A Dole Institute official assured the state ethics panel that a KU seminar is meant only to expose legislators to "Economics 101."
A Kansas University seminar sponsored by a Koch family foundation is not subject to state laws prohibiting legislators from accepting gifts worth more than $40, a state ethics panel ruled Thursday.
The Nov. 3-7 seminar is not a gift, panel members said, because it is meant to educate -- rather than influence -- lawmakers.
"I don't see any special interest being promoted in this," said Elon Torrence, a member of the state Governmental Ethics Commission since 1994.
Last month, Rep. John Edmonds, R-Great Bend, asked the commission to decide if he could attend the five-day seminar since the accompanying food, lodging and entertainment -- tickets to the KU-Baylor football game -- are worth more than $40, and its sponsor, the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, is associated with Wichita-based Koch Industries.
Koch Industries is the second largest privately held company in the United States and is run by Charles Koch, a longtime contributor to libertarian and anti-tax causes. Koch routinely has a stake in several issues before the Kansas Legislature.
The Ethics Commission ruled the Koch Foundation had sufficiently distanced itself from the seminar by letting the Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Service and Public Policy control its content.
Burdett Loomis, a KU political science professor and the Dole Institute's interim director, assured committee members that the foundation "had very little direct input on what the program would look like."
And the seminar's bills, Loomis said, will be paid by the Dole Institute -- not by the Koch Foundation.
At last count, 39 legislators and two senior staff members had signed up for the course.
Lawrence State Reps. Barbara Ballard, a Democrat, and Tom Sloan, a Republican, are on the seminar's list of attendees.
Seminar two years in making
The Koch Foundation proposed the seminar in 1997, awarding KU a $250,000 grant after a Wichita meeting with KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway during which the foundation's expectations of the seminar were spelled out. KU, in turn, agreed to have the Dole Institute develop an economics program for public officials.
Loomis and others have spent the past two years developing a program that satisfies the Koch Foundation's criteria and KU's notion of what economics lessons legislators can absorb in a few days.
The seminar will be taught by the KU Law and Organizational Center, which hosts similar seminars for state judges at KU and elsewhere.
In recent weeks, critics have accused Koch Industries of using the seminars, which have included weeklong stays at plush resorts in Florida and Utah, to influence judges' decisions in pending or future lawsuits.
Spokesmen for both Koch Industries and the foundation have denied the allegations.
At Thursday's meeting, commission member John Solbach, a Lawrence attorney and a former state representative, asked Loomis if the economics seminar could somehow cause legislators to be unduly pro-Koch in their deliberations.
Loomis replied: "I find that so hypothetical " I wouldn't know how to answer."
Loomis said the seminar is aimed at teaching legislators basic principles of supply and demand.
"It's going to be your basic Economics 101 course," he said.
Loomis said the first seminar is expected to cost about $60,000. Plans call for opening the seminar to city and county officials in the future.
Keeping watch
Roger Ramseyer, Koch Foundation assistant vice president, welcomed the commission's ruling.
"The foundation feels it's very important that public policy-makers be given access to educational opportunities delivered by institutions like KU," he said.
"The foundation is very pleased."
But Bill Beachy, executive director of Common Cause Kansas, is skeptical.
"My sense is that, yes, this is intended to be an educational venue, but it's a stretch for me to think that it will not be an influence," he said.
"Most economic theories don't hang above us in some natural way, they tend to come from somebody with a position."
Commission members warned Loomis that they will be quick to reopen their deliberations if the seminar strays from its initial mission.
"We welcome that," Loomis said.
-- Dave Ranney's phone message number is 832-7222. His e-mail is dranney@ljworld.com.
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