A Citizen’s Guide

Legislators who play fast and loose with their rules are likely to do the same with your rights and resources. Reps. Mike Hawker, Kevin Meyer and Mike Chenault have played fast and loose with the governing rules of the Legislature.

Mason’s manual of legislative procedure states: It is a general rule that no one can vote on a question in which he has a direct personal or pecuniary (financial) interest. In recognition of this maxim, Rule 34(b) of the Alaska Legislature’s Uniform Rules advises legislators to declare any conflicts of interest they may have and ask to be allowed to abstain from voting on those issues.

The exception to this rule is that “a member may not be permitted to abstain except upon the unanimous consent of the membership” and, in the Alaska Legislature, members routinely object to these abstentions. However, when a direct financial conflict exists, the abstention request must be agreed to, if public trust is to be maintained. That is why the rule exists!

On March 27, Hawker, Meyer and Chenault turned this exception into a loophole just as the House Finance Committee was beginning debate over Gov. Frank Murkowski’s ill-fated oil tax revision plan: go to www.ktoo.org/gavel/schedule.cfm.

The succession of events went as follows:

Rep. Meyer, co-chairman of the House Finance Committee, who has worked for the oil industry since 1979 and is employed directly by ConocoPhillips, declared a conflict and asked to be excused from voting. Rep. Mike Chenault, the other co-chairman of House Finance, objected to that request and thereby freed Meyer to vote on the issue.

Next, Rep. Hawker declared a conflict. Hawker’s wife is employed by ConocoPhillips and, according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, earns a yearly salary of over $100,000. Rep. Hawker’s wife also holds an unspecified number of shares of fully salable and transferable ConocoPhillips stock. Hawker himself is a freelance accountant who has performed contract work for companies directly and indirectly associated with the oil industry.

Rep. Hawker asked to be excused from participation and voting but, again, co-chair Chenault objected to the request and thereby freed Hawker to do both.

Only after clearing his conflicted colleagues did Chenault reveal that he too has a conflict: his family owned business, Qwick Construction, is an oil field maintenance company based in Nikiski. In Chenault’s own words, he has worked for the majority of Alaska’s oil production companies and presently deals with oil and gas “issues” on the Kenai.

Like a well-choreographed Marx Brothers routine, two men with conflicts were pardoned by a man with a conflict; a man who then quipped that he’d pardon himself if no one else would.

This episode might have been funny had it not occurred in arguably the most powerful committee in the Legislature, included the three most influential members of that committee and involved an issue titanic in its potential ramifications to the future of Alaska. Seen in this light, the shenanigans of Hawker, Meyer and Chenault on March 27 were unconscionable.

By turning the conflict declaration process into a farce, Reps. Hawker, Meyer and Chenault removed any assurance that they have the commitment necessary to place the public good above their private interests. In doing so, they undermined the trust that is vital if the public is to believe the prospective oil tax and natural gas pipeline contract are being pursued in a manner consistent with Alaska’s laws and constitution, or will produce results that are in the public’s best interest.

House Speaker John Harris should be mindful of this situation. He is the leader of the Alaska House of Representatives–the People’s House. With this special session being devoted entirely to oil and gas, he should call upon members with clear conflicts of interest to abstain from voting on these issues and request that other members not object.

Jim Whitaker is mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and a leader of the Alaska Gasline Port Authority.