State’s ethics law gets a little tougher

By Staff
Bob Martin, Alabama Scene
I sat in the balcony at the old House of Representatives chamber at the state Capitol in 1973 as my friend, Rep. Bob Hill Jr. of Florence, the House sponsor, was battling for passage of legislation that would establish an Alabama Ethics Law and a State Ethics Commission.
The Senate had sent the Ethics Bill to the House on the last night of the regular session that year thinking they could pass it and receive praise and that the House would kill the bill and take all the blame. That was not to be.
As the bill entered debate, the former House Speaker, Rep. Rankin Fite of Hamilton, rose to oppose it. Still full of spunk, but past his prime politically, Fite with his voice trembling and stuttering from the ravages of Parkinson’s disease, declared…"I rise to speak against this legislation…it’s just not strong enough.”
The House called the Senate’s bluff and the bill became law.
Of course, the legislation was anything but “too strong” but the commission it established made it a little stronger last week. Seeking to clarify what lobbyists and those who want to influence public officials can do without having to report the expenditures, a question was posed to the commission concerning how much could be spent on a neighbor or friend of a public official.
The key question asked was if a lobbyist or company official’s family took a trip to the beach, could his child take along a friend who happened to be the child of a public school teacher without either reporting the expense for the child. The answer was “yes,” unless the trip lasted over three days and the cost for the child did not exceed $250 per day, or the teacher paid for any additional expense. The commission said, in its ruling that the law requires reporting of any expense that exceeds $250 per day and does not exempt friends or neighbors or their children. It does exempt certain family members, all the way down to cousins. However, for now entertaining friends and neighbors or their spouses or family over the limit and without reporting is a “no-no.”
While this example mentioned above might seem somewhat extreme, it is encouraging that the Ethics Commission is attempting to make the law a bit tougher. After all, if the neighbor’s kid stays more than three days the host and the public official, if required to file, would have to report it on their ethics form.
My calculation is that if the cost for the guest exceeded $250-a-day the guest could stay the first three days, the child’s parents could pay for one day, and the guest could stay another three days and the only thing required would be filling out a form on an ethics form. But it is highly unlikely that a child guest would ring up $250-per-day anyway and therefore the whole question is probably moot.
So perhaps Rep. Fite’s comment that night just over 34 years ago was truly “tongue-in-cheek,” which most in the audience understood.
Dueling over Pre-K
Last week Gov. Riley announced a tiny step toward establishing a comprehensive Pre-Kindergarten program in Alabama. It’s voluntary and the budget for the program is $10 million and designed to cover 2,400 of the state’s 60,000 four-year-olds.
But the proposal by the governor drew criticism from Paul Hubbert, executive director of The Alabama Education Association.
Hubbert says the Tuscaloosa city Pre-K is the best in the state and that Riley’s plan may hinder or penalize the Tuscaloosa effort. Hubbert says the governor’s plan will provide grants up to $45,000 a year to entities that apply; private childcare centers, churches, and public schools are all eligible regardless of need. He says the grants are to be used to meet current tough state pre-k standards for qualified teachers, appropriate early learning curriculum, proper facilities, and a low teacher to student ratios.
In return, Hubbert says, some families will be able to send their four-year olds to these pre-K sites as long as space is available, and pay tuition up to $300 a month for the privilege. “At full implementation the governor’s plan will leave approximately 40,000 four-year olds out of the program, according to his own estimates,” Hubbert says.
I suspect the plan will be thoroughly vetted in the legislative process. The bottom line is that it’s good they’re talking about the need for Pre-K.
Alabama milestones
Forty-two years after he helped Alabama win a national championship, Joe Namath finally became an alum, earning a belated degree last week in interdisciplinary studies, mainly at the urging of his daughter.
Leigh Pegues, who served in the Alabama House from 1974-82, was the mayor of Marion, and was later director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, died last Saturday in a Montgomery hospital. He was 80.