Executive Director's Report, 0914 ALBJ, 75 The Alabama Lawyer 288 (2014)
| Author | Keith B. Norman, J. |
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\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0The Fruits of Their Labors
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0After toiling in the vineyards of ethics and bar admissions for a major part of their careers, Jim Sumner and Dorothy Johnson are Sumner retiring. Jim has served as executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission for 17 years and will step down October 1. Dorothy's . . Johnson retirement became effective this past August after 22 years of service in the Alabama State Bar Admission's Department, the last 21 as its director.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Jim's journey to the helm of the Ethics Commission began in the Attorney General's Office as chief of staff, and then from there to an executive role with the Alabama Hospital Association. After his stint at the hospital association, Jim worked for more than a decade for the University of Alabama System as assistant to the vice chancellor for external affairs before accepting the Ethics Commission position. For most of his time as executive director, Jim dealt with extreme vacillations in legislative appropriations for the agency and encountered very little interest from the legislature in strengthening Alabama's ethics rules that were acknowledged by the National Conference of State Legislatures to be among the weakest in the nation.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Yet, Jim's dogged persistence eventually paid off. While the agency is still understaffed for the volume of reports to be processed and the number of complaints that must be investigated, he was able to engineer the replacement of a "paper-driven" agency with one that operates electronically. From online filing of lobbyist reports and the statements of economic interest of government employees and elected officials to the posting of ethics opinions online, the Ethics Commission website t ruly permits transparency and access that never before existed. There is no doubt that this has increased the efficiency of the small commission staff.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0In addition, Jim has been a crusader to tighten the ethics laws, to obtain subpoena power and to secure a stable annual appropriation for the agency. In 2010, the state legislature finally passed major reforms to strengthen the state's ethics laws and provided the commission with the investigative...
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