Tougher ethics laws high on Oregon lawmakers' 2007 agenda

12/09/2006

By BRAD CAIN  / Associated Press

As the lobbyist for a property rights group, Larry George says he was taken aback on more than one occasion when certain state legislators would invite him out for a meal — on his dime.

"They would walk up to me and say, `Hey, you're taking me to lunch today,' or `Hey, you're paying for dinner tonight,' " he says.

Such behavior isn't illegal, and George won't say which lawmakers he's talking about.

But George — a Sherwood Republican who was elected to the state Senate in the Nov. 7 election — thinks that behavior reflects a "cavalier" attitude toward Oregon's government ethics laws.

"If a bill comes up to prohibit any kinds of gifts, trips, dinners, tickets or whatever from lobbyists to legislators, I will vote `yes,' " he says.

It appears likely the senator-elect will get a chance to vote on such a bill in the Oregon Legislature's 2007 session, where an overhaul of state ethics laws is expected to be high on most everyone's agenda.

In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Oregon voters in 1974 created an ethics code and a state watchdog commission to enforce those regulations — a move that enhanced Oregon's reputation for squeaky-clean politics.

Oregon's ethics laws allow legislators to accept food, lodging and travel from lobbyists if it's related to their official duties and if they report it when the total exceeds designated amounts. The law also sets a $100 annual gift limit, although there are exceptions for things like Trail Blazer tickets.

Oregon was once considered an ethics leader, but a lot of other states have moved ahead of Oregon by passing tougher laws, says Janice Thompson, an ethics watchdog who is director of the Money in Politics Research Action Project.

"Hopefully, 2007 will be the year that Oregon joins other states that have made significant improvements in their lobbying and ethics laws," Thompson says.

A lot of the momentum for those possible changes comes from disclosures this fall about a half dozen or so state lawmakers who failed to disclose trips to Maui in 2002 and 2004 to conferences paid by the beer-and-wine lobby.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., the congressional page scandal erupted, a development that politically damaged the Republicans and likely contributed to the GOP losing control of the House.

The state and national ethics scandals are seen by some as part of a perfect storm, a convergence of events that dismayed voters and sparked renewed calls for ethics reforms at the state and national levels.

In Oregon, Thompson and others say a big part of the problem has been that Oregon's ethics commission has fallen on hard times, squeezed by the Legislature to the point where it no longer could adequately investigate the dozens of complaints it gets each year about public officials.

For Gov. Ted Kulongoski and legislative leaders, one of the first priorities is a more robust ethics commission with a stable source of funding.

In his 2007-2009 budget, the Democratic governor proposes setting aside $930,000 for the commission, which would allow it to hire an additional two investigators and boost its staff to five people.

House Speaker-elect Jeff Merkley supports that recommendation, and he's also suggesting what he says would be an important, even if somewhat symbolic, move to officially give back the panel its old name of Oregon Government Ethics Commission.

The 1993 Legislature, upset by what it considered the commission's overly aggressive investigations of lawmakers, opted for the more bland sounding Government Standards and Practices Commission.

"It seems to me we have lost our way a bit. It might not hurt to rename the commission to reflect its core mission — trying to have appropriate standards for conduct and having people abide by those standards," Merkley said.

The Portland Democrat also has said he will push for an outright ban on lobbyists providing meals or gifts to legislators.

"We need to promote a culture where the citizens know that legislators are in Salem working for them," Merkley said. "Legislators don't need to be schmoozed by lobbyists."

Senate President Peter Courtney isn't sure if the 2007 Legislature will go so far as to approve the ban Merkley is proposing. But he predicted that a solid package of ethics reforms will win approval in the coming year.

"Every time I'm in any discussion, ethics comes up," the Salem Democrat says. "We realize we're going to have to so something, because there's an image issue, there's a credibility issue" that was created by the publicity surrounding legislators' unreported trips.

Legislative leaders, Kulongoski and good government groups are awaiting a final set of ethics reform recommendations to be issued Dec. 20 by the nonpartisan Oregon Law Commission.

An initial package of ideas from the panel lacks any of the restrictions on lobbyist-furnished freebies that critics say are needed in the wake of a scandal involving Oregon legislators' unreported trips to Hawaii.

However, the commission could include such proposals in its final package, which lawmakers will use as the basis for ethics reform bills in the coming session.

Merkley says lawmakers need to take decisive action to restore public faith in a legislative branch that's been battered by the disclosures of lobbyist-paid junkets and lawmakers' failure to report them.

"If ever there was a moment when we should be able to adjust the culture in Salem, this is it," the House speaker-elect says.