed that it is illegal to explicitly sell influence, lawmakers with legitimate jobs are not clearly prohibited to direct money to their employers, according to a top lawyer for the Legislature.
"That question is largely unanswered even after the Bryant trial," said Albert Porroni, executive director of the Office of Legislative Services, the Legislature's nonpartisan research arm. "There's no real statute that addresses that issue specifically."
Some advocates say there should be.
Baroni said that years ago he had proposed a bill that would have barred lawmakers from working for public entities in their districts. The rule would have blocked Bryant from working for the school and for the Gloucester County Board of Social Services, where he also had a low-show job that inflated his pension.
In 2007, the liberal think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective released a report saying more than 700 elected New Jersey officials held second jobs also paid by taxpayers. The group's president, Jon Shure, said the state should review potential conflicts and bar dual-job arrangements in which there could be a conflict. The state's dual-office ban addresses only elected positions.
