Michael Sullivan, President
Michael Sullivan is currently serving his third six-year term as the Director of the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. Appointed unanimously by a bi-partisan commission to his first six-year term in 1994, he is the only Director to be reappointed in the 33-year history of the Office. Prior to his appointment in 1994, Mike served as City Clerk in Newburyport, MA and was the President of the Massachusetts City Clerk's Association. He currently serves on the Steering Committee for COGEL and holds the title of President. A graduate of Tufts University, Mike is also a member of the Association of New England Football Officials and the North Shore Baseball Umpires Association.
Sarah Jackson, President-Elect
Sarah M. Jackson has served since 1999 as Executive Director of the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, a bi-partisan agency charged with enforcing Kentucky’s campaign finance laws. A native Kentuckian, Ms. Jackson previously served as General Counsel for Kentucky’s Cabinet for Workforce Development and Director of the Division of Charitable Gaming in the Kentucky Justice Cabinet. She was Assistant Attorney General from 1982-1986 before joining the law firm of McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie and Kirkland.
A 1982 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law (J.D.), a 1979 graduate of the University of the South (B.A. English), and a member of the American and Kentucky Bar Associations, Ms. Jackson has served as President of the Frankfort Arts Foundation, the Franklin County Bar Association and the Kentucky Bar Foundation.
Ms. Jackson currently serves on COGEL’s Steering Committee and is President-Elect. She has served on the Program Committee.
Charlie Smithson, Treasurer
Charlie Smithson is the Executive Director and Legal Counsel for the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. He is a contributing author to the book "Money, Politics, and Campaign Finance Reform Law in the States" and has written several articles on governmental ethics, lobbying, and campaign finance as well as being a frequent lecturer on those topics. He is the Treasurer and member of the Steering Committee for the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws and on the Editorial Board for the journal Public Integrity. He teaches Election Law at Drake University Law School and is an Honorary Member of The Order of the Barristers.
Stacy Fulhorst, Secretary
Ms. Fulhorst is the Executive Director of the City of San Diego Ethics Commission, which administers the City’s campaign, lobbying, and ethics laws. She is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the Commission’s education, auditing, enforcement, and legislative activities. Ms. Fulhorst started with the Commission as its first investigator in 2002, and has served as the Commission’s Executive Director since 2003. Prior to joining the Commission, she was an Investigator with the Office of the City Attorney, where she conducted investigations concerning a wide variety of civil and administrative matters. Before coming to work for the City, Ms. Fulhorst was the Managing Investigator for a private investigative firm specializing in complex litigation and employment investigations. Ms. Fulhorst is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles. Her term on the Steering Committee expires in December 2009.
Kathleen M. Allen
Kathleen M. Allen is a native of Baton Rouge and an alumnus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 1996 she graduated from Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center with the degree of Juris Doctor.
Kathleen has served as a staff attorney for the Louisiana Ethics Administration Program since November, 1997 and currently serves as Deputy General Counsel for the Louisiana Board of Ethics. As an attorney for the Board of Ethics, she provides legal and administrative services for the Board with respect to its administration and enforcement of Louisiana’s Code of Governmental Ethics, Campaign Finance Disclosure Laws and Legislation and Executive Lobbying Disclosure Laws.
Prior to her employment with the Board, Kathleen was an attorney with a private law firm in Lafayette, Louisiana. She is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association. Kathleen is currently serving her second year as a member of COGEL’s Steering Committee and Program Committee Chairperson.
Brian Hess
Brian Hess is the Information Technology Director for the State Ethics Commission of Georgia. Prior to joining the agency in 2004, Brian worked as Information Technology Director for the Missouri Ethics Commission for over four years. For both ethics commissions, Brian designed and implemented electronic reporting systems, intranets and databases, and revamped each agency’s web sites.
Brian earned a bachelor’s degree in both electrical engineering and computer engineering from the University of Missouri in 1994. He has served on the COGEL Information Technology committee since January of 2007.
Rita Looney
Rita S. Looney has served as Chief Counsel for the Arkansas Ethics Commission since March of 2003. As counsel for the Commission, she provides legal services for the Commission with respect to its enforcement of Arkansas’s standards of conduct and disclosure laws concerning candidates for public office, state and local public officials, lobbyists and committees, and individuals involved with initiatives, referendums and other matters referred to the voters.
Prior to joining the Commission staff, Ms. Looney had previously served as a Commissioner (1995-1999) and Chairman (2000) of the Ethics Commission. During her tenure as a Commissioner, Ms. Looney served on the COGEL steering committee for one year, filling a steering committee vacancy in her last year of service on the Ethics Commission.
Ms. Looney graduated, cum laude, from Ouachita Baptist University in 1982 and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock in 1985. She has argued cases before the Arkansas Supreme Court and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association.
John Steiner
John Steiner is the Integrity Officer for the City of Austin, Texas. He is responsible for the creation and implementation of a City-wide ethics initiative. He is a central resource for information for City management, staff, the City Council and City board and commission members on matters of government ethics and public integrity. As a direct report to the City Manager, he works to resolve integrity ethical issues as they arise across City departments. Integrity issues include matters related to use of government property, conflicts of interest, outside employment, political activity, gifts to public servants, bribery and threats, and other issues that affect the fact or appearance of improper influence on the behavior of City employees or violations of laws applicable to public servants in the discharge of their duties. He conducts regularly scheduled training, creates training materials, initiates training on current policies, and uses information gained in the training program to develop revised, job-specific policies.
John is a graduate of the University of Texas (B.A. 1975) and the University of Texas School of Law (J.D. 1982). He has been at the City of Austin since 1995. In 1992 he was named the first Executive Director of the newly-created Texas Ethics Commission, the agency that administers campaign finance, lobby, and ethics laws in Texas. Before that he was a member of the Texas Attorney General's Opinions Committee specializing in the Texas Open Meetings Act, the Texas Open Records Act, public finance, municipal law, and election law.
He is interested in helping COGEL extend its reach to local governments, which face the same issues as state and provincial governments, and which increasingly have their own ethics, campaign finance, lobby regulation, and open government programs.
Nola Western
Nola Western is the Director of Electoral Finance and Corporate Administration at Elections British Columbia. She joined Elections BC in 1996 and is responsible for both the financial, human resource and administrative functions of the office and the administration of the campaign financing provisions of the Election Act and the Recall and Initiative Act.
Prior to joining Elections BC, Nola was the Manager, Financial Services for the Vancouver Island Region of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways and worked as an auditor for the Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia.
Nola graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1985 and is a Chartered Accountant.
Nola is currently a member of the Professional Development Review Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC (ICABC) and has served on several other ICABC committees.
