June 22, 2026 · Committee on Ethics · 2,388 words · 8 speakers · 37 segments
Here. Woodrow? Excused. Cooper? Here. Madam Chair? Here. Thank you all for attending. We had an update to our proceedings as of this morning, hence the remote participation of this committee's meeting today. we got word that Representative Lindsay was requesting counsel, which we certainly need time to respond to that request. So I wanted to give our folks from OLLS a chance to go through what that entails and what we are going to do next. So I'll turn it over to Director DiCieco when you're ready, just to fill us in on some of those details.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Ed DiCieco of the Office of Legislative Legal Services. Yes, after Representative Lindsay made that request and specifically had inquired whether or not it would be possible for the Committee on Legal Services to retain counsel on her behalf before this committee. Just to remind the members that under House Rule 49D, it refers to at this meeting that she's entitled to appear, present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, and be represented by counsel. and so with that in mind the chair directed us to postpone obviously the evidentiary portion and you know continue the hearing with respect to having witnesses come present so that I would have an opportunity at the direction of committee on legal services chair Maybree's direction to pull the committee for purposes of determining whether or not the committee would like to retain counsel on behalf of Representative Lindsay. Under the House rules, under Section 23. 1001, the committee may retain legal counsel to represent or otherwise render legal services for any member in all actions and proceedings in connection with the performance of the powers, duties and functions thereof. Therefore, and then also under Section 235028, the committee does not necessarily have to meet to retain counsel. Instead, I can send a poll to the committee where they provide that and then I'll publicly post that. So at Chair Mabry's direction, I did poll the committee, and I can report back that as of I just got another one, As of this meeting, the committee has received, I've received six votes in favor of that. So the committee has voted to retain counsel on behalf of Representative Lindsay in this matter. It would be limited to just this ethics proceeding, and it would conclude under the House rule that there is no appeal of this matter. It sort of ends with the committee's determination. the representation would end with the conclude with the committee's final action as well the committee has a has a roster of attorneys it has approved because of the timing and wanting to have this done as quickly as possible i did not have an opportunity to check with all those attorneys to see who would be interested but have started that process but the committee didn't approve a specific attorney but rather just an attorney from the currently approved rosters of attorneys. I will now work with those attorneys along with Representative Lindsay to find an attorney that she is comfortable with to represent her for the remainder of this matter.
Thank you for that work so far today. So I assume that that will take a little bit of time to work through the who that would be and when they're available. That also puts this committee in a position where we are on pause with the evidentiary hearing, and I want to put out a public thank you and sorry for the disruption in the schedule for all of the witnesses that had positively responded and were able to show up in person either today or tomorrow and apologize that we have the need to postpone that So thank you ahead of time for being willing and we just have to keep that on hold until we decide when we can meet again. And thank you for notifying all those folks to prevent their travels down here. With that in mind, knowing that this process is going to take a little bit of time to get Representative Lindsay an attorney and then to give that person time to get up to speed on all that we have been tasked with looking over the last few months, we will need to move forward with the help of Ms. Berger to find an alternative couple of days at some point. There was a question earlier that I had, and I know others may have as well. Is there some kind of deadline for us to complete this process, this particular complaint in front of our committee, and it's my understanding that there is no particular deadline in how many weeks past the complaint. If I could have OLLS just confirm that it's kind of an open-ended
schedule. Ms. Chase. Thank you, Madam Chair. Christy Chase, Office of Legislative Legal Services. Under Rule 49D, the only time frame for this hearing is that it needed to commence within 14 days after the request for the hearing. Otherwise, there's no deadline for completing the hearing.
Okay. Thank you for verifying that. So with that in mind, committee, once you hear from Ms. Berger, we're going to, I see you, Rep. Sober, hang on a minute. We're going to want to know what spans of times you're available, basically from probably after the 1st of July on, because I think we need to give the attorney and Rep. Lindsay time to go over what they need to go over and actually to find that attorney. So just be prepared to share that information. And Rep Soper, you had your hand up. Go ahead.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I was just going to say something very similar that I think we ought to be looking at dates that are a little ways out to be able to give legal counsel adequate time to read and prepare. Plus, I know we as members of this panel also have our summer schedules in place, and it's probably going to be very challenging, especially with the July 4th holiday coming up, to do anything too quickly. Plus, I think there's a CSG West meeting in there and some other things that are going on. I would just recommend maybe looking to that first week of August with the idea that that is five full weeks. Although if you think about it, one is a federal holiday week. You also have other things in there as well. So it will go by very quickly or later. But I would just recommend having enough ample time that we can get it on the radar of the witnesses we want to come present and for each member to be able to adjust their schedule accordingly.
Thank you, Representative Soper. No, I agree. I was going to give my availability all the way till December 31st, to be honest, because I this is really hard to wrangle this many people with, you know, pre plans for everyone's life. So just be prepared. Representative Mabry.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I was just going to echo Rep Soper's comments and then actually just add an addendum to him He had mentioned maybe a month of lead up I would just say we don know how much lead up we going to need yet because as Director Giusecco noted, we don't know which one of the attorneys on the roster has availability and is able to take it on. And, you know, I think we would need to have that conversation post-retention of counsel, and that could take a couple weeks, as often happens when we're trying to find counsel.
Exactly. Thank you. That's why it's important for us to all give our availability as far out as you possibly can so that we can best match it with the attorney and all the witnesses that
we want to bring forward. Representative Sober. Thank you, Madam Chair. And Representative Maverick reminded me of something I also wanted to add, which is the timeline really should be driven by this committee and not necessarily by the attorney that is going to be brought on board as legal counsel because I know it can be a strategy to delay things or to push things out to a certain extent, but we also need to, while we're looking at giving ample time for legal counsel to prepare and review and to advise, we also need to kind of be focused on resolving this at some point in time. And I don't want to necessarily have this be stretched out so far that we're having to reread everything that we've just gone through because there's a lot of evidence here. And having to constantly be going back to this also doesn't advantage this committee. So I do think we should be kind of pushing a date, but we should also give plenty of time to the legal counsel to be able to prepare and advise.
Thank you, Representative Soper. I 100% agree that we're all focused on coming to a conclusion here with respect to giving Representative Lindsay her chance to have a say in front of this committee. but yes it is our availability the the five of us that really will set the calendar and that's why we're going to need to hear from all of you when you are actually available and preferably in person since that's what we had decided on previously and I agree the sooner the better but it just gets a little harder the further into summer we get. So I appreciate that. I also wanted to, Director DiCieco.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to add that I have already talked to two attorneys on the list, and I do believe one could be promising. I don't want to make anything official yet until I have an opportunity to talk to Representative Lindsay as well. So I would say, but I think even you could, the committee could look even the week before what Representative Soper had requested or suggested and potentially even where Ms. Berger is trying to find your availability to start with July 27th, which would be more than a month out. So just as a possibility, because I think I may, we may have counsel retained relatively quickly.
Okay. Thank you for that. Ms. Chase.
I just wanted to flag in case any of the members of the committee are planning to attend the NCSL annual summit, the dates of that are July 27 to 29. Okay. Thank you.
On the same note for the committee to consider, since council will be retained for Representative Lindsay, that we need to decide since we've already had the exchange of witness lists, which witnesses the committee wanted and which witnesses Representative Lindsay wanted to bring forth. Are we in a position? Well we are in a position to allow a modification of that witness list if we so approve after the council confers with Representative Lindsay and perhaps they make some changes to taking people off the list or adding additional folks. So I wanted to put that up for discussion for the committee to consider if we would allow a modification of the witness list. And if we were to do so, we would want to set a time limit on that. For example, five to seven days after council is retained. So that, again, our staff here would have plenty of time to get a hold of those witnesses if they were to change. and to get it scheduled similarly to what they did for today and tomorrow. So I'm inclined to allow a modification of the witness list with that deadline of, let's say, a week in case there is some reconsideration on the part of Representative Lindsay and her counsel. Any other comments on that from the committee? Representative Mabry.
Yeah, I'm just, for the record, in full agreement with counsel, she could totally make different decisions, and I think that would entirely be appropriate. And so I think we should allow it.
All right. With no further comment, Representative Soper, would you please make a motion about allowing modification of the witness list with a one week deadline after council is retained for any changes? Representative Soper.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we allow for modification of a witness list after a consultation with legal counsel with there being one week after legal counsel has been appointed for that decision to be made and that that be made in writing to the...
Okay, you cut off there at the end. Is there a second?
Oh.
Going once.
Seconded.
Thank you, Representative Garcia-Sander. Ms. Berger, please call the roll.
Representatives Garcia-Sander?
Yes.
Mabry?
Yes.
Woodrow excused?
Excused.
Soper?
Yes.
Admitter.
Yes.
and that passes four to zero. So we will allow that and get that information to Representative Lindsay and her council. I think that concludes what we needed to discuss today. Again, thank you all very, very much for your quick work today. Representative Soper, I see your hand up.
Yeah, thank you, ma'am. I'm sure. Going back to the scheduling, because I think it's kind of important that we talk about this, I guess we're maybe in a bit of a holding pattern until a legal counsel has been appointed here. But we should probably have Ms. Berger or whoever would be in charge of this kind of poll the committee with like a doodle poll on availability, just so we have some dates that could maybe be blocked out. because for most of us, we're probably going to start filling up our calendars throughout the summer and even autumn. And so if we could just at least have a few days that are kind of reserved,
might be advantageous. Thank you, Representative Soper. I bet she's way ahead of us on that. Bet she was on that this morning before we even met. So stay tuned, but thank you. and everybody be very responsive when you do hear from her. So with no other hands raised, thank you all again for your time and for being flexible today. I really appreciate it. And the committee is adjourned.
Thank you.