Destination Juneau

Ever since I retired a couple of years ago, Rep. Max Gruenberg has invited me to Juneau for the legislative session, as a scholar, to sit in and watch what was going on.  For as long or as short as I wanted.  He wasn't going to pay me, but would let me have a desk in his office.  Well, the last two years we've gone to Thailand during much of the session, but this year I called him to have him spell out what exactly he had in mind. 

Initial discussions sounded interesting and when Alaska Airlines recently had a deal on tickets to Juneau, I bought a couple, which, in hindsight, was when I decided to go for it.  Friday I rode the Number 2 bus (I don't remember being on a bus in Anchorage where people had to stand before - it wasn't even rush hour) downtown to talk a bit more with Rep. G. 

So my role there is somewhat unique.  I'm not a staffer, I'm not an intern, I'm a volunteer.  But Rep. G has in mind something more than that, sort of a Legislative Fellow or Scholar in Residence kind of thing where I'm there as an academic.  Of course, my blogger status also came up.  Would I have to limit myself to weather and movies and other non-legislative issues?  I came up with a tentative set of guidelines:

OK to blog:

1. Objective description of events at public meetings (yes, I know 'objective' is a subjective term)
   

NOT OK to blog:

1. Anything that would cause heat for Rep. G, such as:
1. private conversations (without explicit permission)
2. subjective comments that paint law makers and staff negatively
2. Legally confidential information or off-the-record meetings (not that I'll have access to this sort of stuff)

When I got to Rep. G's office on 4th Avenue, the first thing we did - Rep. G, another new staffer, and myself - was visit Joyce Anderson, Administrator for the Legislative Ethics Committee.  One requirement is that everyone working (or even volunteering) with the legislator is to have ethics training.  We can do this online and/or in person in Juneau on January 15, just before the session starts.  But we went over a few things first.  One issue that came up was no gifts over $250 value are allowed.

I had a question.  We were offered housing at a long time friend's home during the session when his wife will be out of town.
Q:   Does that count as a gift? 
A:   Yes.  You're going to have to pay.

OK, I'm going down on my own dime.  Legislators and most staff and even interns, it appears, all have some sort of per diem and/or transportation.  So, I can't stay with a friend - someone who has stayed in my house on a number of occasions when visiting Anchorage - for free.   Joyce mentioned a staffer who was told she had to pay rent to stay with her mom.  After I questioned that in amazement, Joyce did add the fact that her mom was a lobbyist.  Even so, it's her Mom, she'd give her housing no matter why she was in Juneau.  What if Mom gives her a birthday present equal to the rent the following year, would they be busted?  Is paying rent going to stop her from confiding to her mom or helping out her mom the lobbyist?

One of my areas of research has been ethics.  So I understand the concerns about conflicts of interest, but I've published the argument that every politician has conflicts of interest and that the real issues are undue gain and improper influence.  My friend would have offered the housing for whatever reason I came to Juneau; it's not because I'll be in a legislator's office.  But I also understand the issue of appearance of conflict.  I may know my friend and I have this long term relationship, and that his offer has nothing to do with getting favors from me,  but do others? 


I also raised the blog questions while we were with Joyce.  It's not an issue that's come up before.  We'll be writing the rules as we go.  But I did get Joyce's ok to take her picture and blog about what happens as I start this process of becoming a volunteer in the Alaska State Legislature.

Afterward, Rep. G and I talked about things I might do.  He's being really generous.  I can do staff work for his office, but I'm free to explore whatever is of interest and to help out in another office or just do stuff on my own.  Of course, I'm going to do some of the staff work needed in his office, but it will be interesting to see where this all leads.  My goal is just to be close enough to get an idea of what the legislative process is really like.  And to better know who represents the residents of Alaska.

I also got a booklet:  Alaska State Legislature Uniform Rules (links to pdf file)

FOREWORD

The Constitution of the State of Alaska (sec. 12, art. II) provides: "The houses of each legislature shall adopt uniform rules of procedure." It is noteworthy that the drafters of the constitution did not say "each house" shall adopt, but rather emphasized that the "houses" should adopt uniform rules. It was the intention of the writers that Alaska should avoid the circumstances of many state legislatures where one finds house rules, senate rules, and joint rules. The uniform system is intended to permit the members and the public to follow or conduct the legislative process without a confusion of rules. The rules are adopted by both houses sitting in joint session as one body. The law on the subject of rules reads:

Sec. 24.05.120. Rules. At the beginning of the first regular session of each legislature, both houses shall adopt uniform rules of procedure for enacting bills into law and adopting resolutions. The rules in effect at the last regular session of the immediately preceding legislature serve as the temporary rules of the legislature until the adoption of permanent rules.

The rules are meant as an aid to legislators and both houses in the conduct of their business in the formal processing of legislative documents and the exercise of other powers and duties assigned the legislature by constitutional and statute law.

Copies of the Uniform Rules are distributed at the direction of the Legislative Council by the Legislative Affairs Agency.

Executive Director

Legislative Affairs Agency

There are 55 numbered rules.  Some examples:

Rule No. 1:  Organization of First Session

Rule No. 3.  Legislative Session Staff (that was less relevant than I expected)

Rule No. 8:  Privilege of the Floor

Rule No. 26:  Decorum in Debate  (that actually refers to a fat law book - Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure - which are generally rules for state legislatures throughout the US, which guide behavior, though the Alaska rules take precedence if there's a conflict, or that's what I understood.)

Rule No. 37:  Introduction of Bills

Rule No. 45:  Vetoed Bills

Rule No 54:  Suspension of Rules

So this will be an interesting period.  We did talk about blogging with Joyce (Legislative Ethics) and it appears this is uncharted territory, at least from an official policy standpoint.  I'll probably start out pretty cautiously and see what happens.  But I didn't go to Juneau to blog - that's incidental, just as it was last year when I volunteered in Thailand.  There, too, I made sure I had appropriate permissions from my NGO, though it will be a little trickier, I assume, in Juneau.   

So, after talking to Rep. G, I'm now taking this opportunity to let readers know what's coming up and that I have no idea what the impact on the blog will be.  I normally try to be careful how I write, trying to be respectful of the people I write about and if I make critical comments, trying to talk about actions or ideas, not about people.  Trying to word things in as objective terms as possible.  This does mean I rarely offer my personal opinion, but let the readers draw their on conclusion.  And I don't always succeed.  But I suspect I'm going to get much better at this style of writing in the blog.