Senator Who?

bniolet — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:48:32 -0500

Dome came close to ferreting out secret information this morning.

Okay, it wasn't any super-sleuthing on Dome's part. A member of the state Ethics Commission almost spilled the beans about an ethics case involving a senator.

By law, the commission has to consider ethics matters in closed session and even the names of people involved are secret.

But early in Friday's meeting, when commissioners received their standard reminder about conflicts of interest, member Jerry Blackmon raised his hand. He said he may have a potential conflict of interest when it comes to the matter of "Senator..."

That's when Commission chairman Robert Farmer and Executive Director Perry Newson stopped him. They would discuss the potential conflict in closed session, Newson said.

Trying to divine who Blackmon was talking about could be tough. Blackmon was a Mecklenburg County Commissioner in the 1980s and was a state senator through much of the 1990s. He was appointed upon the recommendation of senate leader Marc Basnight and has served on various boards.

After the ethics commission concluded and before the closed session began, Farmer suggested to reporters that they lobby the legislature to open up ethics proceedings.

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Senator Who?