Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 1, 1995                   TAG: 9506270015
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PRIVATIZE

He is right. He'd be smart, therefore, to appoint a new ethics study commission - composed not of administration insiders, and not heavy with FOGs (friends of George) - to recommend changes to help ensure that ``privatizing'' in Virginia isn't dogged by suspicions of favoritism, cronyism and conflicts of interest.

While it's at it, the commission might also revisit other areas of potential ethical conflicts - such as lawyer-legislators representing clients before state agencies and regulatory boards. Or, it might simply review the work of past study commissions that have been routinely formed to produce proposals that are routinely neglected.

Then, Allen could push for a comprehensive update of ethics laws. Such an update is long overdue, and so is a push. Without leadership from the governor, the General Assembly is unlikely to trouble itself with these matters.

Indeed, lawmakers dismissed the major recommendations of an ethics study initiated but never championed by former Gov. Douglas Wilder. Those recommendations included campaign-finance reforms (summarily trashed by the legislature) and a proposed permanent state ethics commission.

Until now, Gov. Allen has been less than conspicuous as a champion of government ethics reform. His recent comments on the issue followed a report by this newspaper on a payroll-deductions contract let to a company whose vice president had quit his state job handling payroll deductions specifically to bid for the work as a private businessman.

Muddying the matter, the vice president had contributed to Allen's gubernatorial campaign and, while in the state's employment, had served on a panel that recommended that the payroll work be farmed out to the private sector.

An assistant attorney general opined that, although the deal did not appear to be illegal, it gave off the ``smell'' of a conflict of interest.

Now, says the governor, new ethics laws and guidelines may be required to avoid even the appearance of potential conflicts because: ``I think above all there needs to be trust in government.''

Yes, above all. Public trust is particularly helpful when a fairly bold, new initiative is part of a politician's agenda. As it happens, Allen's search for privatization options makes considerable sense. (And nothing, for that matter, is inherently wrong with a public employee quitting to work on a contractual basis with the government.)

This is all the more reason, however, for the governor to take care that privatization not become, in fact or public perception, a bold new addition to the old political spoils system.