California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s wife has been appointed to lead a budget committee that oversees and helps determine the spending of her husband’s department, prompting ethical concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon recently tapped Assemblymember Mia Bonta, the attorney general’s wife, to serve as the chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee 5, according to local NBC affiliate KCRA. The subcommittee focuses on how taxpayer dollars are used by the state’s various public safety agencies — including the California Department of Justice.
Rendon and both Bontas are all Democrats.
“It should raise eyebrows,” Bob Stern, former general counsel for California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC), told KCRA. “What’s going on with them? It seems to me they have a tin ear about ethics.”Â
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Stern clarified there was nothing illegal about Rendon’s appointment of Mia Bonta but argued the state’s top law enforcement official should have a problem with it nonetheless.
“Particularly as attorney general, he should have the highest ethical standards of any governmental official,” said Stern. “He should set an example for everyone else.”
While not breaking any laws, the decision may still present a conflict of interest, according to experts.
“One of the things we worry about with respect to conflicts of interest is not only whether it violates the letter of the law, but whether there’s an appearance of impropriety and whether there’s the idea there would be some distrust in the government,” Mary-Beth Moylan, a law professor at the University of Pacific, told KCRA. “If she did recuse herself on that, I think people would still feel like, ‘Well she’s the chair,’ she may still have influence over other members who are on the committee.”
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