Senate Ethics Committee debates wording of report, retains auditors' block quotes and reconvenes at 11 a.m.

The Senate Ethics Committee met to continue editing a committee report arising from its inquiry into procurement arrangements for agile contracts, with members debating whether to preserve auditors' testimony verbatim or to summarize it in committee language.

Senator Pope pressed for clearer, declarative findings and for removing what she called interpretive language, while others urged the committee to memorialize direct testimony. Staff read proposed wording introducing legislative auditor Angus McKeever's testimony and a block quote from the audit that said the initial effort “to artificially bifurcate the contracts and the subsequent acceptance of decisions to forego proper sole source exceptions and exigency procedures deprive[d] the state of the financial benefits of open competition and procurement and therefore constituted a waste of state resources.” The committee agreed to include the quoted language with an exhibit citation.

Members also debated how to record a witness who declined to appear. The draft notes that Bryce Eggleston submitted a letter, was subpoenaed and then “asserted his Fifth Amendment right.” Some senators recommended clarifying that the assertion was made via letter to the committee and confirming the addressee; others cautioned about committee rules limiting how a respondent's election not to testify is portrayed in the record.

The committee reviewed procurement-related passages in paragraph 33–34 tied to the sole-source justification (Exhibit 9). Senators discussed replacing a short summary with the full answer from the justification form, which stated that staff ‘‘was unable to find anyone that could perform the services that are desired other than through Agile Analytics’’ and added context that individual attorneys might charge about $300 per hour and that the work would total roughly 567 hours to analyze 27 bills.

Several members pressed for limiting editorial conclusions and instead relying on quoted testimony from witnesses such as the legislative auditor and agency directors. Senator Smith said, “My attorney brain does not allow me to approve of a committee report that I have not read,” requesting time to review the clean copy before signing. Staff (Mr. Carroll) said many edits were discrete and could be completed quickly, while a few required additional citation checks.

To move the process forward, Senator Smith moved to reconvene tomorrow at 11 a.m.; the committee voted in favor and the motion carried. Senator Pope moved to adopt the various edits discussed as a conceptual amendment and to authorize staff to make necessary editorial adjustments; that motion also carried. The committee agreed staff would prepare a clean electronic draft for members to review prior to reconvening.

The committee closed with guidance that quoted testimony should be anchored to exhibits and time stamps for accuracy, that descriptions of witness actions (including subpoenas and letters) should be precise, and that care should be taken to avoid inserting committee interpretations where the audit or witnesses offered conclusions. Ethics adjourned with members set to meet at 11 a.m. the next day.