Members of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board want to make future ethics investigations public after the secrecy surrounding one this summer was widely criticized and culminated in two resignations.
The Washington Post reports the board's ethics committee proposed the change Thursday, adding that conflict of interest standards should also be clarified. The panel investigated former Chairman Jack Evans and determined in May that he hadn't disclosed a profitable conflict of interest.
The findings were initially kept confidential and the committee said there wasn't a written record of proceedings. The secrecy enabled Evans and former board member Corbett Price to claim Evans had been cleared of any wrongdoing. The committee soon yielded to state and local officials' pressure to release the findings, ultimately leading Price and Evans to resign.
