Colorado advances bill to stop conflict of interest on Sex Offender Management Board

Polygrapher, Jeff Jenks, served on the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board. Ordinarily, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that, except that Jenks’ company had a $1.9 Million contract with the state to provide polygraphy services to sex offenders!

Hence a huge conflict of interest. How can an individual serving on the board setting policies help establish policies when he has such a self-serving financial interest in those policies? In this case – 2 million reasons to ensure that every potential “sex offender” get a polygraph from the state-contacted polygraphy company!

Legislators in Colorado passed House Bill 1427, which bars members of the Sex Offender Management Board from having direct financial benefits from the standards and guidelines adopted by that board. In other words, Jenks would either have to quit the board or give up his two million dollar contract. It has now gone to the governor for consideration.

We should push for similar legislation here in Florida. It should be a conflict of interest for anyone serving on a State or Municipal Board or an elected official to derive a financial benefit from standards and guidelines adopted by the board or laws passed by them. In other words; someone serving on a homeless trust or in the senate, should be prevented from passing or lobbying for statutes or ordinances that they will derive a financial benefit from. We can call it the “Ron and Lauren Book Act.”