There are four important 'Ps' in the legislature: policy; process; politics; and personality.
     Almost everything we do is a mixture of the four. The mixture is volatile if there's more than a pinch of politics and personality. It's thoughtful when policy and process are the predominant ingredients.
     This week we accomplished something quite difficult--we used only two of the 'Ps', politics and personality when we cooked up a budget item. We didn't even dip a teaspoon into policy or process when preparing a $3 million meal.
     I'm talking about approval of a multi-million dollar grant to Oregon public relations gunslingers. Some legislators want these Oregonians to force a groundswell of support for ANWR drilling in targeted congressional districts around the nation which have senators and congress folk opposing opening the coastal plain to oil and gas development. 
     Even a small dash of PROCESS was missing when cooking up this $3 million scheme. Alaska's House leadership tucked the money into a budget supplemental bill without having even one public hearing on the idea. The leadership picked Pac/West, a non-Alaska firm noted for some right wing crusades (my term; they'd prefer pro-conservative public policy issues and point out they've done some work for labor unions), and locked out Alaska firms who better understand ANWR dynamics and have closely followed the ANWR conversation for more than a decade.
     The Senate acceded to the House insertion without even making it a topic of debate in a conference committee appointed to work out the differences in the House and Senate versions of the spending bill. The rationale for this 'no process' process is that speed was needed to get ahead of a Congressional budget reconciliation vote but the U.S. House has now backed away from any reconciliation vote so that emergency situation has vaporized.
     The POLICY implications of the contract could have been discussed if there actually had been a public process. But there was no public process so there was no policy discussion. Because there was no policy discussion, there's a huge potential for this $3 million effort to boomerang.
     We all know Alaska has been the focus of intense criticism by members of the U.S. Senate from across the political spectrum--from super-conservative Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, to Democrat Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid. They spout off on bridges to nowhere, the exact number of federal dollars going to Alaska, and the size of Alaska's Permanent Fund.
     Heaven knows what they'll think when Alaska's hired gun, this outside PR firm, starts messing around in their constituent sandbox. It's entirely possible they'll feel the same way I, and many of my Alaska legislative colleagues from both sides of the aisle, feel about the multi-million dollar campaign by multi-national companies to convince Alaskans to not recoup a fair share from our oil resources. In other words, they'll feel manipulated and angry. We don't need any more of their anger.
     While this $3 million grant is distasteful because it was not leavened with process or policy, PERSONALITY must not have been a problem. The Pac/West folks sure must have hit it off with some legislative leaders in some venue other than a legislative committee room.
     Too bad. A public process, either by the legislature through the committee process or through a more appropriate contract bidding process rather than a done-deal grant with no deliverables, no scope of work, and no oversight, could have actually reviewed the personalities involved. The Anchorage Daily News recently reported the CEO of Pac/West was fined $17,000 for ethics violations when he served in the Oregon State legislature. The newspaper also reported one of the Pac/West employees used some unsavory tactics when the firm was involved in Alaska's bear baiting initiative.
     So, the only one of the four 'Ps' left in this Pac/West stew is POLITICS. Plenty of that involved--has to be to have the distinction of being the first time I can recall in my 12 sessions of experience that a for-profit company was blessed with a direct grant. The grant process has been and should solely be reserved for non-profits and lo9cal governments.
     If the 'Ps' had been balanced, my guess is this legislature would have ended up using an Alaska firm that competed against other firms and won because they had the best understanding of opportunities and pitfalls. We'd have told them what we wanted and asked for a list of deliverables. We'd have assessed the risk of making decision-makers in D.C. mad and placed limits on tactics.
     Because we used only two of the 'Ps', personality and politics, we ended up with none of those cautionary elements and all the risk.

Phone: (907) 465-4947 Fax: (907) 465-2108 Mail: Sen. Kim Elton, State Capitol Juneau, AK 99801   Got a scoop? Call or email your tips and suggestions to any of the email addresses below: Email: Senator.Kim.Elton Jesse.Kiehl Paula.Cadiente Web: http://elton.akdemocrats.org

Capitol Undercurrents  

Eat salmon; let others live longer--The New York Times Magazine last week reported some researchers believe there may be a link between violent aggression and diet. They're looking at a potential correlation between omega-3 fatty acids found in salmon and lower murder rates. Finnish scientists for example, tested prisoners convicted of violent crimes and found they had lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids than ordinary, healthy test subjects. So, how about salmon omelets for prison breakfasts, salmon burgers for prison lunch and salmon steaks for prison dinner. Wild Alaska salmon, of course, for meals before any violent criminal is released. But no Twinkies for dessert--we don't want any Twinkie defenses.

A portent?--One of the troublesome components of the proposed oil and gas tax recipes being considered in the legislature is that the tax will be based on net profits not gross profits. That creates great potential for litigation as oil companies assign values to costs that can be deducted from gross. Perhaps the most recent example of how values can be subject to dispute is an oil pipeline "disagreement". The state has valued the trans-Alaska pipeline at $3.64 billion and the oil companies say it's worth only $1 billion. A billion dollar valuation reduces property taxes. Maybe the best way to settle this is to offer to buy the oil pipeline for $1 billion--see if they sell that cash cow. This dispute is just a glimpse of the battles we face with oil companies as they try to set the net value of our oil that they are pumping. The lower the net, the lower the tax.

By the numbers 1--The just retired CEO of Exxon was paid $6,000/hour for every one of the 24 hours in a day. Can't help but think that if we paid teachers at least $6,000/month we'd encourage more great students to think about a career in education instead of business.

By the numbers 2--Last year Alaska ranked 35th in the nation in a review of the proportion of women policy leaders in the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. We slipped from 31st in 1998. The report was published in statenews, a publication of the Council of State Governments.

The iceberg cometh--That's the title of an opinion piece in last Sunday's Seattle Times. The premise is Alaskans are from Mars, Seattleites are from Venus. James Vesely, the paper's editorial page editor, writes Alaska's politicians are icebergs of anger when it comes to relationships with the State of Washington. He quotes some CEOs, emerging from a meeting with the Congressman from all Alaska, saying Rep. Don Young's comments were "appalling," arrogant," and "offensive." The column also notes that when Sen. Ted Stevens sits in a Seattle meeting room, it's as if everyone else has been called before one of his committees. He was smiling, said the columnist, when talking about previous eras of the Senate but stone cold when talk turned to being filibustered by Democrats on ANWR. That filibuster was led By Washington's Sen. Maria Cantwell.