Legislative ethics police under fire

The Alaska Legislature's ethics police, operating in secrecy when they operate at all, appear to have been ineffective while corruption infiltrated the Alaska Legislature in recent years.

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Some question whether that's the way the Alaska Legislature wanted it.

The last time the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics publicly reprimanded a legislator was in 2004, when then-Rep. Beverly Masek, R-Willow, was accused by a staff member of pressuring him into paying a restaurant bill for her, said Joyce Anderson, committee administrator.

Masek later lost her seat in the next election.

Since then, however, it is not clear what the ethics committee has been doing. During that period, FBI agents have been serving search warrants, interviewing witnesses and placing wiretaps on legislators and lobbyists. So far two elected officials have been convicted on corruption charges, two more are under indictment and are awaiting trial, and at least two have been implicated but not indicted.

That's got a number of legislative leaders, including House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, asking what needs to be done to prevent future corruption.

"We've got to do more to see that it doesn't happen again," she said.

The risk of speaking out

Federal prosecutors may have provided a clue last week about why the ethics committee was unable to do more.

In an amended indictment against former Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, who is scheduled to stand trial in corruption charges soon, prosecutors reported that Kohring fired his chief of staff at the behest of VECO Corp. CEO Bill Allen.

The aide had previously filed complaints with the ethics commission and the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

Allen had long been a powerful political player in Alaska. Allen, his wife and numerous top corporate officials had contributed to Masek's campaign.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Allen "expressed extreme displeasure that the aide was employed by Kohring," and the aide was fired.

Legislative aides, such as the one who filed the complaint against Masek, work "at-will" and can be fired for almost any reason or no reason.

House Speaker John Harris, R-Valdez, said that's not a problem because an aide shouldn't be working for someone they think they need to file an ethics complaint against.

"If they file a complaint, they'd better go look for another boss," he said.

Ethics committee members acknowledged the committee didn't act before the U.S. Department of Justice did, but said they didn't have anything to act on.

"I was in the Legislature in '04-05," said Rep. Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, a new member of the ethics committee this year.

"I heard rumors about things that were happening," she said. "You don't file a complaint based on rumors - you have to know something, you have to have first-hand knowledge," she said.

The lack of public action by the ethics committee over the last three years has some people asking whether the ethics committee has been an effective protector of the state.

Another new member of the ethics committee, Rep. Bob Roses, R-Anchorage, said he understands the frustration.

"All these FBI investigations were going on, and why were there no ethics complaints being filed against these individuals?" Roses said.

The ethics committee is set up differently than most legislative committees and includes nonlegislator citizen members along with legislators. Its legislative membership is divided evenly between members of the majority and minority.

Last year, the two Republican members were former Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, R-Juneau, and Senate President Ben Stevens, R-Anchorage. Weyhrauch is awaiting trial on bribery and extortion charges; Stevens has been named by a VECO executive in court as a recipient of the oil field services company's bribes, but has not been indicted.

The fact that two of the four legislators on the ethics committee last year are under suspicion may have something to do with why the committee hasn't acted until now, said Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, R-Kodiak.

"That really says a lot, doesn't it?" she said.

Roses said the way the committee is set up, with nonlegislator members having a one-vote majority, a biased legislator on the committee couldn't prevent charges from being filed against someone who violated ethics rules.

"Even if both legislators decided they wanted to band together and protect a staffer or a legislator, you can still get outvoted by the private members on there," Roses said.

The role of secrecy

It's often not clear what the ethics committee is doing, because under legislative rules much of what it does is confidential.

"Just because you don't know what we're doing doesn't mean we're not doing anything," Gardner said.

Many in the Legislature say that secrecy is there for a good reason. It is too easy to make unfounded complaints, especially during campaign season, they say.

"You don't want the ethics committee to become a campaign tool," Roses said.

Roses said he didn't have confidence that the media would cover such complaints responsibly.

"You get lots of press coverage when a complaint is filed," he said. "You get very little when you are cleared."

"You'll be lucky if you can find it on the 12th page of the second section," Roses said.

Gardner said the secrecy may go too far, though, and might protect unethical legislators more than it helps the public.

"I'm very uncomfortable with the whole issue of ethics complaints being confidential, and that's a discussion worth having," she said.

Kerttula agreed.

"Maybe we really need to lift that veil," she said.

That would be a change from just last year. Then, former Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, proposed controversial rules clamping down even more, barring anyone who brought an ethics complaint from talking about it with anyone.

Ultimate responsibility

Ultimately, responsibility for an ethical legislature lies with the public, Harris said.

"The public has a right and a responsibility here," he said.

Last year, Wasilla voters re-elected Kohring after the FBI had searched his legislative office, without an explanation from Kohring.

He later resigned after being indicted and is awaiting trial.

"The main people who have authority over legislators is the public," he said. "If they have ethics charges against them, the public has every opportunity to vote them out."

The current membership of the committee is active and working hard, Roses said. But it may be a while before the public shares that confidence, he acknowledged.

"Rebuilding confidence in the committee and what the committee is doing is going to take time," he said. "It's not going to happen overnight."

• Contact Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.