Georgia legislators hit the beach

HOW WE GOT THE STORY

Capitol watchdog reporter James Salzer wanted to see if new limits on spending the General Assembly passed last year put a dent in the traditional summer beach convention season for lawmakers. So he put together a spreadsheet of scheduled events in May and then analyzed lobbyist spending disclosures when they were filed over the summer with the state ethics commission. In some cases, disclosures showed no spending at events traditionally attended by lawmakers, so he asked association officials and lobbyists why. He talked to lawmakers who attended events, lobbyists and ethics experts about what the reports said, and didn’t say.

The General Assembly’s decision to carve out a sun-splashed exception to limits on big-money lobbyist spending resulted in a hectic beach convention season for lawmakers this summer.

There was plenty of mingling, beach time, golf and cocktails to go around, even though many lawmakers were also busy running for re-election.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis shows lobbyists reported spending more than $100,000 hosting lawmakers and state officials at about two-dozen conferences, conventions, meetings, and “educational” trips, most along the Georgia, Florida and South Carolina coast, during June and July.

That spending is up about 35 percent from 2012, the year before lawmakers passed historic legislation putting limits on how much lobbyists could spend wining and dining members of the General Assembly and other state officials, while preserving spending on conventions.

The numbers may be a bit skewed this year because they include Google’s lobby spending thousands to bring lawmakers to California to look at its high-tech innovations.

Also, the Medical Association of Georgia, the state’s doctors’ lobby, reported the cost of hosting at least 15 lawmakers at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel for its “legislative update” meeting. The group did not report spending anything for last year’s event with lawmakers, an omission a lobbyist called “an oversight.”

By law, lobbyists must file reports to the state ethics commission detailing what they spend on lawmakers. But the commission does little more than collect what they get and post it online. In recent years, some lobbyists haven’t reported what they spent on conventions, or haven’t reported it until pressed by the AJC.

That has undermined the transparency intended by lobbyist disclosure laws.

“There is no mechanism for the commission to have checks and balances and verify what is being spent,” said Rick Thompson, a former commission executive secretary. “Without it, you have a good faith effort.”

While many lobbyists faithfully disclose what they spend, they generally face no penalty for not disclosing unless a third party files an ethics complaint and the state ethics commission investigates and decides to impose a fine. That rarely happens.

Whether all the spending is being reported or not, it’s clear calls for ethics reform haven’t put a damper on the traditional beach conventions, even though at least some lawmakers were busy this summer trying to win new terms and raising campaign money.

Other types of lobbyist spending have declined dramatically since lawmakers began talking of limiting or banning gifts to lawmakers; such spending fell 53 percent during General Assembly session months from 2012 to 2014. The General Assembly last year voted to put a first-ever limit on gifts from lobbyists, capping them at $75, as of Jan. 1.

But lawmakers made sure to preserve the summer convention season, arguing that the events provide an opportunity to mingle with business owners and hear their concerns. When they passed the spending caps, legislators exempted “educational, informational, charitable, or civic meetings or conferences that … directly relate to the official duties of that public officer.” While lobbyists accepted spending caps, many of them strongly supported retaining the summer get-togethers.

Many of the groups that invite lawmakers to annual conventions and meetings have long been prominent lobbies at the Capitol and have a huge financial stake in what happens there.

The Georgia Hospital Association and the Medical Association have a big interest in state health care funding, insurance, malpractice and scope-of-practice issues, such as which treatments nurses and other health care professionals are allowed to perform. Auto dealers lobbied for decades, eventually successfully, to make sure Georgians paid the same taxes or fees on car purchases, whether they bought from dealers or individuals. Grocery and convenience store lobbies worked lawmakers for several years to allow Sunday beer and wine sales in their businesses, first unsuccessfully under Gov. Sonny Perdue, then successfully under Gov. Nathan Deal.

Many of the groups, and their members, are also among the largest funders of legislative campaigns.

Jet Toney, who heads the Georgia Professional Lobbyists Association, said the ability to host lawmakers at such conferences is something “that defines what representative government is about.”

“The interaction between lawmakers and members of a profession is an important dynamic that adds to any professional conference,” Toney said. “I think it’s important for public officials and high-ranking staff to be in attendance at the meetings because it provides some feedback from citizens and taxpayers who are doing business where the rubber meets the road.

“I honestly don’t think the entertainment elements of the conferences are as extensive anymore.”

St. Simons, Jekyll Island, Amelia Island, Hilton Head, favored destinations

When the economy was booming before the Great Recession, some groups had conventions at places like the Ritz-Carlton on Grand Cayman Islands, in Hawaii or in the Canadian Rockies.

The conventions are still held in nice locales, except that the Ritz-Carlton hosting the event is more likely to be on Amelia Island than on Grand Cayman. Now, beach resorts in Georgia, Florida and South Carolina are more common locations, with occasional trips to North Carolina or West Virginia mountain resorts.

The priciest convention most years is the Georgia Chamber of Commerce get-together at the King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort on St. Simons Island, which is attended by about two dozen lawmakers and cost about $16,000 this year, including separate dinners supplied by lobbyists not working for the chamber.

The Georgia Mining Association hosted five lawmakers and Gov. Deal at Ponte Vedra Inn and Club on Florida’s east coast in late July at an annual convention that featured golf and fishing tournaments, special activities for the kids and door prizes, the kind of standard fare for many of the conventions. The industry’s lobbyist reported spending about $4,600 on lodging and meals for the state officials. Deal, who is up for re-election this fall, stopped by to speak to mine industry officials, some of whom are major donors.

The Medical Association listed spending just under $10,000 on lodging and meals for lawmakers attending its “summer legislative update” at the historic Jekyll Island Club on a muggy Saturday in late July. Health care lobbyists not associated with MAG attended as well.

MAG conferences used to be a coveted ticket for lawmakers and their families in the 1990s, but the events disappeared for a while until resuming in recent years.

This year, after a 7:30 a.m. breakfast, attendees heard a series of lawmakers talk about issues ranging from medical malpractice and insurance to “ethics and politics” and how to best communicate with legislators. Closing remarks ended two hours after a buffet lunch on the veranda, leaving time for golf, bike-riding along the grounds’ tree-lines paths and sunning at the pool or beach before an evening cocktail reception and dinner.

Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, one of the General Assembly's most vocal ethics reform advocates, attended the meeting for a second consecutive year. McKoon, who took part in a medical malpractice panel, said he didn't realize MAG hadn't reported expenses for the conference last year.

McKoon said he sends a check to MAG reimbursing his expenses, but he has no problem with the decision to keep such spending legal.

“It’s important because when we don’t have a full-time legislature and none of us are subject-matter experts, there is value in going to meetings and meeting with the subject-matter experts,” McKoon said. “Obviously we have to be careful about these meetings. If it starts getting out of hand, if it gets to where they are feeling more like a junket than an education event … then we are probably going to want to revisit that (exception).”

Marcus Downs, lobbyist for the Medical Association, said the lack of reporting expenses for last year’s event was an “oversight.”

“It was really an intimate educational meeting … I didn’t think I had to report anything like that,” Downs said. “We were not clear we needed to report something like that.”

The AJC has been reporting on lobbyist spending for such conferences and meetings for several years.

Downs said MAG decided to report its meeting spending this year after the new law “made it clear” that it was required.

As is the case with other association lobbyists, Downs said the events are important to allow his members to interact with lawmakers.

“They (doctors) are able to tell their story,” Downs said. “This gives them an opportunity to tell their story and find out how the Legislature feels about certain issues.”

Photos of the event posted by the association show panels packed with members of the House and Senate and smiling lawmakers, some with spouses, mingling with lobbyists and physicians on a veranda shaded by moss-drapped Oak trees.

Georgians visit Google

While most of the trips are to beach resorts, a few are strictly for lobbyists or company officials to get face time with lawmakers, such as the mid-June outing to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google spent almost $11,000 flying seven lawmakers to California.

Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, chairman of the Senate Science and Technology Committee, said lawmakers visited the headquarters of Google, Facebook and Yahoo. He said legislators got a chance to take a ride in the company’s driverless car and learn about a contact lens that alerts diabetes patients to take their insulin. Company officials also wanted to discuss internet privacy issues, he said.

“It really opened my eyes to what’s going on,” said Beach. “It really was educational. I learned a lot. It was not a boondoggle, it was a working trip.”

Just after the trip, House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, appointed a committee to study driver-less car technology. None of those on the trip were appointed to the committee, but some of those on the Google trip serve on House and Senate technology committees.

Google has been lobbying in some states to promote legalizing driver-less cars and to stop proposed restrictions on driving with headsets such as Google Glass. Several states are considering regulating the use of Google Glass, a tiny computer screen mounted in the corner of an eyeglass frame. Law enforcement and some other groups are concerned the devices could be a distraction to drivers.

While last year’s law limits the amount a lobbyist can spend on a lawmakers’ meal, it doesn’t limit spending on group events. So, for instance, 15 lobbyists, many representing some of the state’s leading business interests, such as gas provider SCANA, the Automobile Dealers Association, Georgia Hospital Association and AT&T, spent more than $1,800 on a meal at the Southern Legislative Conference in Little Rock, Ark., in late July for the “Georgia delegation.” Lawmakers and lobbyists contacted by the AJC were unclear how many lawmakers attended the dinner.