Legislature(1997 - 1998)
02/05/1998 08:04 AM House STA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
CSSB 105(FIN) am - ETHICS/LOBBYING/CAMPAIGN FINANCE TAPE 98-11, SIDE A Number 0001 CHAIR JAMES announced the next order of business was, CSSB 105 (FIN) am, "An Act relating to legislative and executive branch ethics; relating to campaign finances for candidates for state office; relating to the conduct and regulation of lobbyists with respect to public officials; relating to the filing of disclosures by certain state employees and officials; making a conforming amendment to the definition of 'public official' for employment security statutes; and providing for an effective date," sponsored by Senator Kelly. Number 0029 BENJAMIN BROWN, Legislative Administrative Assistant to Senator Tim Kelly, Alaska State Legislature, testified on behalf of Senator Tim Kelly, sponsor. Mr. Brown stated SB 105 is an omnibus ethics and to a certain lesser extent campaign reform act. He said the bill was originally introduced at the request of the Legislative Ethics Committee to address a number of deficiencies in the ethics code that have arisen over the past few years since the legislature started operating under the new law. Number 0035 MR. BROWN pointed out the Senate State Affairs Committee made substantial amendments to take a lot of the provisions of our Legislative Ethics Code and graft them on to the Executive Branch Ethics Act in Title 39.50. Number 0047 MR. BROWN said small discrete targeted campaign finance reform changes have been inserted into the bill to remedy over sizing the campaign finance law passed by the legislature in 1996. He indicated some of the changes are campaign finance issues that are logically related to ethical behavior by members of the legislative branch and the executive branch. MR. BROWN referred to the legislative branch ethics, he said many of the amendments change the statutes to conform to what the Legislative Ethics Committee is already doing. He indicated that they are not disobeying the law, but are taking a little bit of liberty in the way they have interpreted the law. Advisory opinions have been issued to legislators and staff who ask, "Is it okay if I do this, or not." Number 0070 MR. BROWN said the executive ethics code dates back to 1986 and is very different in comparison to the Legislative Ethics Code. The executive code apparently works pretty well but a lot of legislators are not familiar with it. Mr. Brown said the legislature is working to make sure we do not put anything that does not belong in the executive branch code from the legislative code. Number 0093 MR. BROWN noted a series of amendments have been proposed by various members of the legislature. He indicated the first 10 amendments would be distributed along with a memorandum analyzing them. Number 0097 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON asked Mr. Brown to give a brief history of how SB 105 evolved from relatively technical fixes to the Legislative Ethics Code to include campaign finance reform and the executive branch ethics. Number 0104 MR. BROWN said SB 105 was introduced last year at the request of the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics. Its first hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee saw the expansion of the bill to include the legislative branch ethics at the initiative of Senator Pearce, that is where the Executive Branch provisions were added. He noted that that is a duplication of something she had done in the Nineteenth Legislature. Senator Pearce's bill made it to the House Finance Committee, however, it failed to move because of a spousal lobbing issue. This matter once again appears in the bill. Number 0121 MR. BROWN said he did not believe there was a desire to put an inordinate number of campaign finance changes into the bill. He noted things in Title 15, which relate to campaign finance, are very closely related to ethical behavior. Ethics concerns people raising money for their campaigns, so it is related even though they are not in the same part of the Alaska Statute. Mr. Brown pointed out the bill takes on new purposes in the Senate. He reported it passed the Senate 17 to 2, with one member excused, and the two members who voted against it were members of the majority. He concluded most of the things in the bill do deal with the Legislative Ethics Act. Number 0144 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON observed when concealed handgun laws move through we say keep it simple, keep it simple. He indicated that has not happened with this bill. Number 0170 NEIL SLOTNICK, Assistant Attorney General, Commercial Section, Department of Law, stated he is the ethics attorney for the state. He said he has had the responsibility, for the past four years, to implement the Executive Branch Ethics Act. Mr. Slotnick said the way the statute currently works is that the Department of Law issues advisory opinions and also performs enforcement work when an ethics complaint is filed. Then a hearing would be held before the personnel board in the Department of Administration. Number 0185 MR. SLOTNICK stated SB 105 makes sweeping changes to the Executive Branch Ethics Act. He pointed out the bill went through the Senate without detailed examination, section by section, of the changes that are made to the Executive Branch. Obviously it is the legislature's prerogative to change the Ethics Act if there are policy calls made all the way along. He said he felt it was important that a careful analysis be done when making changes. Number 0215 MR. SLOTNICK noted Mr. Brown and committee staff have identified problem areas and need for improvement. He indicated there are serious problems when you meld in the Legislative Branch Ethics Act with an existing law, that has worked for 10 years, and you superimpose one upon the other without actually withdrawing the provisions that are there. Number 0225 MR. SLOTNICK said to put it simply, the Legislative Branch Ethics Act is more of a laundry list approach, whereas the Executive Branch Ethics Act is perhaps more of a standards of conduct approach and it is easier to read and understand. He felt either approach could work. Number 0238 CHAIR JAMES stated she had a lot of difficulty with campaign finance issues and ethics issues. She said it seems like any kind of enforcement of an issue pulls the roots out as opposed to trimming the bush. It makes the choices that we have so limited that sometimes we can't even do ethical behavior because it might be construed to be unethical. She pointed out that the same is true in the Open Meeting Act. Number 0280 MR. SLOTNICK stated the heart of the Executive Branch Ethics Law is Section 39.52.120 and it is a very simple law. It states, "A public officer may not use or attempt to use an official position for personal gain." He concluded that that is the standard and that is what is enforced and interpreted. He believed it has worked very well to eliminate unethical conduct and to prosecute violators, and at the same time, to avoid the unwarranted ethics complaint that is perhaps filed for reasons that do not really have anything to do with necessarily unethical conduct. He urged the House State Affairs Committee to be very careful in amending that. Number 0298 REPRESENTATIVE ELTON asked how much time would it take to make specific suggestions. Number 0301 MR. SLOTNICK deferred that question to Mr. Brown. Number 0328 CHAIR JAMES stated SB 105 is scheduled to be heard again on Thursday, February 12. Number 0332 MR. BROWN responded to Representative Elton's question. He said he believed it would be more productive if he continued to work with Mr. Slotnick until they have substitute language. Mr. Brown said he would prefer not to go over the bill section by section. Number 0351 CHAIR JAMES suggested the committee members be familiar with the issues covered in CSSB 105 by next week.
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