Published: January 19, 2010

Our editorial: Lawmakers work together for ethics reform

The last sentence in a short news story recently on ethics reform bills in the Alabama Legislature deserves to be revisited. It read: "Holmes and Ward said they would work together to make sure one of the two bills becomes law."

While it took up just two lines of type in the newspaper, there's a lot that could be read between the lines.

Holmes is Democratic Rep. Alvin Holmes of Montgomery. Ward is Republican Rep. Cam Ward of Alabaster. Both have sponsored long-overdue legislation to give the Alabama Ethics Commission the power to subpoena witnesses or records in the course of an investigation into possible ethics violations by public officials.

Their stated willingness to work together across party aisles to get this legislation passed is significant, especially if such bipartisanship proves to be contagious.

A recent national survey indicates that of the 40 states with ethics commissions, Alabama is one of only three that does not give subpoena power to the group.

There has been legislation introduced regularly in past legislative sessions to grant subpoena power to the commission, but it has always failed. Sometimes it is ignored. Sometimes is gets caught up in partisan bickering. Sometimes it passes the House, only to fail in the Senate.

But it always has failed. There always have been enough legislators who are afraid of effective ethics oversight to time and again scuttle bills on subpoena power, as well as other bills that would strengthen the state's ethics laws governing public officials.

Some lawmakers have said the public doesn't care about stronger ethics laws; that such reforms are only pushed by editorial writers. We suggest they tell that to the Silver-Haired Legislature, a representative group of older citizens that has made stronger ethics laws one of its priorities. And based on this newspaper's letters to the editor, ethics in government is a major public priority for many citizens.

But no matter how hard Holmes and Ward work together, the law may not pass this year either. The strongest opposition is likely to arise in the Senate, where some powerful and entrenched senators like the state's ethics laws just like they are -- weak.

But if ethics reform ever is going to pass, bipartisanship is likely going to have to be present for it to happen.

So we applaud both Holmes and Ward, and call on other legislators, especially senators, to set aside their political differences to do what is right for the people of Alabama. These and other ethics bills should be adopted this year.