PRESS RELEASE
From the Office of State Senator Jeff Wentworth

For Immediate Release
October 16, 2002
Contact: Margaret Rambie - (210) 826-7800

Statement of Senator Jeff Wentworth

A couple of weeks ago I accepted Travis County Attorney Ken Oden's invitation to visit with him about his inquiry into the representation of clients before state agencies by legislators who are lawyers.

As a result of both the private discussion I had with Mr. Oden, as well as the public discussion that has transpired over the past several days, I want there to be no misunderstanding about where my loyalty is placed or my reasons for serving in the Texas Senate.

I am in the Texas Senate for only one purpose - to serve the public interest - and I am loyal to only one boss: the people of Senate District 25.

Therefore, effective immediately, I will no longer represent any client before a state agency as a private lawyer.

In addition, I will work in the Legislature next year to clarify the law so that both the county attorney and state legislators may be reasonably expected to interpret the law the same way.

This action is consistent with my long record of working for open government in Austin.

The law that governs the practice of private lawyers who are also members of the Texas Legislature was enacted in 1991 when I was a member of the Texas House of Representatives. I voted for that law and again for amendments that strengthened it in 1997 as a member of the Texas Senate.

As an attorney first licensed to practice law in Texas in 1971, I represented clients before state agencies before I was ever elected to the Texas Legislature in 1988.

The people of Texas have made it clear that they want low-paid, part-time citizen-legislators representing them in the Texas Legislature by repeatedly voting against constitutional amendments aimed at increasing the $600 per month salary legislators are paid.

As a result, legislators almost without exception have simply continued to earn a living doing the same thing they did before they were elected. In my case, that has been representing clients as a lawyer.

During the time I have been in the Legislature, I do not believe that I have violated any of the ethics statutes that I helped bring into existence, and I will continue to cooperate fully with Travis County Attorney Ken Oden's ongoing discussion regarding those statutes and their interpretation.

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