August 24, 2004

Phil Kabler; Statehouse beat

With disclosures last week that legislative investigators had zeroed in on the smoking gun (smoking computer?) linking Delegate Jerry Mezzatesta with the fabrication of backdated letters he hoped would get him out of a jam with the Ethics Commission, the Mezzatesta controversy is now entering its endgame.

The question now is how big a hit the nine-term Hampshire County delegate will take.

At best, Mezzatesta comes out with the loss of his Education Committee chairmanship and a fine and reprimand from the Ethics Commission. At worst, he stands to lose his seat in the Legislature, his $60,000-a-year day job, and could find himself facing criminal charges for false swearing.

Talk about pride goeth before a fall.

When compared to the state’s long history of political malfeasance, Mezzatesta’s transgressions have been relatively picayune.

Double-dipping legislative and Hampshire County School salaries may be odious, but nothing in state law prohibits it.

Mezzatesta’s ethics charge is for allegedly soliciting state funds for Hampshire County schools, in violation of an Ethics Commission advisory opinion that told him that was a no-no after he was moved up to an administrative position in the school system. Not exactly on par with taking bribes behind the city incinerator.

Which makes the whole idea of a cover-up so absurd and pathetic.

Mezzatesta could have gone before the Ethics Commission, admitted he had violated the ethics act, and accepted a slap on the wrist and a small fine. (That appears to be the route Sen. Mike Ross, D-Randolph, will take for failing to disclose his financial interests in the Pete Dye Golf Course before voting for a $750,000 state grant for a golf tournament there.)

Mezz could have even put a positive spin on the whole affair with the constituents back home, by saying his overzealousness to get a new school for the county caused him to overstep the ethical boundaries. No West Virginia politician has ever been voted out of office for trying too hard to bring home the bacon to his district.

Then again, Mezz has probably never uttered the words “I was wrong” or “I’m sorry.”

Now it looks as if he’ll face the consequences.

Interestingly, though, while Mezzatesta has made hundreds of enemies over the years — many of whom he berated and humiliated in the course of committee hearings — even those enemies won’t say his intentions weren’t good.

“I don’t care what anybody says. He’s passionate about education,” Judy Hale, president of the West Virginia Federation of Teachers, said after House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, removed Mezzatesta as Education chairman. “He’s committed to the kids.”

She added, understatedly, “Certain characteristics of his got in the way of getting things accomplished.”

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Though we didn’t know it at the time, an incident in the 2000 session may have been a foreshadowing of the current Mezzatesta mess.

Early that session, a rumor surfaced that Mezzatesta had a lawn jockey-type figurine in his office, and that it was being referred to as “Arley,” or as “our newest committee member.”

(Then-Delegate Arley Johnson, D-Cabell, had been demoted from the Judiciary Committee to the Education Committee. Johnson, who is black, was punished for his continued outspokenness over inequities in the distribution of Budget Digest money.)

After the rumor simmered for several days, and generated several news articles, Mezzatesta called photographers into his office, and produced a dancing cactus figurine, which he insisted had prompted what he called the false rumors.

The controversy eventually fizzled, although I don’t think anyone in the press corps bought Mezzatesta’s explanation.

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Mezzatesta’s ouster as Education chairman made headlines last week, but the bigger issue is — should he survive politically — will he remain on the powerful House-Senate budget conference committee?

Traditionally, the House and Senate Education chairmen serve on the committee, and determine how roughly $2 billion in public and higher education funding gets allocated.

However, the speaker and Senate president have the final say on who gets appointed to serve on the 12-member panel, which also approves the Budget Digest in June.

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One last word on Mezzatesta: Records in the auditor’s office show he has reported $125,871 in expenses since July 1999. Most of that is for travel costs during legislative sessions and for various conferences, including most recently, $1,447 to attend the Council of State Governments conference in St. Paul, Minn.

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Recent allegations of legislative improprieties have heightened the call for tougher state ethics laws from constituents, including the West Virginia Citizen Action Group.

The Ethics Commission itself is mulling over a number of initiatives for the Legislature to consider in 2005.

They include:

• Restore the commission’s power to initiate investigations of possible ethics violations.
• Increase the maximum fine per violation from $1,000 to $3,000.
• Extend the statue of limitations on ethics violations from one to three years.
• Give the commission authority to randomly audit lobbyists’ expense reports and all related documentation.
• Increase the amount of information required in financial disclosure statements from candidates and public officials. That includes lowering the threshold for reporting outstanding loans, whether as a creditor or debtor, to $5,000 from the current $12,500.
• Impose limits on dual compensation (“double dipping”) for public officials.
• Establish mandatory ethics training for lobbyists, and certain elected and public officials.

All of which are laudable proposals. The question is whether the advocates can persuade the Legislature to actually transform the Ethics Commission from a paper tiger to a watchdog.

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Supporters of the state’s Pharmaceutical Affordability and Availability Act have been concerned from the onset that the powerful drug industry would at some point rise up and quash the state’s efforts to come up with meaningful prescription-drug cost controls.

With Gov. Bob Wise’s 180-degree turn last week on calling a special session this fall on prescription drug costs, it looks like the drug lobby won’t have to intervene.

To his credit, though, Wise was getting pressure from legislative leaders who were not enthusiastic about having a special session before the November elections, particularly on such a complex issue such as prescription drug costs.

Speaking of Wise, you’d never guess he wasn’t running for re-election, based on his schedule.

Last week, for instance, Wise crisscrossed the state, handing out economic development grants, then went to the State Fair, where he handed out various trophies and awards.

To be sure, he doesn’t act like someone who has no future political aspirations.

Speculation is that Wise may attempt to reclaim the 2nd Congressional District seat in 2006. Wise held the seat for 18 years before he ran for governor, and Shelley Moore Capito won the race to succeed him.

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The buzz from the south is that there still will be about 30 indictments coming out of the federal vote-buying investigation in Logan and Lincoln counties, mostly involving county-level offices, although word is at least one state delegate is involved. No candidates for offices higher than state delegate are likely to be indicted, I’m told.

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Finally, lawmakers are back in Beckley today — or the nearby Glade Springs Resort, to be precise — for the first out-of-town interim meetings of 2004.

This marks the third time Beckley has hosted legislative interims, joining Huntington, Wheeling and Parkersburg as three-time hosts of out-of-town interims.