Legislative ethics, or a shortage thereof, have been a recurring theme in the 2006 session of the Colorado General Assembly, now in its final throes.
Hardly a week goes by without someone suggesting that someone else has a conflict of interest and should not sponsor this bill or that, or not vote on it, or resign or fall on his or her sword or otherwise seriously atone.
But for all the clucking and head- shaking, only two complaints have advanced to the point of having ethics committees empanelled to consider them. Two does not seem like an disturbingly large number, but it is twice as many as in any previous year.
In fact, this year’s two, and one predecessor in 1998, are the only ethics complaints anyone – including historians and retired staff directors – can remember.
This is “much, much less than a lot of states,” notes Peggy Kerns, director of the Center for Ethics in Government of the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures.
Colorado’s legislature has achieved this comparative state of cleanliness despite a lack of detailed ethics rules. “I use Colorado oftentimes of an example of a state that does not have a lot of onerous restrictions yet is seen as an ethical state,” says Kerns.
On the other hand, there are states like Wisconsin, where legislators effectively are barred from accepting even the proverbial cup of coffee and yet manage to get into serious trouble. One legislator is in jail and another is on his way, Kerns said, because they used state employees for campaign work.
Kerns, a former Colorado House minority leader and Carter administration official, has a list of misdeeds compiled in late January by Stateline.org. In 15 states, there had been investigations in 2005 and early 2006 into more than two dozen instances of alleged political corruption and ethics violations. Fourteen of them involved legislators. This was before either of Colorado’s problem lawmakers made the news, but their misdeeds seem mild by comparison.
In Tennessee, an FBI sting led to the indictments of five legislators for allegedly agreeing to take bribes. A former Rhode Island state senator pleaded guilty to accepting more than $300,000 from health care companies so they could use his office.
An Idaho state senator resigned before a vote was taken on whether he should be removed. He had introduced a bill that would have increased the value of a property he was trying to sell, and he hadn’t disclosed the conflict of interest.
This makes Colorado’s offenders seem like rank amateurs. Former Sen. Deanna Hanna, D- Lakewood – “stupidly,” she concedes – sent a letter to a lobbying group seeking a campaign contribution as “reparations” for what she considered a broken promise. She resigned March 22. Former House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, gave up his leadership position under heavy criticism of the $23,760 per diem he charged the state.
The only previous ethics panel anyone remembers, in 1998, dismissed charges against Republican Tony Grampsas, who was accused of threatening to cut funding to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center unless his personal physician was reinstated.
Kerns can only guess why there’s so much emphasis on ethics this year. Perhaps it’s because of the scandalous environment in Washington, coupled with the fact it’s an election year.
She’s one of five members of an ethics advisory panel appointed by House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. He and the new minority leader, Mike May, R-Parker, want stronger ethics procedures for the House. The Senate believes its more detailed rules are sufficient.
But rules are not enough, Kerns believes; ethics has to come from “core values and standards.”
“Laws don’t make you ethical … . They are one piece in creating an ethical environment, a strong statement to the public that unethical behavior will not be tolerated.”
The plan is to adopt something before the legislature adjourns this week, while lawmakers are still thinking about it – and still embarrassed by it.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a political analyst for 9News.
