Walker County bingo brings ethics lawsuit

MONTGOMERY - A lawsuit over the legality of electronic bingo in Walker County has all three branches of government involved in the case, which has more twists and turns than a mountain road in a hilly county.

State Sen. Charles Bishop, R-Arley, filed an ethics complaint in April against House Majority Leader Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, who is chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.

Bishop alleges that Guin has an illegal conflict of interest because as an attorney he represents bingo operators in Walker County but he had not declared a conflict of interest and had not told Bishop whether he will abstain on his two bills outlawing electronic bingo in Walker County.

"It's a clear violation of the law," Bishop said Tuesday.

Guin's attorney, Bobby Segall, said because Guin hasn't voted on Bishop's bills, he doesn't have a conflict.

Guin publicly stated there is no conflict and that he believes Bishop's bills are unconstitutional.

"There is no law that can require you to vote on something you believe to be unconstitutional," Segall said.

Bishop's bills prohibiting electronic bingo in Walker County died in the local House bill committee that consists of Rep. Tommy Sherer, D-Jasper, and Guin.

Sherer said he signed the bills out of committee but Guin hasn't signed them, which kills them because it takes a unanimous vote to move the bills to the full House. The bills are also dead because with Monday the last day of the 2008 regular session, there's not enough time to pass the bills.

Knowing that inaction by Guin would kill the bills, Bishop wanted Guin to abstain, enabling Sherer's one vote to move the bill to the full House for consideration.

"I am aware of both provisions of the Ethics Law and the Alabama Constitution of 1901 which prohibit conflicts of interest between the public duties and private interests of elected officials," Bishop said in his complaint to the Ethics Commission that he released.

The constitution requires a legislator who has a "personal or private interest in any measure or bill proposed or pending" must disclose it and cannot vote.

Guin told the Montgomery Advertiser there was no personal or private interest to report, and voting on an issue affecting a client is not a personal or private interest.

Bishop also told the Daily Mountain Eagle that Guin allegedly told him, "Those bills are dead."

The Walker County bingo bills were two of six bingo bills or constitutional amendments that have tied up much of the 2008 legislative session. A constitutional amendment authorizing bingo in Jefferson and Mobile counties is dead this session as are two of three bills that change bingo operations in Greene and Macon counties. A Macon County constitutional amendment is technically still alive.

Within the Legislature, last week the Joint Legislative Contract Review Committee approved a contract for House Clerk Greg Pappas to hire a lawyer for $190 an hour, capped at $50,000, to represent the House's interests in the Guin ethics complaint.

Pappas said he needs a lawyer to help get a definitive ruling on what constitutes a conflict of interest.

"It needs to be determined once and for all," Pappas said.

But Pappas said that he may have to revisit the contract to hire attorney Joe Espy since Ethics Commission hearings involving complaints are closed by law. Because of that, neither Espy nor anyone else not directly associated with the case will be able to participate.

"I'll have to visit with him and this to see if this is the way it is," Pappas said.

Meanwhile, retired Mobile County Circuit Judge Braxton Kittrell who Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb appointed to hear the Walker County bingo lawsuit, was confirmed last week as a member of the five-member Ethics Commission. Kittrell will have to recuse himself from hearing the case at the Ethics Commission if Guin's case ever reaches it.

Ethics Commission Director James L. Sumner Jr. said neither the commission nor its staff is allowed to comment whether a complaint exists.

The lawsuit by Walker County District Attorney Charles Baker and Sheriff John Mark Tirey asks Kittrell for a declaratory ruling on electronic bingo and whether the machines are illegal slot machines.

The lawsuit, filed in November, lists 21 charity bingo parlors in the county northwest of Birmingham directly on the route from Alabama's largest city to popular Mississippi gambling casinos. Attorneys for one bingo operator have asked for a dismissal of the complaint.

Dana Beyerle can be reached at (334)264-6605 or dtb12345@aol.com.