State House does right thing with ethics bill

It looks as if sanity, at last, has found a home within the bounds of proposed legislation about executive ethics reform.

Senate Bill 186 is headed for a vote in the state House after being roughed up in two committees. The Judiciary finished up work on it Thursday after State Affairs gave it a good going over earlier this session. The bill now bears little resemblance to its original form, but the leaner present version is a better, more appropriate bill for the people of Alaska.

Gone are the controversial provisions that would have allowed disgraced former attorney general Gregg Renkes to remain in office and his accusers to be penalized. Gone, with them, is the support of its sponsor, Renkes defender Ralph Seekins, a Republican senator from Fairbanks.

The bill has been widely criticized since its inception last spring - first in the media, then by the general public. Still, Seekins followed the bill through the House committees, relentlessly defending his version while whining that no one really understood it.

Now, members of Seekins' own party have joined the chorus of opposition. Perhaps it is time for the senator to consider the possibility that the bill is understood too well.

Seekins says the bill is simply about equality, about the public being held to the same standards as elected officials. As such, someone who registers an ethics complaint would be prohibited from talking about it until a government panel OK'd such disclosure.

We agree with Sen. Seekins that the current system, technically, is unfair. It does treat public employees differently from private citizens. We just don't agree that this should change.

Whatever slight disadvantage the current law imposes on public officials is a necessary one, because removing the disadvantage does not level the playing field, as Seekins contends. It tilts the balance of power unacceptably away from regular folks toward those who serve them.

As long as a government body, subject to political pressures, is charged with adjudicating the validity of a citizen complaint against the government, fundamental democratic notions of government of, by and for the people no longer apply. This can never be allowed.

We are encouraged that House lawmakers, led by committee chairs Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, and Paul Seaton, R-Homer, realized this and did the right thing for their constituents and the people of Alaska. State Affairs vice chair, Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, also deserves the thanks of his constituents and a big pat on the back for his part in helping to turn this bill into responsible legislation.

The future is still uncertain for executive ethics reform this session. Even if the House approves the current version of SB 186, it would then be up to a mixed committee of House and Senate members to reach a compromise on it. The Senate, with the approving votes of Mat-Su's Lyda Green and Charlie Huggins, has already said &#8220OK” to Seekins original version.

Concerned citizens should pay attention to how this plays out.