Editor’s note: During the rest of this month leading up to National Ethics Week (April 24-30) sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, The Fairhope Courier will report on some local and related state ethics issues and stories. This is the second article in that series.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. - Among the amendments to the Alabama Ethics Act passed during a special session last December, one provision received little notice.

It was also not included in a summary of the amendments on the Alabama Ethics Commission website.

“That’s an in-house thing we’ve got to do,” said Hugh Evans, general counsel for the agency. “That is new. We’ve had electronic filing of forms since about 2009. But that part is new.”

The amendment requires the commission, by April 1, 2012, to implement and maintain “an electronic database accessible to the public through an Internet website” that allows searching and retrieval of all statements, filing and other reports at the commission, as well as an aggregate list of “things of value” provided to each public official, employee or family member.

As reported last week in this series, one of the amendments was a requirement that many public employees and officials are required to receive training about the ethics law.

For current employees, the deadline for that training is April 30; new employees have 90 days after being hired to receive the training.

The employees who must receive the training are those who file “economic interest forms,” also known as “ethics forms.”

Such employees make more than $50,000 a year, or hold certain leadership positions if they make less than that.

The forms require disclosure of certain financial, family and other interests, which could help detect conflicts of interest and violations of the law, such as if a public action was taken which would benefit that public servant privately.

The searchable database will provide a way for people to search such ethics forms and “things of value” given to public employees and officials.