Lawmakers pass ethics law, then hit the beach

Georgia Chamber of Commerce $14,381 $12,903 King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort

St. Simons Island

Food Industry Association $14,172 $6,364 Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort

Destin, Fla.

Georgia Industrial Loan Association $10,446 $7,348 The Grove Park Inn

Asheville, N.C.

China Clay Producers/Georgia Mining Association $5,438 $4,362 Ponte Vedra, Fla.

(Georgia Mining Association)

Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association $4,853 $4,372 Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island

Amelia Island, Fla

Source: Lobbyist and campaign disclosures

Less than three months after they passed historic ethics reform in March, dozens of Georgia legislators headed to the beach for summer conventions — sun, surf, golf and cocktails, most of it paid for by lobbyists.

It all took place the same year that legislators capped gifts from lobbyists. That crackdown didn’t apply, however, to the summer convention season: lobbyist spending for the events actually jumped more than 17 percent — from $74,000 in 2012 to about $87,000 this year — according to an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

To lobbyist Gary Horlacher, the summer meetings are little more than “paid vacations” and show the Legislature wasn’t really serious about ethics reform.

“This is a very good illustration of the lack of substantive change,” said Horlacher, a one-time candidate for secretary of state who ran on ethics reform (and lost). “Rhetoric is one thing, real change is another… . Now they are back to lying on the beach and enjoying what comes with the office.”

The lawmakers and their benefactors, while downplaying the recreational aspects of the meetings, say it’s important that business interests and legislators have some face time.

“Legislators should get to know the people they make laws for,” said Kathy Kuzava, president of the Georgia Food Industry Association, which spent more than $14,000 on a dozen lawmakers and state officials during its July summer convention at the Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort. “It’s important for legislators to learn from and understand the people they legislate.”

‘Honeymoons and junkets’

Other lobbyist spending has declined dramatically since lawmakers began talking of capping or banning gifts to lawmakers. The General Assembly this year voted to put a first-ever limit on gifts from lobbyists, capping them at $75, as of Jan. 1, 2014.

But lawmakers carefully preserved the summer convention season, arguing that these events provide them an opportunity to mingle with "job creators" 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."

The most popular lawmakers on the summer scene are Republicans because they are in charge of the statehouse. Democrats used to get the same treatment when they ran the state.

House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire, a regular on the summer convention circuit, made it to at least five such meetings this summer, records show, as did Senate Regulated Industries Chairman Jack Murphy, R-Cumming.

O’Neal and his wife were hosted at the Georgia Bankers Association meeting at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville at the beginning of June, then headed to annual Georgia Chamber of Commerce meeting at the King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort on St. Simons Island, where the couple was feted by several lobbyists. A week later it was the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers event at the King and Prince, and then it was the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores convention at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Fla., to complete the month. In July, he spoke at the food industry event in Florida. Lobbyists’ tab: about $4,100.

Murphy also hit the Wine & Spirits and chamber events, along with the Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association convention at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island at the beginning of June, the Georgia Dental Association annual meeting at the Hilton Head Marriott Resort & Spa and the food industry event. Lobbyists’ cost: $4,700.

“I think these conferences serve a purpose and there is some value to having the meetings,” said Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, the leading legislative advocate for ethics reform.

And they are not all about beach and golf getaways with the family, lawmakers say.

“Everybody thinks these things are honeymoons and junkets,” said Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell. But Powell said he winds up having to pay for some of his own meals and travel. And the golf, he added, is often better at home.

Powell has been in the General Assembly for 22 years and has gone to summer conferences for most of those years. Like many other lawmakers, he says he only attends meetings that are directly connected to his role as a legislator.

“I get invited to a lot of (conventions) I don’t go to. I don’t go to conventions unless I am part of the program. I go to the ones for my committees,” he said.

The most popular lawmakers on the summer scene are Republicans because they are in charge of the statehouse. Democrats used to get the same treatment when they ran the state.

Lobbyist disclosures don’t tell whole story

In general, most organizations that host conventions are open about how much they spend.

But in some cases, the reporting becomes a bit of a shell game.

The Georgia Beer Wholesalers Association hosted nine lawmakers at its convention, all of whom are on the House and Senate Regulated Industries committees, including both chairmen.

It would be tough for the public to find that out because Martin Smith, the association assistant director and a registered lobbyist, disclosed only that he had bought a “meal” for some of the legislators.

In response to questions from the AJC, Smith said the association was paying those expenses through its political action committee as a political expense rather than as a lobbying expense. The organization follows that procedure each year, he said.

In fact, it doesn’t. A check of 2012 records shows that the beer wholesalers reported their convention spending as lobbying expenses, not as campaign contributions.

That doesn’t mean the group’s political action committee wasn’t busy. A week before this year’s convention, the beer wholesalers’ PAC gave each invited legislator the maximum political donation of $2,500. The organization routinely contribute small sums to legislative campaigns, but not typically the maximum and never so systematically.

Why the change? Smith would not say.

“It’s just our personal business,” he said.

In a follow-up email, Smith said the association had decided to amend its lobbying report and disclose the spending at Amelia Island.

Questionable gifts

Those newly disclosed lobbying expenses revealed $1,166 in spending on State Revenue Commissioner Doug MacGinnitie and Howard Tyler, director of the Revenue Department’s alcohol branch. Both men fall under Gov. Nathan Deal’s order forbidding executive branch employees from accepting lobbying gifts in excess of $25.

Nick Genesi, spokesman for the Revenue Department, said the commissioner was waiting an invoice to reimburse the association for the costs of attending the meeting.

“That’s our policy here,” he said, adding that an invoice was expected “any day now.” Shortly after the expense was questioned, the beer wholesalers amended their lobbying report to show refunds by MacGinnitie and Tyler.

Genesi said the department has followed that policy for years. In 2012, MacGinnitie and Deputy Revenue Commissioner Mack Chandler attended the state wine and spirits wholesalers meeting, along with Tyler and his wife. The lobbyist for that group reported a $52 dinner for McGinnite and $1,240 for lodging and meals for Chandler and the Tylers, but there is no record of reimbursement.

When asked about the discrepancy, Genesi said Deal’s ethics policy was “not in place” in 2012. Not true. Signing the order was one of Deal’s first official acts immediately after his inauguration in January 2011.

The Georgia Industrial Loan Association, an organization association of payday and other small lenders, hosted at least 10 lawmakers, including Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, at its convention in June. But like the beer wholesalers did initially, GILA did not disclose the convention expenses as a lobbying expense. Instead, they listed them as campaign contributions to the various attendees.

Unfortunately they apparently didn’t let their guests know since none of the lawmakers reported receiving them. as an in-kind contribution.

When questioned about the “contributions,” Cagle’s staff said his campaign wrote a check to repay the organization $1,183 for convention lodging.

Georgia chamber hosts priciest convention

Summer beach conventions and conferences are a tradition for lawmakers and the folks who lobby them. The season generally begins in May and runs through August, and legislators prominent and not-so-prominent are invited to speak to groups, sit on panels or just meet and greet members. Some lawmakers bring family members and stay for three or four days. Some pop in, eat dinner, make a speech, and are gone in a day.

In the late 1990s, one lawmaker, Rep. Robin Williams, was criticized for letting health care lobbyists pay for his wife, mother, father, two teenage daughters and even his great-aunt to attend beach conventions. Williams wound up being sent to prison for 10 years for an unrelated scheme to siphon millions from a local mental health center.

Today, lawmakers frequently bring their spouses along to the lobby-funded beach conventions.

Such conventions typically have plenty of down-time activities: cocktail receptions, time at the pool or beach, golf tournaments.

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 the Canadian Rockies.

The conventions are still held in nice locales, only 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 to meet than, say, the Caribbean.

The priciest convention this summer, as it traditionally is, was the Georgia Chamber of Commerce get-together at the King and Prince.

The state’s business lobby reported spending about $14,000 on more than two dozen lawmakers, up from $12,000 in 2012. The event was also attended by another 50 or so statehouse lobbyists, who spent thousands more taking lawmakers out to dinner or picking up the tab for golf.

Ralston and Cagle paid their own way

Not every lawmaker attended on the chamber’s dime.

Among those attending the conference was McKoon, who paid the $519 lodging tab.

“I just felt like it was appropriate for me to pay my way out there,” he said. “When you take a public position on an issue, you have to be mindful of the fact that you are going to get, fairly, some additional scrutiny.”

House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, also footed his own bill, paying $1,060 for lodging out of his campaign account. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle also paid his own way, said his spokesman Ben Fry.

Legislative leaders are frequently invited to a lot of conventions, and they usually can’t hit them all, as much as some of them try during the prime beach season.

Sen. Ronnie Chance, R-Tyrone, said his invitations rose this summer, the first since he was elected majority leader of the chamber. Chance, however, is generally not a big conventioneer, and no lobbyists reported spending on him at events this summer.

“For me, summer is time to spend time with my family,” he said. “It’s easy to say no when you focus on your family.”

But Chance isn’t necessarily against the conventions, and he isn’t surprised that summer conference spending hasn’t dropped.

“I think if a legislator is going to a conference where they are speaking in their official capacity, that is not going to change,” Chance said.

McKoon noted that during the ethics reform debate, legislators talked about how much they learned at such conferences. Lobbyists and business groups talked up how important it is for the people they represent to get time with legislators.

The senator used the example of busy doctors and other health professionals who might not be able to break away from their practices to meeting with legislators during General Assembly sessions.

“There is a quality of interaction that does take place at those meetings that probably wouldn’t happen any other way,” he said.

Horlacher, the lobbyist and former statewide political candidate, said while that may be true for members of some associations, for lawmakers this year’s beach convention season was little more than business as usual after months of ethics debate.

“To contend that these getaways are substantive-based for lawmakers is wrong,” he said. “It is absolutely ridiculous to say that legislators are getting anything more than the goodies that come with the job.”