JJOKE on the loose

For those that follow JJOKE meetings, yesterdays was especially revealing.

It appears that Dan Horwitz has lost control.  The JJOKE watchdog has slipped its leash and is now on the loose.

Each commissioner made it a point to announce their presence with authority . . . except for the executive branch appointees who are now acting like cut dogs.

Dan had absolutely no support as the legislative appointees hijacked the meeting, lifted their hind leg and marked their territory.

And that was in the public session, I'm told the executive session made it crystal clear that the legislative appointees will not be bullied any further by Horwitz and the executive branch, who are now in the minority.

Dan has a very busy and lucrative law practice I can't imagine he is going to stick around much longer acting as the defacto executive director of a weakly staffed JOKE.  And on that point we are going on half a year without an executive director what is going on? (just do the vote already Dan or move on to another candidate.  LT can be ED but a public price will be paid, I hear she is a nice lady what you are doing to her is wrong.  Sitting at the table alertly is how you describe your well behaved teenage daughter at thanksgiving not JJOKE's next executive director) 

Now it was not unusual for ethics agencies to go leaderless in the old days when no one cared.  In fact it was seen as a way to limit mischief, and half a year is a mere blink compared to the 3 years that the old Lobby Commission went without leadership before I arrived.  But that Lobby Commission had only 6 employees (2 of whom are still at JJOKE) more importantly the lack of an executive director at JJOKE is causing some grumbling among the legislative appointees . . .WHO IS RUNNING THE STORE?

Without a delegation of authority from a majority of commissioners any action Dan or the staff take is beyond their statutory authority and subject to legal challenge.

Unless the commission has delegated authority to Dan Horwitz to act as the executive director Dan CANNOT operate JJOKE on a day to day basis alone and the legislative appointees know it.   Tread carefully Dan there are some big game hunters left at that table with the time and energy to set a bear trap for you.  And by the time you feel the pain your only option will be to chew off your own leg and resign.

At the end of the day it's not business it's all personal and the executive branch has made some enemies among the legislative appointees, payback can be a bitch.

As an aside how could this esteemed body of lawyers (all of whom are now properly registered with the bar) not have discussed in public how they are going to handle the NARAL exemption from the source of funding disclosure?  You took an hour to discuss a language change that normal folks could have figured out in 2 minutes and never considered the effect it would have on the one party that was subject to it?  I can't wait to watch the show when you straighten that mess out.

And think about it  the source of funding disclosure legislation was passed in the summer of 2011.  JJOKE was formed in December of 2011.  Biben came on board in February 2012,  The source of funding was statutorily required to begin in June of 2012.  JJOKE took until November of 2012 to pass emergency regulations related to the requirement.  The first disclosure were made in January of 2013 and have still not been reviewed for accuracy and here we are in September of 2013 and JJOKE is still passing emergency regulations to try and figure out the implementation of this simple requirement (foolish as it was) and they still have not made it possible to file the information online.

Could you imagine if the JJOKE brain trust was responsible for D-Day?  We would all be speaking German and the wandering dago would be serving hot dogs with sauerkraut.