Whoops, they did it again … and again

Frontiersman editorial board

One day they'll be teaching a course in universities all over the U.S. It'll be called something like, "20th and 21st Century Alaska Government: The Ethical Vacuum," or perhaps the alternate subtitle, "Sleazy Politics in the Shadows of the Northern Lights."

The good news, perhaps, is that things are changing. And that is happening, as always, because people are finally getting tired of the same old shell game, the same old tin-can rhetoric followed by back room deals, righteous indignation and the highly refined Alaska wink-and-nod form of double-speak.

This time, in another first for disgusted voters, an ethics complaint has been filed against Rep. Vic Kohring for a perceived infraction of the Open Meetings Act. The Select Committee on Legislative Ethics has been in operation since 1993, but this will be the first such complaint it has handled. It's a handsome bookend to match the first ever legislator recall effort launched in the state, against Sen. Scott Ogan. We'll probably not look back on 2004 as the golden age of Valley politics. The huff is over the fact that Kohring called a brief "at-ease" during a public meeting, went out in the hall with some other Republican committee members and then returned to the meeting with a decision. It was sort of a junior executive session, and it raised some eyebrows of others attending the meeting. Kohring later admitted it wasn't a good move, and then said he hoped the ethics board will understand his actions. Understanding whispered hallway meetings is one thing, forgiving inappropriate behavior is another.

In conjunction with the ethics complaint, comes another eruption from the debate over coal-bed methane development here. Rep. John Harris, R-Valdez, called a meeting between Evergreen Resources Inc. and a few select Mat-Su Borough Assembly members. Assembly Member Jim Colver, whose district is largely sliced up with subsurface leases, was not invited, and he took umbrage. Some characterized the meeting as another closed-door affair, that would send yet another message of impropriety to the public. Undaunted, Harris said closed door was, indeed, his intention. Assembly Member Betty Vehrs expressed concern about the impression the meeting might leave, and refused to attend. Assembly Member Bruce Bush, was not concerned. He said the Assembly had no authority to tell the state how to do its business, and he also said such meetings were just the way things are done here.

Maybe that's the problem. Maybe people are finally tired of the way things are done here. Maybe voters are tired of staring at closed doors and then finding out that their rights have been subleased to Outside corporations, and that their concerns have fallen on deaf ears. "Trust us," our legislators like to say when they emerge from behind those doors. "We know what's best for you." It seems Alaskans aren't as willing to accept that as we once were.