Given the shenanigans of our current Legislature, it’s sometimes hard to decide which of their actions makes the average Alaskan most crazy. For instance, they are now into the second week of their special session and the utter silence emanating from Juneau is deafening. Yet they are getting paid better for that silence than you will ever be for working your butt off.
Maybe Alaskans have become so accustomed to corrupt officials that it doesn’t even faze us anymore when a legislator does something sleazy. In fact, this one particular sleazy issue goes a long way towards getting Alaska ranked as one of the most corrupt states in the union.
I’m referring to a procedure in the Alaska Senate. If you state a potential conflict of interest in a vote about to be taken, the Senate can simply voice vote that you shouldn’t worry. You can vote on the topic because your fellow senators trust you and know you would never let that conflict interfere with your vote for what was best for all Alaskans.
So right now we have a senate president, Kevin Meyer, who also works for Conoco-Phillips as an investment recovery coordinator. (If you check his senate page online, he lists his occupation but neglects to mention his employer’s name.) He works for the oil industry while crafting and voting on laws that affect his employer’s bottom line. And all he has to do is tell his fellow senators that he has a conflict at which point they all smile and tell him to go right ahead and vote because they don’t see the conflict as influencing his vote. To which I can only say, really?
Another senator, Peter Micciche, lists his employment as commercial salmon fisherman and, oh yeah, Superintendent, Energy Sector. Could he also possibly be employed by Conoco-Phillips and, like Meyer, just doesn’t want to actually list that on his state senate page? Is there some reason these senators don’t want to let the public know who pays them when they aren’t in session?
So given this information, is anyone truly surprised that the oil tax structure is at the center of the gridlock that seems to be gripping Juneau? You can’t really expect Micciche and Meyer to vote against their employer can you? Voting to eliminate some of the benefits we are currently giving to the oil industry would go directly against their own vested interests. These men would rather take money from schools in Alaska than from their bosses in the energy industry.
All of this should not really be that surprising except for one thing. Why have we Alaskans so given up the fight, so succumbed to sleaze overload, so dropped in sheer fatigue from the onslaught of caca coming out of Juneau, that we don’t even blink at this blatant abuse of power? Why do we not care that we have legislators voting on issues that directly affect their own employment, often to the detriment of the Alaskans they purport to represent? Have we truly just given up? Do we figure that the level of corruption in Juneau stinks so badly that we can’t imagine ever truly eliminating it?
A conflict of interest is a serious matter when it comes to legislation that affects all Alaskans. A conflict of interest that involves monetary matters raises concerns over conflicts to a whole new level. This is not the Alaska Senate waiving a conflict of interest issue because someone who works for the industry wants to vote on giving them a good citizenship medal. This is the kind of conflict of interest vote that leads to Alaskans getting the short end of the stick while the oil companies continue to get paid by us to take our oil. And that’s something that should make us all pretty mad, even if we figure ethical politicians are merely a figment of our collective imaginations.
So when you are voting this fall, make sure you know if you are voting for someone who will represent you versus representing his or her employer. Republican, Democrat or Independent, if your vote affects your employer’s bottom line, you should not vote on that issue. And the Senate should certainly not have the power to (wink, wink) waive that conflict. Not even in Alaska should that be tolerated. And we tolerate a whole heckuva lot!