2009 Disclosures Part 2 - What's the Difference Between Good and Bad Travel?

As a faculty member, I went on state paid trips once or twice and sometimes even three times a year.  I went to conferences to present papers generally.  Those gave me opportunities to get feedback on the work I was doing and to meet and talk with others doing similar research.  I would generally come back from such trips greatly stimulated and with new ideas for research and for teaching.  In some cases I had trips paid for by someone other than the State of Alaska.  For example, I was invited to serve on an international panel studying the ombudsman.  This was sponsored by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.  I went to three, three-day meetings in Brussels paid for by the IIAS over a three year period where we met and discussed research on the Ombudsman and produced a book that was a review of Ombudsman offices and issues around the world.  I had two chapters in that book.

Toward the end of my academic career, I felt it was important that when I went on such trips that I write a travel report.  I thought this would accomplish several goals:

• Force me to take good notes and keep track of the events I participated in (ie what panels I attended at conferences) and people I met with contact information, and references for particularly useful organizations and new ideas.  
• Keep me accountable to my dean and students by documenting how I spent my time and the benefits I got and the university got from the trip.
• Allowed me to share the information I got with other faculty members and students.  

I'm sad to say, not many others followed that model.  But when the University sent me to a conference in Kuala Lumpur, I knew that my travel report would document that I spent my time well and made valuable contacts and leads for further research and relationships for the university and would answer anyone who questioned the trip.  

I say all this because I do believe that travel to conferences and training programs is extremely valuable.  But there are also pitfalls:

• People who use conferences as an excuse to get travel paid for by the state or some other entity.
• People who plan conferences near resorts or relatives or to get mileage.
• People whose travel is paid for by other organizations that will expect something in return from the travelers down the line.  
• People whose travel becomes an opportunity for an interest group to lobby the legislator where others with opposing views have no chance to challenge any misleading facts or interpretations.

I'm sure you can come up with other potential pitfalls.

So, we have good reasons for legislators to travel and we have good reason to be concerned about such travel.  At a minimum, abuse just means that the state pays for travel that has no state benefit.  At the worst, travel leads to legislators being coopted by their patrons and working for the interests of those patrons and not the people of Alaska.  So how might we evaluate such travel?   Let me take a stab at some questions to ask:

If paid for by the State:

• What useful information, contacts, or other benefits for the State of Alaska did the legislator get from the trip?
• To what extent was the purpose of the trip related to issues facing Alaska and the constituents of the legislator?
• Was the meeting or conference one that presented a balanced view of the issue or was it dominated by one perspective?  
• How many trips did a particular legislator take? 
• How has the legislator used what was learned to benefit Alaska?

If paid for by an outside entity:

• All the previous questions are relevant to this as well
• Is the entity one that has a specific private interest in what the legislature does or is it more of a public service type institution that promotes general capacities and knowledge useful to legislators?
• Does the legislator balance viewpoints on different trips?  (If they go to Pebble Mine with the Pebble Limited Partnership, do they also participate in forums from environmental groups?)
• Does the legislator have some expectation of campaign contributions or future work that may be tied to the trip sponsor?  

All of this is difficult to determine.  But ethics laws around the world recognize potential problems and for this reason they require that such travel be disclosed so that the public can scrutinize trips and ask questions of the legislators.

So while I was perusing the 2009 Disclosure Report information that was published last week, I notice one trip that was considerably more costly than other trips.  In fact, it was so expensive that I looked carefully through the list to see if any others were even close to it.  So as I looked through the trips I thought it might be interesting to see how many trips there were which were reported to be over $2000.

At this point, I'll simply list the information as it comes from the Disclosure Report.  I will try to follow up and talk to legislators about their trips and how they share what they learned on the trips with others. 


And I'd warn readers not to assume that any of these trips were not legitimate trips through which the legislator gained valuable experience and knowledge for the State of Alaska.  But also don't assume that everyone on the list went on these trips with the interests of the people of Alaska as their top priority.  Look through the factors above and then if you have questions, call or email the legislator in question so that you don't jump to false conclusions.

OK, so, here's the list.  NOTE:  These trips were NOT paid for by the State of Alaska.  In some cases the influence for those who paid was probably benign.  If they were general public interest organizations with missions to generally improve legislative skills and knowledge, the State probably got a good deal.  But if they were organizations that have some vested interest in the State of Alaska, we probably need to look a bit deeper.  Not assume wrong, but check. (I think I've got all the trips reported that were over $2000, but it is possible I missed some.)

[Note I'm pretty sure the first number (ie 08-28) is the report date and the second number (08-05) is the travel date.  They have 30 days to report.  The Disclosure Report marks the late reports with *.]

08-28 08-05 Sen Wielechowski $2,013.47 CSG [Council of State Governments] West-CSG West Western Legislative Academy; faculty/curriculum expense; Lodging, meals, ground transportation, conference fees; Colorado Springs, CO

*10-01 08-05 Sen Thomas $2,013.47 CSG-West; educational conference on being an effective legislator; leadership team building; decision making, time management, legislative ethics; lodging, meals, ground transportation and conference fees

09-21 09-12 Sharon Kelly  $2,022.48 Rasmusson Foundation; Philanthropy Northwest Annual Meeting; airfare,  lodging, meals, ground transportation, conference fees; Skamia Lodge, OR

06-30 06-22 Rep Joule  $2,069.40 NCSL (National Council of State Legislatures] State Tribal Relations-National Native Issues Conference; airfare, lodging, meals;  San Francisco, CA

01-02 11-17 Sen McGuire $2087.29 CSG [Council of State Governments]; airfare/lodging/meals; teach leg academy classes, host CSG mtgs & Dinners as CSG-West president; Colorado Springs, CO

12-21 12-07 Rep Neuman $2,133.63 Pacific Northwest Economic Region; Energy Horizon Conference #2 to educate Legislators on North American energy infrastructure and delivery system; lodging and webinar credits; San Diego, CA

09-29 08-28 Pete Ecklund  $2,244.50 City of Unalaska; fly-in to visit Unalaska community, meet residents, tour city and view completed projects and project in progress and areas needing improvement; airfare, accommodations and meals [This [and Sharon Kelly] seems to be the only non-legislator[s] on the list with a trip valued at more than $2000. ]

03-17 03-08 Rep Gatto  $2,249.68 Heartland Institute; airfare/meals/hotel; International Climate Change Conf;  New York City, NY

06-29 06-07 Sen Stevens $2,280.03 Republican State Leadership Committee 2009 National Meeting, Nashville, TN; airfare, meals, ground transportation

01-12 01-01 Sen Davis  $2,397.71 Women in Gov’t; airfare/meals/transp/hotel; 15th annual state directors and Biennial first term leg’s conf; Tampa FL

*11-20 09-11 Sen Meyer  $2,500 Council of State Governments; attended Toll Fellowship Program Leadership Training in Lexington, KY; airfare, lodging, meals and conference fees

10-01 09-20 Rep Olson $2,500 National Association of Insurance Commissioners; annual meeting; airfare,  lodging and meals; Maryland/Washington, DC

12-30 12-08 Sen Stedman $2,689.11 PNWER Energy Horizon Institute; webinars, conference and teleconferences in San Diego, CA; educate legislators on the North American energy infrastructure and  delivery system

07-16 06-05 Rep Holmes  $2,700 National Strategy Institute-Bilateral political exchange designed to foster international democracy and understanding; lodging, meals, ground transportation and museum entrance fees; Seoul, Korea

10-26 10-10 Sen Davis $2,982.84 Women In Government; International Legislative Trip-4th Annual Global Partnership on women’s health and women in government; airfare, lodging, meals and ground transportation; Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium

*08-18 07-12  Sen Menard  $3,333.90 State Legislative Leaders Foundation-Emerging Political Leaders Program class tuition; airfare,
lodging, meals, ground transportation, conference fees; Charlotteville, VA

08-04 07-11 Rep Holmes  $3,901.08 State Legislative Leaders Foundation-Emerging Political Leaders Program-designed to Cultivate and enhance leadership skills in future leaders; airfare, lodging, meals, ground transportation, books, reading material, tuition and fees; Charlottesville, VA

07-31 07-08  Sen Stevens  $3,990.39 Senate Presidents Forum-Renewable Energy Summer Forum; airfare, lodging, meals,  ground transportation; Berlin, Germany

06-09 05-16 Rep Holmes  $4,245.63 Aspen Institute-Catto Fellowship meeting on global environmental & energy issues;  airfare, lodging, meals, ground transportation, and conference fees; Wye, Maryland

04-07 03-25 Rep Holmes  $4,435.20 Aspen Institute; airfare/lodging/meals/conference fees; attend the Catto  Fellowship meeting/conference; Aspen CO

11-02 10-04 Sen Stevens  $5,293 Senate President’s Forum; US/Russian Relations: An in-depth discussion on the  politics and economy of Russia; airfare, lodging, ground transportation and  visa/consulate fee; St. Petersburg, Russia

11-20 10-27 Rep. Johnson  $17,974 Saudi Arabian Government; NCSL requested Speaker of House to send an Oil and Gas representative to participate in a study tour. This was a trade mission to Saudi Arabia with the goal of increasing relations between USA and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; airfare, lodging, meals and ground transportation; Riyadh, Damman, and Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia