HB 168 AN ACT relating to legislative ethics

About HB-168

Create new sections of KRS 6.601 to 6.849 to make it ethical misconduct for a legislator, legislative agent, or director of the Legislative Research Commission to intentionally engage in discrimination, harassment, or sexual harassment; define "discrimination," "harassment," and "sexual harassment"; declare that if a provision of KRS 6.601 to 6.849 is designated a misdemeanor or felony, an alleged violation of the provision may be adjudicated by the Legislative Ethics Commission as ethical misconduct; amend KRS 6.686 to allow dismissal of complaints by the Legislative Ethics Commission based upon an affirmative vote of at least 5 members at a regularly scheduled meeting or, upon written or oral notification by the chair, a teleconference meeting that the preliminary inquiry fails to state a claim of an ethics violation; allow complaints to be filed against former legislators, former legislative agents, and former employers of legislative agents for extended periods if they are related to discrimination, harassment, or sexual harassment; amend KRS 6.701 to include legislative branch employees in mandatory ethics education already required for legislators; amend KRS 6.711 to remove the requirement that orientation courses be designed to receive continuing legal education ethics credit; amend KRS 6.716 to require the Legislative Ethics Commission to administer a current issues seminar for legislative branch employees in addition to the existing requirement for legislators and to reduce the length of the current issues seminar for legislators from three to two hours; amend KRS 7.101 to require the Legislative Research Commission to coordinate the development and presentation of a training course regarding workplace harassment for legislators with the assistance of the Legislative Ethics Commission.