Ethics Hot Topic in Alaska these Days

Juneau Legislature studies ethics reform
LEGISLATURE: Gov. Palin releases report; lawmakers spend day in workshop.
By ANNE SUTTON
The Associated Press

Published: January 19, 2007
Last Modified: January 19, 2007 at 02:06 AM

JUNEAU -- Gov. Sarah Palin and lawmakers agree ethics reform should be addressed in this legislative session, but to what degree and by whom is already causing some divisions.
The third day of the 25th Legislature was devoted to the issue as lawmakers attended a daylong ethics workshop while the governor held a news conference to announce a report from her two-man ad hoc ethics Cabinet.
Called "Ethics White Paper," the report was penned by former U.S. Attorney Wev Shea and Ethan Berkowitz, a former House Minority Leader and Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. [Click on the title to link to the Anchorage Daily News for the rest of this story.]

Alaska Common Ground and the League of Women Voters have been working with the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics since last May to hold two public forums (one in Anchorage and one in Juneau) using the Outside experts brought to Alaska to do the training for the legislators and for their staff. I was asked to moderate the one in Anchorage. So Friday I was doing last minute preparations - communicating with the panelists about the questions and working with Peg Tileston, director of Alaska Common Ground.

Today (Saturday) was the forum at the Anchorage Senior Center and it seemed to go off well. Our Outside expert, Butch Speer from Louisiana gave a ten minute talk that put legislative ethics into national perspective. The indictment of one of our legislators is certainly not an isolated incident. (And one of the attendees today suggested there will be more indictments here before long.) The heads of the Alaska Public Offices Committee and the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics both had ten minutes to explain what their offices do. The panelists included Butch Speer, Arlis Sturgulewski (who's had a long career of civic activity including being a State Senator), Larry Persily (editorial page editor of the Anchorage Daily News), Jim Liszka (an university dean who has a book on morality), and Herman Walker (a public member of the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics). Panelists did not give opening statements - it was all question and answer - and that seemed to move pretty well. Then the audience broke into groups and discussed what average citizens can do - and what they personally could do - to continue pressuring legislators to be more ethical.

Most of the attendees were people who are already pretty active in civic affairs and it would have been nice to see more younger people there. But as one participant pointed out, an answer to a story about how reporting unethical behavior is a sure way to ruin one's political career, a fairly recent whistleblower who would not go along with blatantly unethical behavior is now our governor.

Out North Independent Exposure

Since the fundraiser for Elvi was right near Out North, and it was almost 7 pm as we were leaving, we drove over, got our tickets and went in. Mike, the Director of Out North, told us they'd start when we were ready. It turned out we were the only two folks there for a Thursday night with fresh snow. We offered to take a snow check and let the projectionist and usher go home, but the usher was a volunteer and wanted to see them too, so we sat down and watched.

I wasn't all that impressed with this set of short films. There was interesting filming technique, but they seemed like assignments to show mastery of some technical skill and none really impressed me as a total film. There were a few that seemed better than others - Between You and Me - was technically neat and the story of a man interrupting a street assault and then finding the victim's digital camera on the street afterward was nice. But I think his using the pictures in the camera to track down the owner appealed the digital convert in me. Mostly it seemed pretty student film - not great student film, just better than average student films. We also need better quality projection equipment there.

But overall, just seeing the different ways people used their cameras was fun and, while the image with this post may not show it, got me thinking about things I could do. And wondering how they did the things they did in their films.

Local Elections

Wednesday night was a fundraiser for Sheila Selkregg's campaign for the Municipal Assembly. Her mother had this position when we got to Anchorage. Sheila's got great professional credentials and like her mom, she's doing this because she believes in community, in the possibility of creating a better place to live through technical skills, compassion, and imagination. There were a lot of people we hadn't seen for a while. It's great to have someone else take the time to invite people you want to catch up with.


And Thursday night was Elvi Gray-Jackson's fundraiser. I've known Elvi since the early 80's. She too is a strong, competent woman, passionately pursuing a better Anchorage. And we live in Elvi's district.

Ears still work

My daughter's been pestering me for several years not to get my hearing tested. It does seem that I miss words here and there, especially in a noisy restaurant, but what I hear is often far more interesting than what the people are actually saying. But when my doctor said there was no wax blocking my right ear, I went to Costco for a hearing test. My wife, an audiologist in a former life. came along too. Joe Riggs at Costco took all the time I needed to find out who he was and his credentials - worked his way up from making hearng aids, knows a lot on the technical side - and was comfortable answering my questins. The audiogram showed a slight loss, but still within normal hearing range. No aids recommended. Dropoff was well above normal voice range.

And we learned that hearing aid vendors cannot charge for hearing tests in Alaska. But Costco needs to figure a better way to work with the hearing folks. Some guy knocked on the door in the middle of the testing to get an answer for a customer who I guess was in the checkout line. Normally they have two poeple there and they didn't want this other customer to wait too long. But you really shouldn't be interrupting a hearing test.

Surge

Where do these folks find all these words? Surge? The same letters also spell 'urges'. It rhymes with dirge and purge. Of course we know they didn't want to talk about an escalation which would remind older folks of Vietnam. But surge?

The first definition in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary is:

1: to rise and fall actively : TOSS (a ship surging in heavy seas)

So is this going to be the rise before the fall? The heavy seas doesn't bode well.

The fourth definition is the closest to what I guess Bush means.
4 : to rise suddenly to an excessive or abnormal value (the stock market surgeed to a record high)

Excessive or abnormal? Excessive doesn't bode well either. Abnormal, I guess that might fit.


Let's see, my blog had a surge of visitors last week, but the surge subsided this week. I did get what appears to be a hit from 'The Bestest Blog of All-Time" randomblog link.

From Sunset to Amnesty International to Ramin to Charity Navigator

Shot this sunset pic walking home from the University locker room, where I had to empty my locker before the new semester. Got home and got the mail. No, we don't have Sunday delivery, just forgot it yesterday.




In the mail was a donation request from Amnesty International. Which reminded me that there are people around the world sitting in prison because they said or did things, that we, in the U.S., take (or used to take) for granted. While I can enjoy the sunset, I thought about Ramin whom I met in Goa. Ramin was in an Iranian prison for four months in 2006 - without a view of the sunset. I wrote a long post about our conversations, but he aked that I not post it since he still has to face trial in Tehran this year. I mentioned him in an earlier post, that you can read here. There's a link at the previous post to more information about him. I also won't post his picture until he says it's ok.

So, now that I've asked you all to send stamps to India in the previous post, I'll also request you think of those less fortunate than you and do a little something to help them out. Being a political prisoner is one of the grimmest situations. (Yes, I know there are other equally grim situations, so we needn't waste time arguing over what is the grimmest.) You could be in isolation, you don't know how long you will be there, you don't know if your family even know where you are or even that you are alive. Your whole world is controlled and dominated by your captors. Amnesty International works to find out who is imprisoned and to get word to them that the world knows they are there. Also to pressure governments to get them out of prison and until they are out, to treat them more humanely. Their site also shows they do a lot more. And for those Americans who go to the site and get upset about their Guantanamo Bay campaigns, just remember that the Chinese, the Burmese, the Sudanese all react similarly when outsiders point out their flaws. Except, of course, for the victims and their families.

And I've talked about giving to charity smartly and mentioned Charity Navigator in an earlier post. Amnesty International got an overall rating from Navigator of 49.43, which sounded pretty low, but then I looked at how they did their ratings and the specific numbers for Amnesty. Amnesty got two stars ** out of four possible. Two stars means "Needs Improvement: Meets or nearly meets industry standards but underperforms most charities in its Cause." But since 50 points is the cutoff for three stars, Amnesty was just .57 points from *** which is "Good: Exceeds or meets industry standards and performs as well as or better than most charities in its Cause." The highest rated charity got 69.53 (The American Friends of I.D.C). **** (over 60 points) means "Exceptional: Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause" Amnesty did well on administrative costs (2.9%), but their fundraising costs (20.6%) lost them points in the ratings. The cutoff for fundraising is 20%. Had they raised another $1,366,700, (they did raise $40,612,588), they would have gotten a few more points and been in the 'good' category.

Charity Navigator's ratings. according to their site, are based exclusively on IRS Forms 990. There is no evaluation of how well the charities carry out their missions. Amnesty did win the Nobel Prize, so they have been pretty carefully scrutinized. I haven't investigated Charity Navigator the way they investigate charities.. Their website is extremely transparent. They tell you their exact methodology for rating. They also acknowledge that they are just one source of information that you need when donating to charity. They do give points differently to different kinds of organizations, based on various factors, But they don't seem to evaluate whether, say, a charity has one or two major regular donors, thus keeping down their fundraising to almost nothing. They also don't consider whether staff get health benefits. A charity that gives health benefits will clearly have a lower administrative efficiency (on Navigator's scale) than one that doesn't. (Thanks Monica for that point.)

But when you donate, visiting Charity Navigator will make you a far more sophistifated and effective donor. So go there now so you can bookmark the site. There are lots and lots of interesting things there. Here's their list (I've only copied the headings, not the explanations) of:

Top 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors

1. Be Proactive In Your Giving
2. Hang Up The Phone / Eliminate The Middleman
3. Be Careful Of Imposters and Sound-Alike Names cover the difference.
4. Confirm 501(c) (3) Status
5. Check The Charity's Commitment To Donor's Rights
6. Obtain Copies Of Its Financial Records
7. Review Executive Compensation
8. Start A Dialogue To Investigate Its Programmatic Results
9. Concentrate Your Giving
10. Share Your Intentions And Make A Long-Term Commitment


The ten best practices of Savvy Donors (above) is at the top of their Tips list which also includes:

6 Questions To Ask Charities Before Donating
Tips For Older Donors
What To Do When A Charity Calls
How To Stop Solicitations By Mail
Protecting Yourself From Online Scams
Tips For Giving In Times Of Crisis
Evaluating Charities Not Currently Rated by Charity Navigator
Tax Benefits of Giving
Guide To Donating Your Car
Guide to Donating Noncash Items
Guide To Volunteering
Guide To Giving In The Workplace
Giving Statistics
A Donor's Bill of Rights
Giving Calculator

Stamps II

I got a beautifully addressed envelope from Geeno thanking me for the big envelope of stamps I sent him. His letter was very appreciative. Geeno's the guy (click here for the previous post with picture)) we met in Kumarakom who collects stamps. So, again, take out an envelope, put his address on it, and when you throw away envelopes, tear off the stamps and put them in the envelope. When you have a good bunch of stamps in there, take it to the post office and send it. Remember to ask for nice stamps to send it, not the automated strip. You can click on the picture and enlarge his address, print it, then tape it onto an envelope.

Under 30 at Out North

Under 30 is Out North's annual production of local actors (and often people with no acting experience) performing their own work, which has to be under 30 minutes long. What was particularly interesting was the influence of Lisa Kron on two of the pieces. Kron's performance in October which I discuss in the linked post, was a one woman show with three story lines intertwined, including a slide show of the trip she and her father took to Auschwitz. In her case, the slides were imaginary, but she used a pointer to point out all the details to the audience. All three stories were told simultaenously, so she had to move around the stage as she switched from story line to story line. The spot light would go out in one place, the come on to capture her in another spot on the stage picking up that story line.

Pam Cravez' "The Art Show", which she began to develop before Kron's performance here in October, reminded me immediately of Kron. She too talked about her father. Instead of imaginary slides, she had actual paintings of her father on easels on the stage. As Kron used the imaginary slides to help get into her stories, Cravez used the real pictures.

In "Three Continents" Kristina Church, Vicki Russell and Mark Muro each told their own travel story using the same Kron technique of interweaving the stories but here each story had its own actor. In some cases the two other actors would slip into supporting roles for the other two stories.



At the post show discussion, the actors thanked Kron for helping them work on their productions while she was here. It really is a great example of how a tiny regional theater can benefit from importing national talent for short runs of their show AND for workshops with local actors. Her influence was very visible in last night's performances.

The final piece, "Merrow" by drama therapist Joan Cullinane transformed the audience. After slithering in as a mermaid, she used puppets and the audience to run through a damning indictment of modern bureaucratic pychology professionalism. It was deeply moving, funny, and she raised important issues about mental health and mental health care. Her character's persona took over the small theater and the mesmerized (a word used by two audience members in the post-show discussion) audience. When she asked audience members to find the cards with the DSM Code Numbers of different mental illnesses under their seats, and then called to the stage all those who had the 'winning' diagnoses, no one hesitated to join her on stage and act out their symptoms. This piece should be seen by lots and lots of people, particularly those health care professionals.

AAUG - Goodies, Prizes, Auction, and Info

The Alaska Apple User Group met last night. While there are tons of places on line to get information, there is something nice about being able to ask a live person questions. This picture shows the table of books, software, and accessories that you can take and keep if you do a review. Last night I took a Mouse Pad with a gel wrist rest, a book on podcasting, and "internet cleanup" - software to 'Protect Your Privacy on the Mac.' So far, I've tried the mouse pad and I'm not sure there is an improvement. The book looks good because my wife - who has a strong audio background - is looking for a digital recorder, with possibly podcasting in the future. Haven't loaded the software yet.

I also talked with an ichat video conference user whose going to help me work out the connection to my mom. I've got a friend with a pc and we haven't been able to make that connection work. What I downloaded from the web said he needed to disable his firewall and he wasn't willing to do that. But my mother has a Mac and we haven't been able to make that work either. This guy is also exploring Skype as an alternative cross platform video chat forum. We'll see.




This other picture shows the library, where you can check things out for a month. And then there is a raffle and auction. All the goodies are donated by manufacturers who obviously want some exposure for their products. Seems like a good deal all around. Even my skeptical nature sees this all as a good thing. Am I missing some lurking evil here? Again, this is a community, like the automaticwashers.org, that exists pretty much below the radar of most people, but has proved to be a real help. Oh, did I mention their free weekend seminars? Actually, I may have in a previous postabout our first AAUG meeting. And also the post on Naked Conversations, a book on blogging I reviewed.

Next Time Don't Blame the Kids for Taking Stuff From the Back of Your Pickup

.Ravens just like to have fun.
They don't care if it's only 5 degrees Fahrenheit
And sometimes they leave a calling card.