newsobserver.com projects - Rep. Saunders' work helps lobbyist Saunders - Comments

Re: Rep. Saunders' work helps lobbyist Saunders

j1c2kp — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:00:48 -0500

Geez I went to the website listed below and the picture of Saunders made me think I was looking at Jim Black. They could be brothers.

Re: Rep. Saunders' work helps lobbyist Saunders

alman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:04:39 -0500

http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/?p=1967#more-1967

http://bluenc.com/electricities-incompetence-run-amok

James and Rob have identified the stink of incompetence of the leadership and managers and it is worse than a flood at a hog operation.What other legislation did Saunders push to seal this deal?

James says it all "Electricities has a competence problem. And no amount of fast-talking from a revolving-door lobbyist will do anything to fix that sorry situation. In my career, I've seen lots of organizations slip into the death spiral of denial. Instead of taking on the hard work of cleaning house and hiring capable leaders, they circle the wagons hoping to spin their way to improved performance. That's what's happening here - and it ain't gonna make one iota's worth of difference. The entire Electricities board should resign. The contract with Saunders should be canceled.
What an embarrassment."

Re: Rep. Saunders' work helps lobbyist Saunders

j1c2kp — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:51:01 -0500

And we wonder what is wrong with the world today. It is politicians like Saunders. If the politicians don't like the laws well heck they can change them to suit their fancy and then have the nerve to say he certainly didn't anticipate his new job. Yea right!

Rep. Saunders' work helps lobbyist Saunders

markjohnson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:41:26 -0500

Former Rep. Drew Saunders gets to start lobbying six months after he leaves office instead of a year after stepping down, thanks to a change in the law that he pushed through.

Saunders lost in the May Democratic primary to Rep.-elect Nick Mackey. He resigned his Mecklenburg County seat on October 31 to take a $110,000-a-year job with Electricities, a non-profit umbrella group for municipal power companies. He said that job likely will include lobbying. The state ethics law requires that Saunders not lobby until six months after he leaves office, which would be May.

That's six months sooner than the original version of the ethics bill proposed in 2006. The cooling off period was shortened to six months thanks to a proposal pushed by, drumroll please, then-Rep. Drew Saunders. At the time, he complained that the ethics bill "treats legislators like dirt." This was around the same time that Saunders criticized the bill's ban on lobbyists giving gifts to legislators by saying: " Even the baby Jesus accepted gifts, and I don't think it corrupted him."

Saunders on Wednesday said he "certainly didn't anticipate" his new job when he proposed the shorter cooling off period. His criticism of the ethics bill arose from his human resources background, as he didn't think lawmakers should restrict how former legislators sustain themselves, he said.

"We were down there talking about jobs, jobs, jobs," Saunders said, "and then we're restricting people on how they make a living."