By Lowell Barron
The Alabama Ethics Commission in August issued an opinion that guts the Alabama ethics law. Attorney General Luther Strange and Alabama district attorneys immediately voiced their strong opposition. The Attorney General and DAs detailed how this opinion misinterprets Alabama law and makes a mockery of ethics in Alabama.
It is no secret that over the years I have disagreed with Attorney General Strange on major issues. But on this issue I am in complete agreement with him. This is not the law, and for ethics to exist in Alabama government, the members of the Alabama Ethics Commission must reverse this opinion.
I recently read a column on this subject with a headline that read “AG, DAs protest chiseling of Alabama Ethics Law.” But what the Commissioners did this past August was not chisel at the law. Instead the Ethics Commission took a meat ax to Alabama’s ethics law. This destructive decision has caused people across Alabama to wonder: Is the Alabama Ethics Commission unethical?
This August 5th Ethics Commission opinion was issued in response to a question raised on behalf of Rep. Patricia Todd. I agree with General Strange that opposition to this opinion is not about Rep. Todd, who does a good job for her constituents. Rather it is about the law of Alabama and whether or not our state has an Ethics Commission that enforces the law and is ethical.
The Ethics Commission, in a 4-1 opinion, held that Rep. Todd could be a salaried director of a special interest group and lobby on its behalf, despite the fact this directly contradicts Alabama law. To reach this dangerous legal decision, a majority of the Ethics Commission concluded that her salary is not a “thing of value” under Alabama law. How can any salary – much less one in excess of $100,000 per year – not be considered a “thing of value?” I am certain the Ethics Commission would be hard pressed to find anyone in Alabama who thinks $100,000 is not a thing of value.
The Ethics Commission also concocted another dangerous legal precedent by maintaining that as long as a legislator already holds an opinion on an issue, then it is okay for a special interest group to hire that legislator to lobby for them on that issue despite the fact Alabama law expressly prohibits it. This absurd position forces the question: Is the current Ethics Commission unethical?
Moreover, under Alabama law, Senate and House members are prohibited from lobbying the legislative body in which they served for two years after they leave office. But under this opinion, legislators who are still in office are now free to hire themselves out to lobby the Legislature while legislators who are no longer in office are prohibited from doing so. This contradiction further illustrates how outlandish and wrong this opinion is. It again begs the question: Is the current Ethics Commission unethical?
People have bragged for decades that Alabama has one of the nation’s strongest ethics laws. That began when Melvin Cooper headed the Ethics Commission many years ago. It was further strengthened in 2010 by the Republican supermajority who proclaimed they were going to pass the toughest ethics law in the nation. Led by Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, they couldn’t wait until the first Regular Session of the Legislature in 2011 to take action. So they pushed then-Governor Bob Riley, whose term ended in one month, to call a special legislative session to pass the toughest law in America. Now their action speaks louder than words; they are working with the Ethics Commission to gut the very law they championed and passed.
For the past four years, the Ethics Commission has virtually ignored the new ethics law by giving numerous oral opinions to legislators and others for activities prohibited by the “plain letter of the law.” The Ethics Commissions Executive Director has served as a rubber stamp for legislators and lobbyists. If legislators called asking permission, the request was granted regardless of the new ethics law. People are asking: Is the current Ethics Commission unethical?
The person most deeply involved in that behavior – former director Jim Sumner – has now retired. With Tom Albritton as the new director came hope that “business as usual” rubber-stamping of unlawful requests would not continue. Albritton ceased automatically approving every request by lobbyists to host legislative dinners. People thought he would apply the letter and the spirit of the law. People began to think that the Ethics Commission was now ethical.
But then this budding hope gave way to grim reality when the Ethics Commission issued the August 5th written opinion butchering the ethics law of Alabama as never before and eviscerating everything Speaker Hubbard and the supermajority did in 2010. This one opinion by the ethics commission has far-reaching implications on current litigation and on allowing legislators to be paid by special interests to represent them in the Legislature. Now people are again asking: Is the current Ethics Commission unethical?
This outrageous written opinion issued in August by a majority of the Alabama Ethics Commission should be up for reconsideration at the Commission’s meeting in early October. I urge everyone to join the Attorney General and district attorneys of Alabama in calling for this bad opinion to be struck down.
To let your voice be heard on this opinion, call the Ethics Commission at 334-242-2997 and urge Commissioners to uphold Alabama’s ethics law and reverse the August 5th opinion. Alabama deserves an ethical Ethics Commission!
Lowell Barron served in the Alabama Senate from 1982-2010 and was elected Senate President Pro Tempore twice during his tenure.
