Ethics Law Unexpectedly Puts Romance on the Record

Joel Rozner treated Cheryl Kagan to five movies, four concerts and 29 meals, with her share of the check usually costing less than $20. (“She hardly drinks,” Rozner says.) He also took her to the Bahamas, and they made a Christmas getaway to Vermont.

How do we know all this?

Because Rozner is a lobbyist and Kagan a legislator, and their courtship is a matter of public record, covered under a new state reporting law. The effect on lobbyist-lawmaker romances was apparently unforeseen.

“Technically speaking, every time she goes to my refrigerator and takes a Coca-Cola out, I’m supposed to report that,” Rozner said.

According to reports filed with the State Ethics Commission, Rozner spent almost $2,000 on Kagan from personal funds (not those of his clients), including $1,000 for the trip to the Bahamas. Their dating put the Montgomery County Democrat at the top of the list of Maryland lawmakers who received gifts and food from lobbyists between Nov. 1 and April 30.

Both say they’ve been put in an awkward situation and believe that the law--aimed at professional wining and dining--should be changed so that it does not apply to wooing.

“The law did not anticipate this type of situation. I clearly was not anticipating it when I supported the law,” Kagan said. “Relationships aren’t supposed to be about keeping score. Unfortunately, my job means that we have to keep score.”

The law, which took effect last fall, was passed to try to close loopholes that allowed lobbyists to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on entertainment without listing the names of any lawmakers who took the gifts.

Sen. Michael Collins, chairman of the Legislative Ethics Committee, has asked the committee staff to draft a bill to drop romantic relationships from the reporting requirements.

“I’m hoping we can craft something that would not create a loophole, but at the same time protect the privacy of meaningful relationships between legislators and lobbyists,” he said.

Deborah Povich, Maryland director of the citizen lobbying group Common Cause, said she would object to such revisions.

“Though they absolutely have the right to their own personal life, public disclosure is important to determine whether there is a conflict of interest,” she said.

Two other legislator-lobbyist couples are engaged to be married.

Lobbyist Pam Metz said she decided not to buy anything for her fiance, Sen. Edward Kasemeyer, to avoid any problems with the reporting law.

“It’s been a bit weird at times. I would start to say, ‘Hey, I’ll get dinner this time,’ and then I would think, ‘No, I can’t,’ ” she said. “Quite honestly, it’s somewhat ridiculous.”

Delegate Michael Burns and lobbyist Kimberly McCoy, who will be married in November, split the check when they go out. Burns even went so far as to write McCoy a check for his own Christmas presents to keep her gifts to him from becoming part of the public record.

Rozner said he and Kagan have been dating for eight months and decided early on that they would try not to let their professional relationship and romantic relationship intrude on each other.

“We certainly talk politics all the time. We certainly talk about issues,” he said. But he said he does not lobby Kagan, and she does not ask him to support her bills.

In fact, one of Rozner’s clients, the Maryland Assn. of Realtors, helped kill Kagan’s major bill of the 1996 session to regulate condominiums. And Kagan voted against Rozner’s biggest issue of the session--funding for a new Washington Redskins football stadium.