SB 89-LEGISLATIVE ETHICS ACT  9:28:22 AM CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced the next order of business would be SB 89, which proposes changes to the statutes governing legislative ethics. SENATOR PASKVAN moved to adopt the proposed committee substitute (CS) for SB 89, labeled 27-LS0452\D, as the working document. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI objected for discussion purposes. SENATOR JOHN COGHILL, sponsor of SB 89, said his staff would go over the sectional analysis. He said the bill is a product of many years of conversation about things going on in the legislature. Nine bills were introduced to change the ethics law. Some issues have been proposed for three years running. One issue became a politically hot issue, dealing with value of meals. This brought the bill to a dead stop. That provision has been removed. 9:30:06 AM Mailing list issues have come into question: can legislators use campaign mailing lists in the legislature, and can they take mailing lists from the legislature to their campaigns. The ethics committee gave an opinion on that issue some time ago, and that will be codified in this statute. The second question is about state travel. When is it proper to do campaign activities while traveling as a legislator? Current statutes have a prohibition against anything partisan in nature while on state travel. The question should be: what is partisan activity? 9:31:58 AM When you are traveling in your home district, you are still that partisan person. It is always unethical to use state travel to go to fundraising activity. Senator Coghill said, "If I go home for a fundraiser, I should pay. If I go to Fairbanks, my home district, for meetings and I drive to Glenallen, and I am asked to speak at a Republican luncheon on the way back to Fairbanks, that would be strictly prohibited under current law." The rules create a conundrum. Under current rules, he would have to fly back to Juneau and then back to Fairbanks in order to speak at that luncheon. The ethical question should be, when is it right to be partisan and do it on state travel. Some people would say never, but this ignores the geography problem of Alaska. Other states are always connected by roads. It can literally take a day and a half to travel to some places in Alaska. Distance and logistics can make it difficult to be a good representative. 9:35:20 AM SENATOR COGHILL said another issue is billing the state for costs when traveling out of state. Sometimes costs don't come back within 30 days. This bill expands the time allowed to 60 days. When you are helping someone in your office with government institutions, navigating the systems, such as workers compensation or the permanent fund, when can you say "Here is the limit of what we will do on staff time." This needs to be defined in statute. For years, legislators were the ombudsman. Now we have an ombudsman's office. We did not have administrative law judges, and we had to push for answers to questions. Now administrative law judges can decide these issues. Legislators can help constituents up until they get before a final decision-maker. This gives clear boundaries on how far they can help someone. 9:38:57 AM He said one exception is for those in the legislature who are lawyers and who will get paid to do that. It allows that action but it must be clear. In situations where a legislator is unable to attend a meeting of the Legislative Ethics Committee, the committee will put an alternate in. This bill says the alternate must stay in until the hearing is concluded. SB 89 also codifies that when a legislator cannot attend a meeting, the presiding officer can appoint someone to take their place. Most of these questions have come up in a series of ethics committee meetings. 9:41:32 AM RYNNIEVA MOSS, staff to Senator John Coghill, said she would review the sectional analysis of SB 89. This is included in the bill packet. Section 1 is cleanup from legislation passed in 2008, and accommodates the giving and receiving of a compassionate gift. Section 1 also deals with the mailing list issue, and clarifies the use of public funds and facilities, and using legislative mailing lists for fundraising or campaigning purposes. Section 2 is about doing constituent work as a legislator. There is an exception for violation of this section; as soon as they become aware, the legislator must notify the ethics committee. If a legislator is called to testify before an administrative hearing, that would also be an exception. Sections 3 and 4 of the bill deal with travel time and partisan activities. The bill drafters tried to be as specific as possible. This is a policy issue for the legislature to decide. SB 89 says they can't participate in partisan activities during a normal working day, which is from 8-5, excluding a meal break, or on a municipal or state election day, or for 30 days preceding an election. Under no conditions can they fundraise for a political party or campaign while traveling on state business. 9:44:59 AM CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked what current law is regarding the executive branch on this issue. MS. MOSS responded she was not sure of the current AG opinion. SENATOR COGHILL said the executive branch pro-rated based on de minimis use, but this doesn't work for legislators. MS. MOSS said section 5 was requested by the Legislative Ethics Committee. It says they must keep on file for public access all disclosures they have filed. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked if this change would broaden the law. MS. MOSS answered it would release the committee from the burden of compiling a list of all disclosures. Section 6 adds public members to the prohibition of disclosing confidential information. Section 7 deals with charity events, and clarifies that charity tickets also include charity event gifts. Under current law it is not clear that those must be disclosed. It tries to clarify that anyone can contribute a gift to a legislator in a sanctioned charity event. Lobbyists can contribute up to $250. It is reportable and they cannot exceed that amount. 9:48:27 AM SENATOR MEYER asked about the Thanksgiving in March event. It is sanctioned, and a legislator could win a door prize of a cruise. If he wins, is that okay as long as he discloses? MS. MOSS answered yes. Section 8 is housekeeping regarding charity events. Section 10 accommodates people who may be required to make a disclosure but that disclosure would violate a U.S. or state constitution or state or federal law. They can request to refrain from disclosing. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked about disclosing the names of clients or patients. MS. MOSS answered they would have to request not to disclose, but they are not required to disclose confidential information. Section 11 addresses volunteers and educational trainees. They are not currently required to take ethics training. Under this change they would be. Section 12 is housekeeping for section 14, which adds a new section dealing with alternates. Section 13 refers to AS 24.16.131 and completely re-writes alternate member language. 9:51:45 AM This would include the Alaska Supreme Court in adding alternates to the Legislative Ethics Committee. Section 15 is adding legislative ethics training requirements. Section 16 is a request by the committee to say that hourly legislative employees (such as maintenance and print shop) are exempt from ethics training. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked how a volunteer was defined. MS. MOSS said volunteers are sometimes approved through the legislative council. Some legislators also have UAF interns, which is statutory. SENATOR COGHILL added that if a person helps out in a legislator's office, then that has to go through the Rules chairman or legislative council. They would determine whether that volunteer would have to take ethics training. Once a person has access to information, they should be under the same type of rules as other staff. 9:54:30 AM CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI asked if a staff member is sick and someone fills in, what happens. MS. MOSS asked if that person would be on the payroll. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI answered yes. MS. MOSS responded if a person is on the payroll, they must comply with legislative ethics laws. MS. MOSS explained that section 17 defines the meaning of state travel. Section 18 repeals AS 24.60.130(m); it is replaced by AS 24.60.131. The committee packet also includes a summary of these changes. SENATOR COGHILL said the committee packet includes links to ethics laws in other states. Alaska is on the forefront in defining legislative ethics. The state travel issue is not as big in other states, because of geography. The packet also includes minutes from ethics committee meetings, showing discussion on state travel issues. 9:57:34 AM MS. MOSS noted there are five or six different advisory opinions in the packet. There are also some sets of minutes from 2010 ethics committee hearings regarding state travel. SKIP COOK, Chair, Select Committee on Legislative Ethics, said he wanted to comment on two areas of the bill. The state travel issue has been the subject of much discussion. The Ethics Committee takes the position that the statute is quite clear; the committee has no position on what the law should be. Understandably, the legislature has been reluctant to change the current law due to possible public reaction. The legislature passed the law, and the legislature must amend it. He also commented on the structure of the committee and the use of alternates. There are currently five public members and four legislative members on the committee. This is a disadvantage to the public side, because there is no provision for alternates for public members. He suggested that be changed so that a Chief Justice could appoint an alternate public member if the regular member is unable to attend. This would be better than the current law. He also feels the current law goes too far with provisions for a legislative member's replacement. It doesn't work well with committee procedures. It is difficult enough to get alternates up to speed, and the provision for a second alternate is not fair unless it is also done for public members; it also makes things difficult for administration of the committee. 10:03:34 AM JOYCE ANDERSON, Administrator, Select Committee on Legislative Ethics, said she agreed with the comments of Skip Cook. CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI closed public testimony and announced SB 89 would be set aside for further hearing.