Political gray areas in spotlight.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Lawmakers will be asked to carry out the biggest reforms of Oregon's ethics law since it was put on the books in the wake of the Watergate scandal a generation ago.

A set of proposals rolled out Wednesday would restrict officials' use of campaign funds, forbid them from voting on bills that create for them a conflict of interest, limit what they can get paid for speeches and require more frequent disclosure about lobbyist-furnished wining, dining, travel and entertainment.

The reform proposals were presented by a working group of lobbyists, officials, academics and others to the Oregon Law Commission. It will spend the next month considering further changes before proposing the reforms to the Legislature, said Chairman Lane Shetterly.

But the package lacked any of the restrictions on lobbyist-furnished freebies that critics say are badly needed in the wake of a scandal involving Oregon legislators' unreported trips to Hawaii.

The Oregon Law Commission, which is working on the reform package, could come up with such a proposal next month. But if not, it's a matter that's all but certain to come up in next year's legislative session.

The bulk of the reforms had been worked out before news reports in September detailed how several lawmakers had gone to the Hawaiian island of Maui, courtesy of Oregon beer and wine distributors, but failed to disclose this.

Ethics watchdog Janice Thompson said the news coverage, along with earlier reports on possible ethical lapses and the national scandals involving members of Congress and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has raised the level of public concern about a lack of integrity in the political system.

Thompson, executive director of the Money in Politics Research Action Project, said the state and national ethics scandals were analogous to tributaries meeting to form a river. She said other streams seemed to be joining in the form of previous unsuccessful legislative efforts to improve the ethics system, including one that led to Gov. Ted Kulongoski's appointment of the law commission to study reforms and make recommend- ations.

"All these creeks are flowing into one river and it's getting bigger and bigger," Thompson said. "And it's big enough that the Legislature can't ignore it like it has in the past."

Among the proposals being drawn up by the law commission for the Legislature to consider are bills that would:

Ban the use of campaign funds for candidates' personal use or to defray their office-related costs, such as travel and lodging.

Outlaw the "pass-through" practice, by which candidates transfer campaign contributions to other office-seekers.

Forbid legislators from voting on or participating in discussions of proposals that create a conflict of interest.

Impose a one-year "revolving door" moratorium after leaving office before a former legislator can take a job as a lobbyist.

Remove an exemption from the gift-value limit for entertainment paid for by lobbyists on behalf of public officials. This means officials could once again only accept entertainment, such as tickets for Trail Blazer basketball games or golf outings, worth up to $100 per event and $250 cumulatively per year.

Limit to $50 the amount of "honoraria" paid to a public official for a speech.

Raise fines for ethics-law violations from a $1,000 maximum to up to $5,000.

Require quarterly, rather than annual, disclosures of lobbying spending on public officials and of public officials' own "statements of economic interest."

Give ethics investigators more time to look into allegations of possible wrongdoing - 135 days instead of 90 for preliminary inquiries and six months instead of four months for the investigatory phase.

Stop giving officials and lobbyists who face ethics charges the option of taking their cases to the Marion County Circuit Court instead of appearing before the Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission.

Jim Markee, a Salem lobbyist and member of an advisory group behind some of the recommendations, said the proposals should be expanded to include a ban on out-of-state travel, partly in light of the Maui trips. He said the issue wasn't so much one of the technical question - should the lobbyist-paid trips have been publicly disclosed - but one of public perception of excessively expensive schmoozing between lawmakers and special interests.

"To the average person, they're much less concerned that they didn't report (the trips) as that people went," he said.

Norman Turrill, a member of the Oregon League of Women Voters, went further, saying legislation should restrict or ban other forms of lobbyist gratuities, including lodging, travel, entertainment, meals and beverages.

"I think it's naive to think that those gifts aren't given to influence public officials and their decisions," said Turrill, a Portland-based computer consultant.

A top lawmaker, incoming House Speaker Jeff Merkley, D-Portland, said he will push for such restrictions, regardless of whether they're proposed by the Oregon Law Commission.

Merkley said such an all-out ban on any gift - including a meal, trip or item of value beyond small presents such as a sweatshirt from a community college or a mug from a trade association - gets rid of the "gray areas" that have caused past reform efforts to bog down.

"I think it's much more straightforward," he said. "No, you can't accept gifts of value. It's a pretty clear, bright line."

But Markee said the Legislature would have to be careful with such restrictions not to just push the special-interest money elsewhere, like air squeezed from one end of a balloon to another.

He said other states with such all-out bans on lobbyist-furnished freebies have ended up with lawmakers paying for their own night on the town with a lobbyist, but that doesn't mean the lobbyists don't find ways to curry favor.

Those lobbyists may find themselves barred from picking up the tab, he said, but they'll make up for it by telling the official, "Here, I can give you a campaign contribution to pay for that."