Legislators, the public need time to debate ethics code revisions

Frontiersman editorial board

Rep. Ethan Berkowitz, D-Anchorage, tacked an ethics amendment onto a bill revising Alaska's sentencing guidelines, in an attempt to fix loopholes in the state's ethics law; the amendment was soundly defeated in the House by a 23-14 margin.

The vote on the amendment primarily followed party lines, with only Republican Reps. Vic Kohring of Wasilla and Jim Elkins of Ketchikan breaking majority and voting in favor of the amendment.

House Judiciary Chairwoman Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, stated in a floor debate that the amendment had merit but the sentencing bill was critical and was not the right place for it. Senate Bill 56 is being fast-tracked through the Legislature to bring Alaska law into conformity with a June 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing judges to consider all relevant factors in sentencing. The bill amends Alaska's current presumptive sentencing from a set term to a range of terms.

We agree with McGuire that Senate Bill 56 was not the right place for this amendment. This issue is too important to push through, with little debate, piggybacked on a fast-tracked piece of legislation.

Alaska's current ethics law must be fixed and both parties seem to agree the code of ethics for the state needs to be more clearly defined. But, we also believe serious consideration needs to be given to the amendment so our elected officials know exactly where the ethics boundaries lie, otherwise we'll continue to see ethics charges levied as elected officials dance dangerously close to the edge of the state's current lax code.

Republican leaders have said they have been waiting for the Murkowski administration to propose changes in the ethics law, as Robert Bundy suggested the administration do in his report on the investigation into allegations of ethics violations by former state Attorney General Gregg Renkes.

We urge those legislators to show initiative with this issue and work together in a bipartisan manner to fix the flaws in our state's code of ethics, instead of squandering valuable session time waiting for someone else to take action.