Is there a statesman in the House?

Is there a state representative or senator who will take the unpopular stance of supporting immediate ethics reform, instead of adjudicating the important issue to another lengthy sentence of study? Is there one lawmaker who realizes that ethics reform isn’t just for the Legislature, but for the people it serves?

Is there anybody even listening?

This week, the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee gutted LD 1008, which would have enacted several pressing, and obvious, reforms into policing ethics in Augusta. An impetus was the cauldron of conflict that Rep. Tom Saviello, I-Wilton, was boiled inside during 2005, heated by controversy about his paper mill employment, and Natural Resources committee assignment.

The Ethics Commission cleared Saviello, but the experience persuaded Legislative leadership to boldly call for a widespread review of ethics policies. A study, released in January, recommended three common-sense changes that became the framework of LD 1008: broadening the definition of “conflict of interest;” watching relationships between lawmakers and state agencies; opening ethics complaints to the public.

These reforms are black-and-white, even inside the gray world of ethics. Lawmakers should be prevented from using, or looking like they’re using, their positions to exert influence. The public should be able, if a conflict exists, to voice their concerns through complaints to the Ethics Commission.

To the committee, however, these obvious suggestions were sweeping and misguided. In a remarkable case of legislative amnesia, the committee has remanded LD 1008 into a resolve to study past ethics complaints, and promises to perhaps resurrect these recommendations in the next session.

Sen. Lisa Marraché, D-Waterville, the committee chairman, says the bill suffers from a lack of facts – which is an accurate description, also, for the realm of ethics. Ethics cannot be measured on facts, because its guidelines and implementation are inherently interpretative, not concrete. It’s like grasping at shadows.

Which is why broad definitions, tight scrutiny and wide oversight are so necessary. Identifying and evaluating ethical violations are unlike any other behavioral assessments, such as criminal conduct, which are measured by facts and evidence. The ethics study committee recognized this and made the right recommendations for change, which were encompassed in LD 1008.

The Legislature needs to reconsider them, and take the bold action that Saviello, and to a lesser extent the federal scandal surrounding disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, experiences dictated.

The problems have been identified. The study has been completed. The recommendations have been made and the legislation written. Taking time to further investigate the issue, under the guise of fact-finding, is a delaying tactic seemingly fostered by legislative fear of taking unpopular action.

Which begs for statesmanship, by someone, in the House or Senate.

If it exists, now is the time to display it.