Recall bill ‘fixes' something not broken

March 21, 2006

Juneau Report/Nyrl Thompson

Editor's note: The following are excerpts from Valley resident Myrl Thompson's weekly Juneau Report, a collection of observations and opinions about the week's happenings in the Legislature.

Bills/Issues

House Bill 438 - Rep. Ramras' recall bill (a.k.a. &#8220The Save Ben's Butt Bill”)

This bill is, &#8220An Act relating to initiative, referendum, and recall petitions; and providing for an effective date.” It is the epitome of the worst kind of legislation that one can imagine. Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, is, in essence, taking the Alaska general public behind the woodshed with this piece of legislative tripe.

One glaring omission from the sponsor statement is the matter of applying his new definitions to the existing state statutes pertaining to the four reasons or criteria for recall. It's just a small omission, with huge ramifications. Add that to the doubling of the amount of signatures needed, and the extending of the dates applications can't be filed, and you have effectively gutted the recall process we have had since statehood.

When pressed, Ramras said he had just thrown that recall stuff in there. Well I argue that he just threw the whole bill together. He is trying to fix something that is not broken.

You can't blame Ramras. He is only following the recipe of other notables of his ilk. Sen. Ralph Seekins is still trying to fix the wrong parts of ethics laws. Seems to be an endemic problem with legislators from Fairbanks.

Maybe it's a problem with big city politicians in general. Rep. Norm Rokeberg, R-Anchorage, has already managed to &#8220fix” open meeting principles, by making them not necessary at all. So maybe Ramras is just really helping Alaskans out by protecting our politicians from us. Citizens are brilliant just before elections, and a nuisance until the next one.

House Bill 45 - Campaign finance and disclosure bill

This bill is an answer to a citizen-led initiative to reform campaign contribution and disclosure laws. It seems that the legislators had little desire to do this since the law was changed soon after Murkowski took office.

It's amazing what inspiration a citizen-led initiative can have on politicians. All of a sudden similar legislation has appeared and seems to be sprouting wings.

This bill, in essence, will do what the Initiative would have forced them to do anyway. HB 45 reduces from $1,000 to $500 the amount that an individual is allowed to contribute to a candidate or non-political party group. It reduces from $10,000 to $5,000 the amount an individual can contribute annually to a political party. It also reduces from $2,000 to $1,000 the annual contribution that a non-political party group may make to a candidate, group, political party or a non-group entity.

The bill changes the definition of lobbyist because it reduces from 40 to 10, the number of hours a month that a person may lobby before having to register as a lobbyist. It used to be four hours a month before the Murkowski administration changed it.

The bill also reduces from $5,000 to $1,000 the amount legislators and certain legislative employees can receive in compensation for personal services outside of their public positions, without having to disclose that information to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

One difference between the Initiative and the bill is this: If these changes would pass as a ballot measure, then the law would remain in effect for at least two years. If the bill passes and becomes law, the Legislature could simply change it back, at will.

Senate Bill 186 - Executive ethics bill

Just as predicted in a Frontiersman editorial, Rep. Rokeberg's Rules Committee allowed Sen. Seekins to add back a provision stripped from his bill in House State Affairs. True to form, heavy-hitter Seekins hit his same old pitch.

Relief pitcher Rokeberg threw beach balls from the mound. Mighty Ralph managed to hit one for a single. He got his &#8220blind trust” provision reinstated into the bill. Seekins wanted another swing at the penalty for breaking confidentiality, but even Rokeberg didn't dare throw him that &#8220gimme.”

Expect Seekins to still try to add it back along the way. One thing about Ralph, thousands of booing fans have no effect on him. The game continues.

Attendance

Legislators get paid for 120 day, base pay plus per diem. Their pay includes the 34 days of the session that are weekends and the 86 other days.

Floor Absences through March 18 (68 days)

Kohring-8; Gatto-6; Neuman-4; Stoltze-2

Days not in Juneau

(first 69 days of session, &#8220+” means some half days missed in addition to the number)

Kohring-22+; Neuman-22+; Gatto-16+; Stoltze-12+

It seems that since the last report when absences were made public, Speaker of the House John Harris' office may be letting Valley members leave Juneau without posting that fact. This is going to make it more difficult to track them. You can help. If you see a Valley House member in the Valley or Anchorage from this day forward, just send me an e-mail and I will document it.

Valley resident Myrl Thompson is a citizen lobbyist and former independent candidate for state House. His Valley Voices guest opinion column appears every four weeks in the Sunday Frontiersman. Excerpts from his weekly Juneau Reports appear as space and relevance allow.