MISSOURI WATCH: POLITICAL BRIEFS: INTERIM INFINITUM AD NAUSEUM

Interim legislative committees have been spreading across the state in recent days, investigating conditions that need changing and listening to constituents who have a complaint about some activity of government in Missouri. A long and honorable tradition holds that members of the General Assembly, when not in session, have a duty to probe, question and devise solutions for what is ailing government, and this year's crop of panels appears to have reached record numbers.

There are scores of lawmakers now involved in meetings from St. Louis to Kansas City, from St. Joseph to Cape Girardeau, who are looking into topics as far ranging as water patrol pensions and campaign reform methods. Just about every subject is fair game for interim committees, whose members are selected by House and Senate leaders and then given carte blanche to write reports that are often filed in Capitol dust bins.

Among the subjects now being studied are teachers' retirement benefits, expansion of gambling, branch banking across state lines, highway and transportation programs, toll roads, state governmental efficiency and modernization, school curriculums, public health programs, campaign financing reform, ethics commission operations, mental health facilities, safe schools and alternative education, games-on-wheels (trains equipped with slot machines and other gambling paraphernalia) and child visitation and support. Others could surface anytime.

Using existing legislative staff members, the interim panels rely on Capitol-generated research and then journey across the state, seeking public input that either promotes or opposes the subject at hand. Generally appointments to these committees are solicited by members, but House and Senate leaders seldom afford increased visibility to their political enemies. In recent years at least some lawmakers would prefer a little less recognition and a little more time to attend to personal business and their families. Still, committee chairmanships are often eagerly sought by lawmakers in an effort to be in the forefront of hometown newspapers and legislation in next year's session.

At least some interim reports will actually become bills in an annual session, while other reports will be placed alongside previous years' volumes, destined to gather dust with the others. The batting record for reports-that-become-laws isn't exceptionally high, but some interim recommendations have created major changes, such as revisions in the school foundation formula and alterations in criminal sentencing statutes.

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ETHICS ENIGMA: The watchdog agency on the ethics of elected officials has gotten its own watchdog in recent days. The problem began when State Auditor Margaret Kelly lambasted the agency for some sloppy accounting practices. This led to a state review team, which currently is hearing complaints from some commission employees about the agency's executive director, Marion N. Sinnett. Some charged the affable director with administrative failures, although in all fairness it needs to be pointed out that the agency is presently charged with administering different laws which often contradict each other.

While still a relatively new enterprise of state government in Missouri, the ethics commission has already amassed huge volumes of records, ranging from primary and general election spending of all county and state political candidates to client listings and money spent on these clients by lobbyists. While the records are in the process of being computerized, much of the agency's work must be done without the benefit of electronic machinery. Now in their third location during the agency's short existence, staff members often labor at a frantic pace to keep abreast of report and filing deadlines.

Add one more obstacle: the courts are currently reviewing provisions of the two most recent ethics laws: SB 650 and Proposition A. Until all rulings have been made in these cases, the agency won't know exactly what rules and regulations to enforce and which ones must be discarded. To quote the commission's chairman, John Maupin of Kansas City: "After a recent meeting of the Ethics Commission, I remarked that I couldn't understand why anyone would want to run for public office under today's laws and regulations."

It all began with an effort to put ethics in politics.

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PRESERVATION PROJECT: A former state mental health director, Dr. George Ulett, is waging a one-man campaign to save the main building at St. Louis State Hospital from the wrecking ball. The physician argues the $20 million Kohler Building can be used for some state activity rather than build new ones. Occasionally it would be nice to see logic prevail.

~Jack Stapleton of Kennett is the editor of the Missouri News and Editorial Service.