Who needs ethics training?

State Rep. Veronica Gonzales (pictured), D-McAllen, today filed a bill that would require members of the Texas Legislature, their employees, the employees of the governor and lieutenant governor, and administrators of state agencies, commissions or boards to take ethics training administered by the Texas Ethics Commission. H.B. 485 would require those affected by the bill to take three hours of ethics training every two years. As provided by the bill, those who failed to complete the training required would not get paid. Gonzales, a partner in Kittleman, Thomas & Gonzales in McAllen, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. But state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, a member of the Legislature since 1973, says he believes lawmakers already have an adequate ethics program. “It’s called the Travis County DA’s Public Integrity Unit,” says Whitmire, of counsel at Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell in Houston. “If anybody needs that number, I’ll give it to them.”  
-- Mary Alice Robbins