A Massachusetts Senate panel held a hearing Wednesday on efforts by state Auditor Diana DiZoglio to look into the affairs of the legislature.
Voters last year overwhelmingly approved a ballot question, looking to provide for just this. But legislative leaders have said it is unconstitutional and have refused to cooperate.
One of the experts who testified before the committee was Lawrence Friedman, a professor at New England School of Law. He said the state auditor performing an inquiry would violate the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. He added that lawmakers do have a measure of accountability — at the ballot box.
"It's called elections," Friedman said. "If you're not doing what your constituents believe you should be doing, presumably, the effect of that will be felt in November."
But, Jeanne Kempthorne, a retired lawyer, says the law of the people should be followed.
"It gravely misreads this moment in history when Democratic institutions are under attack both here at home and abroad," she said.
Kempthorne instead suggested the House and Senate could submit to the audit but then challenge specific aspects of it while it was underway.
At the start of the hearing, the chair, Sen. Cindy Friedman, D- Arlington, no relation to the expert who testified, said the panel gave DiZoglio the opportunity to suggest experts to speak in favor of the auditing the legislature, but declined to offer anyone.
In her opening remarks, Friedman said the auditor, DiZoglio has not provided much in the way of detail of how a potential audit would work.
“Since the subcommittee was established, we have been unable to ascertain what the office of the state auditor’s proposed audits would actually include,” Friedman stated. “We must still determine if such an audit is permitted under the Massachusetts constitution.”
Any audits would be looking at policies of the legislature and how the chambers have been adhering to policies and regulations and not a financial one.
The committee is also taking written public testimony before releasing any recommendations.
