Editorial: For a change, state lawmakers put ethics at the fore. Now they should look in the mirror

Bryan Burhans has stepped down from his position as executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The move came suddenly after lawmakers and other commission members questioned a limited liability company he operated.

“That’s not to suggest there were any ethical violations on his part, but there were questions about the appropriateness of those business relationships, and ultimately he chose to resign,” commission President Scott Foradora said in a statement, stressing he believed Burhans’ “heart was in the right place.”

Burhans was grilled by lawmakers March 20 in a House Game and Fisheries Committee meeting during which Rep. David Maloney, R-Berks, questioned him about operating the other business while collecting a commission paycheck.

In a PennLive story, Maloney said he was mindful of a $75,000 ethics violation fine earned by another game commission employee in 2016. He also cited another issue in which the commission took 33 employees to a conference in Nashville, including a pub crawl on the public’s dime.

Kudos to the lawmakers for putting ethics at the forefront of a decision. But, if the Legislature wants to see fewer ethics problems arise, it needs to model the behavior it wants to see.

Namely, Pennsylvania government needs a comprehensive and unambiguous gift ban. It needs to be a top-down law that draws the lines clearly and sharply to avoid questions of whether something is an acceptable use or receipt of money, goods or services and what is not.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has a gift ban for executive branch employees. It has more leeway to it than the much-stricter policy under Tom Wolf’s administration.

But a good bill doesn’t have to stop and start with gifts. It can address income in general. That could include businesses like the one Burhans was operating. It also could stop something like the 2016 incident in which an employee was negotiating drilling leases privately while simultaneously working on state land leases for the commission.

More than anything, it could ensure lawmakers’ ethics are as regulated as those of the state’s employees.

A gift ban like this has been proposed regularly over the years. Legislators regularly agree it would be a good idea. And then nothing happens.

Former Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, who left office in 2020, was opposed to such legislation. He then promptly joined a lobbying firm when he left. That firm, Allegheny Strategy Partners, was one more nail in Burhans’ coffin. The commission hired the firm to improve relationships with legislators to the tune of $10,000 per month.