Mat-Su Assembly to strip Ethics Board and fair process

To the editor:

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly could vaporize the Ethics Board into history Tuesday. The proposal (Ordinance 11-060) would also eliminate guarantees of fairness and the rights of both parties.

The current Ethics Board process keeps the gathering of evidence and prosecution of a complaint separate from the judgment of the case. Instead, a single paid administrative hearing officer would receive the complaint, gather evidence, serve as prosecutor and judge. Muammar Gaddafi would love it.

This sudden proposal (Ordinance 11-060) to eliminate the Ethics Board is curious since the assembly is scheduled to consider a larger Ethics Board code update (Ordinance 11-022) in August, including use of an administrative hearing officer within the process. However, there won’t be an Ethics Board if Tuesday’s measure passes. Ordinance 11-022, and the other adjustments to the ethics code, simply won’t be considered. With this vote, we could lose one of most important guarantees for good government.

In Ordinance 11-022, the Ethics Board also recommends cutting costs and making the process more efficient while ensuring an ethics process that maintains fairness, credibility and protects everyone’s rights. An administrative hearing officer would be allowed to manage the hearing instead of an outside attorney. No outside counsel to the board would be hired.

However, the Ethics Board remained unanimous in preserving the independent gathering of evidence and prosecution of the complaint. That allows fair consideration of evidence from both sides to ensure an impartial judgment.

People may not agree on a wide variety of political issues, but most agree we deserve a fair legislative process as well as a fair ethics process. Please look at the proposals online and contact your assembly members. All the ideas should be considered together in August. Ordinance 11-060 should not be passed on Tuesday.

Jim Sykes

Former MSB Ethics Board chair