Senate ethics panel gives group more time to bring info against senator

The Iowa Senate’s Ethics panel has voted to give Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement a week to file more allegations against a senator the group says has a conflict because he works for a large-scale hog producer.The group says Republican Senator Mike Sexton of Rockwell City killed bills that’d harm “factory farms” because he works for Swine Graphics. George Naylor’s a spokesman for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.Naylor says Sexton shouldn’t be chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee because he’s “environmental compliance officer” for Swine Graphics. He says the majority of citizens of Iowa have had it with inaction by the Legislature to enact regulations to prevent big livestock operations from ruining Iowa’s air and water.Naylor testified before the Ethics Committee. He says they are not trying to prosecute Senator Sexton, he says they’re looking for good government.The Ethics panel has three republicans and three democrats, and the republicans were inclined to dismiss the complaint against their G-O-P colleague. Eventually, the committee voted to give the anti-factory farms group another week to add to their complaint. William Kutmus, Sexton’s lawyer, says his client’s disappointed the complaint wasn’t dismissed. He says it appears that there’s insufficient evidence to constitute a violation of ethics.Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement has ’til next Friday to file more allegations, then Sexton has a week to respond.