No financial accountability for state board members

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Aflac Inc. was paying Joe Frank Harris $40,000 a year while the state Board of Regents, which he chaired, was considering whether to let the company sell insurance at public universities.

Lasa Joiner earned tens of thousands of dollars a year lobbying for health care interests while chairing the Department of Human Resources’ board, which oversaw many of the state’s public health programs.

And Kenneth Cronan, while serving on the board that regulates used auto parts dealers, ran a business that collected fees running into six figures every year for allowing state workers to inspect vehicles at his Gainesville salvage yard.

Under Georgia’s new ethics law, none of them would be required to report a penny generated by those transactions, or even disclose that they had those business interests.

The law, drafted under House Speaker David Ralston’s direction, drops the statutory requirement for financial disclosure by appointed members of state boards, commissions and authorities. Those disclosures list the members’ property and business holdings, investments and employment.

But, come Jan. 11, not anymore. What was the Legislature thinking when they slipped that into the law?

“State boards, with the exception of the DOT Board, are composed of members who are appointed by elected officials and aren’t tasked with the same type of independent financial responsibility as the DOT board, which oversees billions of dollars in revenue a year,” said Marshall Guest, spokesman for Ralston.

“Requiring the same level of financial disclosure,” Guest said, “is disparate and discourages a great many qualified and committed people from serving in this capacity.”

DOT board members still will have to file financial disclosures after the law takes effect in January. A decade ago, several of their predecessors resigned after questions were raised about possible conflicts of interest. One paid a $15,000 fine.

But members of several state boards that control larger budgets than DOT, including the Board of Education, the Corrections Board, the Board of Community Health and the Board of Regents, won’t have to file disclosures.

Guest points out that members of other boards still will have to report once a year on any financial transactions between their businesses and a state agency.

Often, though, businesses can benefit from state actions even when public money is not changing hands.

Harris, Georgia’s governor for two terms in the 1980s, was not involved in the University System’s bidding process for the insurance agreement. That’s according to news accounts in 2005 when an insurance agent filed suit. The deal fell through, but Harris, as a major stockholder, could have benefited if it hadn’t.

Joiner’s clients didn’t necessarily do business with DHR. However, members of the psychiatric association, for which she lobbied, had an interest in decisions of the DHR board, which oversaw the state’s mental health system.

Nor did the state pay Cronan’s business, which collected fees from vehicles’ owners to use its facilities for the inspection. But the state Revenue Department gave Gainesville Salvage Disposal the exclusive right to host those inspections in its region, an arrangement that came to light last year because of the involvement of Cronan’s business partner, then-U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal.

There’s no evidence that Harris, Joiner or Cronan used their positions to benefit their businesses. But the public has a right to expect that public servants will not hide those types of private interests. Businessmen and businesswomen who are unwilling to share basic information about those interests have no right to expect an appointment to a state board.

The new ethics law will provide one other safeguard to prevent state officials from abusing their positions: They must sign an affidavit every January that they’ve taken no official action to benefit their personal financial or business interests.

Call it the “Scout’s honor” principle of government oversight.

Jim Walls, retired investigations editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, runs the watchdog news website atlantaunfiltered.com.