Alaska's new ethics law names the wrong person in a complaint

Alaska's new legislative ethics law tells the ethics committee to meet with the wrong person.

The provision is supposed to let the subject of an ethics complaint request a meeting with the committee. As enacted, it directs the committee to meet with the complainant instead, the person who filed the complaint. The law took effect in June.

The Select Committee on Legislative Ethics voted 8-0 Monday to ask the state's Revisor of Statutes to fix it. Administrator Joyce Anderson caught the error while updating the committee's rules. "Basically, the committee shall meet with the subject of the complaint within 10 days, not the complainant," she said.

Rep. Alyse Galvin moved to have the reviser amend the line, though she acknowledged the request may not succeed. Until it's changed, the requirement stands as written.