Keating gift highlights confusion over ethics rules

"If I were still on the commission, that's something I would like more information about," says Gracie Montgomery, general manager of the Purcell Register newspaper and a member of the panel from 1991 to 1996.

Without additional information, she fears the public "will perceive there is a conflict there."

Her comments came prior to demands late last week from a Democratic Party official for Keating to make available details of the gift from retired New York financier Jack Dreyfus, including how the money was deposited and spent.

Keating has said the money was given to his children and went toward their education expenses.

Gordon Melson, executive director of the state Democratic Party, has issued a series of statements in a bid to keep the issue alive.

Last week, Melson said he would ask the attorney general to take the matter to a state grand jury. Additionally, he said he would ask federal authorities to investigate.

Melson said investigations might not be necessary if Keating gives an accounting of the money and releases a questionnaire the governor filled out while under consideration as a running mate to President-elect George Bush.

Keating has said he cleared the gift with two ethics panels in Washington, where he was a Justice Department official, and informed the Bush campaign about it. The gifts continued after Keating was elected governor in 1994.

Keating has maintained that state ethics law did not require him to file a report in Oklahoma.

State law forbids acceptance of gifts in excess of $300 in a calendar year from a person who has "a substantial financial interest" in matters before state entities.

Although Keating arranged for Dreyfus to meet with state corrections officials to discuss using the drug Dilantin to curb the violent tendencies of inmates, Keating said Dreyfus has no financial interest in the drug.

Spokesmen for the governor and state Republican Chairman Steve Edwards said Democratic officials are trying to smear the governor to recover from political losses in the last election.

"They are desperate to latch onto an issue," Edwards said.

The Ethics Commission voted last week to tighten the rule in question, but delayed voting on a proposal to add "lodging" to the exceptions from the prohibition on gifts.

Melson filed an earlier ethics complaint questioning an Alaskan fishing trip by Keating that was paid for by Conoco Corp. and valued at more than $6,000. Much of the expense of the Conoco trip was for lodging.

One ethics commissioner expressed concern that gifts in the form of lodging would go unreported if the category was removed from ethics rules.

Various chamber of commerce officials urged the change, saying it was vital to the state's economic development efforts.

But Melson said he thought governmental agencies had budgets to pay for lodging and said the change would promote "mere junkets"

paid for by companies regulated by the state.

Montgomery said the main thing ethics laws need to do is provide for public disclosure so people know who is influencing their government.

She said her experience on the commission was "really frustrating at times" because of the difficulty of writing rules that were effective and not onerous.

The makeup of the five-member commission is often as diverse as opinions on ethics laws. One member is appointed by governor, one by the attorney general, one by the chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and one each by the top leaders of the House and Senate.

Montgomery, who was appointed by the chief justice, said it was the Legislature -- not the governor -- that threw up roadblocks in the panel's early years.

In fact, the commission's first ethics rules were rejected by in the Legislature.

So far, the Democratic legislative leadership has been mostly moot concerning the latest ethics flap.

Newly elected House Speaker Larry Adair, D-Stilwell, said the state's ethics laws are among the strongest in the country.

Keating called for strong ethics laws in his 1994 campaign for governor, but was incensed when he was hit with 32 complaints after a probe of his use of his state car and airplane for partisan political campaigning.

He called the Ethics Commission action "vindictive, nuts, double nuts, triple nuts, quadruple nuts."

Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson, the official Melson wants to investigate Keating, worked with the governor's office to negotiate a settlement of the plane controversy.

The Legislature also had conducted a lengthy investigative inquiry into the plane's use and also looked into allegations of bid rigging in the purchase of the governor's aircraft.

But after Keating won a legal victory in the Oklahoma Supreme Court, a promised report materialized.