RALEIGH - A potential ethics violation involving a legislator is at the heart of a dispute over which state agency has the right to run ethics investigations.

How the dispute is resolved could affect whether the public learns of ethics investigations of legislators, who are treated differently under the ethics law than all other public officials.

The identity of the legislator whose case led to the controversy has not been made public.

The legislature's ethics committee met this morning to discuss a bill that would prohibit the state auditor from investigating violations of the ethics law.

The law governs conflicts of interest and other issues for lawmakers, elected officials, appointed board members, university employees and thousands of public servants. It was written in response to a series of scandals primarily involving legislators.

The State Ethics Commission was created to enforce and interpret the law. The commission includes four Democrats and four Republicans and has expertise in the ethics law, says Perry Newson, the commission's executive director.

Senate leader Marc Basnight said today that the law was designed to have the commission and not the auditor review ethics cases.

If an elected, partisan official opens ethics cases, "what we are creating is an opportunity for someone to create damage and the only intent is to be political. We didn't want that to occur," Basnight said.

But state Auditor Les Merritt, who is elected statewide, said he should have the right to investigate potential conflicts of interest.

Taking his office out of the picture, he said, would mean fewer investigators to watch public officials and less transparency for the public. Because lawmakers treat themselves differently under the ethics law, allegations against lawmakers could remain secret, Merritt argued.

The case that "brought this issue to light is just the sort of situation that begs independent oversight," wrote Tim Hoegemeyer, general counsel to in Merritt's office, in a letter to the Legislative Ethics Committee.

The Issue surfaced when an anonymous tipster contacted the auditor's office about a potential ethics violation involving the legislator, Hoegemeyer wrote. Investigators pulled the legislator's ethics paperwork, listing property holdings, business interests, stock portfolios and other economic interests.

"The contents of the subject's [filing] as well as the demeanor and conduct of the subject led us to doubt the veracity of statements made by the subject to our investigators," Hoegemeyer wrote.

In the course of its investigation, the auditor's office learned that the legislator had asked the Ethics Commission for an advisory opinion. The commission, which is required to keep much of its work secret, declined to help.

Merritt's office finished its investigation and drafted a report on the legislator.

The Ethics Commission says it cannot by law discuss the case. Merritt's office has not yet released a report.

One key difference between the auditor's office and that of the Ethics Commission is that the auditor's findings must be made public.

The work of the Ethics Commission is kept secret unless the commission finds that an allegation has enough merit to warrant a formal hearing or a sanction.

But the rules are different for lawmakers.

The Ethics Commission must turn over its findings on legislators to the Legislative Ethics Committee, which then makes its own ruling. That's a problem because the public might never learn about the allegations, Hoegemeyer said.

"If the Legislative Ethics Committee does not like what the Ethics Commission has to say, they can take the issue from the Ethics Commission, let the issue die right there, or simply draft their own advisory opinion on the issue," Hoegemeyer wrote.

Rep. Rick Glazier, a Cumberland County Democrat and co-chairman of the ethics committee, said he disagreed with Hoegemeyer's interpretation.

Glazier asked staff members from the auditor's office and the ethics commission to discuss the issue before the committee's next meeting, probably next week.

Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a nonpartisan government watchdog, said he is concerned about the debate.

"Ethics should not be a political football, and the last thing we want is this politicization," Phillips said.

Staff writer Dan Kane contributed to this report.

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