Martin's PFD Was Waaaay Overdue -- And Incomplete
Ed Martin "filed his financial disclosure form 300 days late after requesting three extensions," whining to the House ethics committee how he was unable to follow the law as a "private citizen with my own small business and family." Life is hard on Ed, it seems, but somehow he manages to get along.
A review of the disclosure he just couldn't file on time reveals that Martin failed to disclose at least two organizations for which he is/was an officer: The Institute for Transparent Government and the St. Louis Tea Party.
The Institute for Transparent Government was created by Martin in December 2008 "to promote transparency in government as exemplified by the Missouri Accountability Portal...and any other legal purposes." According to publicly-available documents filed with the Secretary of State's office, Martin is the incorporator, registered agent and president of the organization.
However, Martin's affiliation and leadership of the organization is nowhere to be found on his federal financial disclosure statement.
The website for the Institute for Transparent Government has been taken down, but Google Cache shows that the site contained at least some content as recently as June 2, 2010. As captured by Google, it read:
About The Institute For Transparent Government
The Institute for Transparent Government (ITG) is founded to further the "transparency movement", the effort to make all of government more visible to citizens. In particular, ITG is dedicated to furthering the availability -- in state-of-the-art technology -- of how taxpayer dollars are spent.
Ed Martin, founder of the Institute For Transparent Government, was chief of staff to Missouri Governor Matt Blunt from 2006-08 during which time Governor Blunt's office implemented the Missouri Accountability Portal (MAP), www.mapyourtaxes.mo.gov, a leading transparency portal. Since returning to the private sector, Martin has consulted with state and local governments across the country regarding transparency. He is a frequent speaker on transparency its public policy implications.
Second, Martin has been described by St. Louis Tea Party founder Bill Hennessy as "one of the organization’s officers." Hennessy formally created the St. Louis Tea Party nonprofit corporation with the Secretary of State on June 2, 2009, and wrote the following about Martin's formal role in the group on July 29, 2009:
Since the first week of the St. Louis Tea Party movement back in February, Ed Martin Jr. has served as one of the organization’s officers. Ed is a passionate, intelligent, and inspiring speaker who delighted the crowds at Tea Parties in February, April, and July. Because of our non-partisan pledge, we must remove Ed’s name from our list of officers. We will welcome him back if he decides to leave to public life.
The federal disclosure form requires that Martin report "all positions, compensated or uncompensated," held during 2009 and the two prior years.
-----------------------
For reference, here is a compilation of the positions Martin discloses to the House ethics committee. This image was made by combining four different pages in the filing.
