Posted by Phil Lee (205.252.11.224) on September 04, 2000 at 10:42:
From "Md. Ethics Law Ends at the State Line"
By Daniel LeDuc, Wash. Post Staff Writer, Thur., July 27, 2000; Page A01
When 40 Maryland legislators arrive in Mississippi for the annual Southern Legislative Conference, Annapolis lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano will be waiting for them aboard the 68-foot schooner Glenn L. Swetmann, with shrimp-salad croissant sandwiches, cold beer and Kendall Jackson wines at the ready.
With the lobbyist--who registers for the annual meeting of southern lawmakers as "Bubba Bereano"--as host, the legislators will spend four hours cruising the Gulf of Mexico before returning to the marina in Biloxi and their casino hotel, the Beau Rivage.
Under Maryland's ethics law, the lavish cruise for lawmakers couldn't occur in Annapolis waters. But at out-of-state meetings such as this one, it is, as Bereano quickly points out, "perfectly legal."
When Maryland legislators voted last year to prohibit lobbyists from buying them drinks, dinners and sports tickets, they carved out a few exceptions. One of them, decided at the last minute in a conference committee, was to continue to allow lobbyists to entertain legislators at out-of-town conferences approved of in advance by the legislative leadership.
So last week, Bereano and a half-dozen other Maryland lobbyists traveled to Chicago for the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting. Bereano put on a dinner at one of the city's best-known steak houses paid for by one of his clients, the television cable company Comcast. Two Maryland executives of the company flew to Chicago for the dinner.
Alan Rifkin and two other lobbyists at his firm combined forces with lobbyist Robin Shaivitz to host more than 50 Maryland lawmakers and guests at Smith & Wollensky's new restaurant near the Chicago River.
And next month, more lobbyists will travel to Biloxi, where, with Bereano, they'll all host a dinner for the Maryland legislators at the historic Porterhouse Restaurant.
Under the law, none of the legislators has to disclose that they attended the dinners or took the cruise. And the lobbyists don't have to identify the lawmakers they entertained.
Bereano said he picked up the tab for several one-on-one meals with lawmakers in Chicago, which would not be permitted in Maryland but is legal at out-of-town conventions. He said his expenditure report to the State Ethics Commission would read that he had meals "with Maryland legislators."
That is even less disclosure than was required under the previous ethics law governing the entertaining of legislators. Before last year, both the lobbyist and lawmaker had to disclose the cost of meals and entertainment if it was more than $25, no matter where they were.
"To be kind, it's an anomaly," said John O'Donnell, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, which did not support the exceptions to the law. "When you go out of town, you have a lot less disclosure."
The relationships between lobbyists and legislators in Annapolis has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. This month, lobbyist Gerard E. Evans was convicted of federal mail fraud charges for defrauding his clients. Prosecutors contended an old friend, Del. Tony E. Fulton (D-Baltimore), helped him in the scheme; a jury acquitted Fulton of five counts and could not reach a verdict on six others.
Yesterday, a legislative task force considered banning political contributions by lobbyists to lawmakers as part of a lengthy overhaul of regulations on the state's more than 500 registered lobbyists.
For years, it was the wining and dining of lawmakers by lobbyists--some of whom used to leave open tabs at Annapolis restaurants for legislators during the General Assembly session--that attracted the most attention from critics. Concerned with the public perception, lawmakers voted in 1999 to eliminate one-on-one dinners between lobbyists and legislators.
The only entertaining now allowed is when lobbyists invite delegations, committees or the full legislature to dinners or receptions. The cost of such entertaining has been rising steadily. But legislative leaders allowed a further exception for out-of-town conventions.
House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany), who attended the Rifkin dinner in Chicago but will not be at the Biloxi meeting, said Maryland lawmakers would be at a disadvantage without the exception. He said national corporations put on "mainstream" entertainment that legislators from other states can attend at the conventions and that Maryland lawmakers should be able to also.
Shaivitz, the lobbyist, said that legislators from other states aren't barred from being entertained by lobbyists at those gatherings and that Maryland lawmakers would be at "a distinct disadvantage" if they were unable to attend.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Prince George's) is the incoming president of the Southern Legislative Conference but said he would not be attending Bereano's boat ride because of a scheduling conflict. He said he didn't see a problem with the event, noting, "He's invited every single Maryland legislator attending."
Some of Maryland's most prominent lobbyists regularly attend the out-of-town conventions. In addition to Bereano, Shaivitz and Rifkin, two of Rifkin's partners, Joel Rozner and Michael Johansen, traveled to Chicago.
"You get an opportunity to talk to [legislators] in a longer period of time than you might in the halls of Annapolis. You can zero in on the ones you want to see," Shaivitz said. "This is an opportunity to ask someone how their families are doing, or their plans for the summer or to have a drink with somebody."
William Pitcher, Nicholas Manis and other Maryland lobbyists will be in Biloxi. Pitcher said he valued the "schmooze time."
"If they're going to carve an exception [to the entertaining ban] this one kind of makes sense, though I was surprised they did," Pitcher said. "Is it worth the expense? I don't know."
The National Rifle Association's Maryland lobbyist, Greg Costa, who also lobbies in several other northeastern states, was at the Chicago convention. He said he did no entertaining there and was not aware of the exception for entertaining Maryland lawmakers out of the state.
"For multistate lobbyists, these things are valuable," he said of the Chicago meeting. "For single-state lobbyists, I've never understood it. Now, I do. I can see it being a big advantage if you're going to take advantage of the Maryland loophole."