Transparency alone is not the ticket for Georgia legislators and ethics
Today is the first full day of action in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. It puts me in the mind of the Georgia Legislature — and not because they call the tournament “March Madness.”
Two years ago, when a $100 limit on lobbyist gifts was proposed, I asked a House committee chairman to explain why he opposed it. He recounted this story:
The last time the Final Four was in Atlanta (2007), by late March he’d worked a lot of late hours away from the family. As he walked toward the exit one night, a lobbyist passing by held out a pair of tickets and suggested he take his son to a game.
As one might expect, they had a grand time. Looking back, he told me, he wouldn’t have wanted to deprive his son of that experience they had together. A $100 gift limit, you see, would have left father and son to watch the game at home or pay their own way.
Remember: This was his defense of $100-plus gifts.
Lest you think this was a one-off scenario, the online records of the agency once known as the State Ethics Commission reveal that 15 legislators avoided such NCAA deprivation.
Well, at least 15: In light of the protests from legislators who say all we need is transparency, it’s worth noting this particular chairman’s name was not listed on the website. An oversight, perhaps. I wonder if there were any other such slip-ups.
Besides the transparency line, another thing some Capitol denizens would have you believe is that sneaky, tassel-loafered lobbyists are liable to come upon an unsuspecting legislator at any moment and shove a ticket or $300 meal down his or her throat.
Ahem.
Around this time last year, I was in a social setting with a lobbyist who, within a few hours, relayed to me maybe half a dozen unsolicited requests from legislators asking about tickets to this ballgame or that concert. (It didn’t occur to me to start counting until the bulletins had become fairly regular.)
Then, on Monday, I was standing next to a Senate staffer when a powerful senator walked up. He told her he deserved “credit” for pledging to get her tickets — he didn’t say to what, or from whom — had her favorite team only advanced further in last weekend’s ACC basketball tournament at Philips Arena. Suffice it to say, I didn’t get the impression this oft-lobbied senator was going to dig into his own per diem to buy the tickets.
I chose not to name names in these instances for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that there’s no point in making this about particular personalities. This is not a matter of a few bad apples. I’m not sure most of them would consider this practice rotten, even if citizens might think their lawmakers are spoiled.
According to my review of the ethics commission’s data, since 2008 an average of 156 legislators a year — almost two-thirds of them — have accepted tickets from lobbyists to some kind of event (not counting those related to politics or policy).
Braves games, Falcons games, Bulldogs games, Yellow Jackets games, Hawks games, Thrashers games, concerts, plays, dance performances, comedy shows, the circus, the zoo, the aquarium. There’s something to appeal to everyone.
What appeals to the lobbyists is your guess. Of 1,990 ticket-related items since 2008, a grand total of 15 of them — less than eight-tenths of 1 percent — specified a bill name or number which was discussed. These tickets cost a grand total of $350,156. No one believes the purchasers spent that kind of money just because they didn’t have time during the day to ask Mr. Chairman how the kids have been doing.
Then again, maybe that transparency failure is just as well, in light of this one: With 33 of the session’s 40 days past us, not one lobbyist report mentioning the word “ticket” is available yet on the ethics commission’s website.
The Falcons played just one home game in January, but have our legislators been deprived each of the 16 times the Hawks have played here? Did 10 home games apiece for UGA and Georgia Tech (bad as those teams were) have no appeal? Did the ACC tournament get no legislator love?
Well, the Thrashers did leave town. Maybe that explains the apparent ticketlessness.
Ethics reform efforts appear stalled for this year, but supporters vow to keep at it. One possibility is a committee to study best practices around the nation and propose legislation in 2013. Even this relatively tame measure, however, has opposition.
After all, the Final Four is back in town next spring.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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117 comments Add your comment
Jefferson
March 15th, 2012
1:01 pm
Jail time for bribe takers, all colors, all parties, all orientations, men & women, cops and preachers too.
Linda
March 15th, 2012
1:11 pm
How unfair!
Georgia lawmakers get unlimited bribes including lavish meals, Super Bowl tickets, even a $17,000 7-day trip to Europe to look at trains.
The Democrats & Obama thought they could bribe women for $9 per month, not ALL women, just YOUNG women who did not want children. The Democrats are not only discriminatory, but CHEAP. How insulting!
td
March 15th, 2012
1:22 pm
Kyle,
I applaud you effort but I think you are going down a path already traveled in many states by both political parties and is not a solution to the problem. According to your own statements long term relationship building is the real problem and not a few tickets, dinners or even trips. By doing away with all the gifts, dinner and travel all that is being accomplished is that the citizens (and paper) are not going to be able to track those relationships and who is attempting to build relationships with the politicians.
Unless, you are advocating some real radical reform, such as a person can only lobby for x number of years without being out of the business for x number of years, then the only answer is even more transparency. I think we should know every time and for the length of time any lobbyist speaks to a politician and about what was discussed (sort of like all conversations on the public record). Make this required information be available within x number of days or hours of said conversation and available for all the public to see. This type of legislation is better and addresses your biggest concern and those little gifts mean nothing. As a matter of fact, I do not believe there should be any limitations on gifts, dinners or trips. This would allow the voters to see exactly how much their elected people are in the game for themselves or for the people that elected them.
JMHO
td
March 15th, 2012
1:27 pm
Linda
March 15th, 2012
1:11 pm
As long as the gifts, dinners and trips are transparent then it is a issue between the politician and the people that put them into office. If the voters do not have a problem then so be it.
carlosgvv
March 15th, 2012
1:33 pm
It’s a lot of fun to rant and rave here about how crooked our Georgia politicians are. Unfortunately, when voting time comes around, the words of Paul Simon become all too true:
laugh about it
shout about it
when you’ve got to choose
any way you look at it
you lose
Linda
March 15th, 2012
1:44 pm
td@1:27, My comment was satirical.
What’s worse than politicians are career politicians, career politicians who were lawyers & lobbyists.
td
March 15th, 2012
1:48 pm
Linda
March 15th, 2012
1:44 pm
I will give you a big Amen to the lawyers and lobbyist comment. I can not for the life of me conceive how any voter would vote for a lawyer to become a legislator.
Jefferson
March 15th, 2012
2:08 pm
No No No, disclosure is not enough — it should not be allowed.
Linda
March 15th, 2012
2:11 pm
td@1:48, Well, I guess one person needs to be able to read the mumbo jumbo in the 3000-page bills–after they are passed–so we can “see” what is in them.
What we need in legislatures are more business people who are allergic to red ink & rich business people who can afford to buy their own tickets. (Romney comes to mind.)
Dusty
March 15th, 2012
2:34 pm
Nobody has brought up what I consider a problem. That is: why do we allow lobbyists to have offices in the state capitol? We are not running a trade show there. Get rid of them.
If a respresentative cannot find the information needed on a subject without the help of non government persons, that representative is not smart enough to represent anybody.
No gifts of any kind is very explicit. Let them abide by the rules.
Punishment for the theft? Let’s make it simple. Violators must sit on the steps of the capitol every Friday and listen to a preacher giving an all day sermon on THOU SHALT NOT STEAL! TV camerias, photographers and the public may come and take pictures of those who steal. Kyle, Bookman and the Inquirer may write all they want about it. The public will soon tell their legislators where to go!
We need action, not fiddle faddle.
From The AJC: Wingfield And Bookman
March 15th, 2012
2:44 pm
[...] up, Kyle Wingfield paints the legislature with a deservedly broad brush for their refusal to consider any form of gift ban. I chose not to name names in these instances for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that [...]
td
March 15th, 2012
4:17 pm
Test
Linda
March 15th, 2012
4:47 pm
This is how the game is played.
Peter Schweizer wrote a book, “Throw Them All Out.” He crosschecked Obama’s ‘08 campaign finance records with his green energy stuff. It shows that:
• 71 percent of Energy Department grants and loans went to Obama’s political cronies. 71 percent!
• Collectively, they raised about $457,834 for Obama’s campaign.
• And they were in turn approved for grants or loans of nearly $11.346 billion.
• That means they got $24,783 in taxpayer dollars for every $1 they gave to Obama’s campaign.
Yes, that is BILLIONS!
http://blog.american.com/
killerj
March 15th, 2012
6:28 pm
Dam,is that where my politician was last night while another 100 homes were foreclosed?…Oh by the way,what was the score?
captguitarman
March 15th, 2012
7:05 pm
Good article. Very telling. Kind of makes you yearn for the the days of King Roy and the Dems who held iron-fisted rule in the Gold Dome. The politics are a little different, but the Georgia legislative entitlement culture is there to stay until things change, and they will again because under this loosey goosey system, another big scandal will pop up sooner or later, just like with Don’t Take Another Step or I’ll Shoot Glen Richardson and is AGL lobbyist girl friend. And you thought only Occupy Wallstreet, public employees, and welfare queens cared about their entitlements?! After Don’t Come A Step Closer went down in flames, the Dome got away with a lot of lip service and this half-assed system now in place that maintains their entitlements. But the voters are watching, and they don’t see much integrity or honesty. Just like collecting money under one premise, for a stated and important need, and then spending it under another, and without even blushing about it. They don’t even comprehend the blatant dishonesty in that. No, you don’t just take it for something else, you go to the voters and tell them you need more money for education or whatever that something else is. But, like one of them said, he’s been shifting designated funds around for years and has always gotten re-elected. And no out cry over eithics big enough to move them an inch. In the end, it’s the voters’ fault. Georgians have the government they deserve. Maybe that’s why the state and city that were once the capital of the New South, with so much promise, are now following along behind the parade, cleaning up after the elephants who now hold iron-fisted rule under the Gold Dome – for now, anyway.
Just saying..
March 15th, 2012
8:22 pm
Linda @ 4:47
“This is how the game is played.
Peter Schweizer wrote a book, “Throw Them All Out.” He crosschecked Obama’s ‘08 campaign finance records with his green energy stuff. It shows that:
• 71 percent of Energy Department grants and loans went to Obama’s political cronies. 71 percent!
• Collectively, they raised about $457,834 for Obama’s campaign.
• And they were in turn approved for grants or loans of nearly $11.346 billion.
• That means they got $24,783 in taxpayer dollars for every $1 they gave to Obama’s campaign.
Yes, that is BILLIONS!”
Bronze plaque right here please. Linda has discovered politics.
Voter
March 19th, 2012
9:31 pm
Ethics Reform in Georgia……HA! HA! $$$$ wins in the end.