This is somehow familiar

“It’s deja vu all over again.”

-Berra, Y.

AH, GOVERNMENT work. It must be nice if you can get it. It must be especially nice if you can create the government job you get.

If you missed the story last Thursday, it’s understandable. There was a lot of news in the paper last week thanks to our friends on the news side of this operation. This particular development was of some interest to those of us who try to keep up with the slick deals currently being made in state government. Here the People Rule, for it says so in the state’s motto, but sometimes only in theory. It’s not easy keeping track of all the conflicts of interest, but one did make the paper Thursday. Call it L’Affaire Biviano.

Mark Biviano is a state representative from an Arkansas city with just about the finest soccer fields in the state. He’s also a member of a fine political party. Now comes word that this same Rep.Mark Biviano (R-Searcy) is looking for a job.

He’s one of only two (2) people who applied to become the director of the state’s first Health Insurance Marketplace Board. (There doubtless will be a lot more folks finding government work once government takes over the country’s health-care system completely.) The state rep from Searcy says the job opening is “a great opportunity to offer my skills to the state.”

How kind of Mr. Biviano to offer his services. He also says he applied after being asked by some of his colleagues “who were familiar” with his background in health care. How kind of them, too. We’d be much obliged if Rep. Biviano would give out their names. It would say a lot about their ethical judgment as well as his.

Why? Because this . . . whatever-it-is, Health Insurance Marketplace Board . . . was created by the Arkansas legislature last year. And, wouldn’t you know it, somebody in the state House of Representatives named Mark Biviano sponsored the legislation. What a coincidence.

It was almost as coincidental as the Legislature’s redoing the requirements for director of the state’s Department of Higher Education not long ago-so they fit Shane Broadway’s résumé like a custom-tailored Armani.

Happily, two applicants for the job weren’t deemed enough for the state board overseeing the Health Ins. Mkt. Etc., to choose from. So the application period has been conveniently extended to March 1st. Who knows, maybe even somebody who didn’t create this job will apply for it.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Memory grows furtive, but a brief check of the newspaper’s archives brought back this news story: Back in the spring of ‘12, there was the similar case of one Joyce Elliott, who was simultaneously serving as a state senator and executive director of something called the Central Little Rock Promise Neighborhood.

The politic folks at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock had applied fora federal grant of more than $430,000 to pay for this neighborhood project that promised . . . something or other . . . to kids. It was all about the children, you see. (Isn’t it always?) And who better to serve as the executive director of this vague outfit than, yep, a state senator?

Besides, the Hon. Joyce Elliott might could have used the $80,000 a year. A mere bagatelle for state bureaucrats-cum-academics these days. Get a load of the salaries that were being handed out at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville before the tap was turned off for a couple of the university’s star incompetents after a multi-million dollar screw-up.

ALAS, THE reporters at Arkansas’ Newspaper found out about this all too convenient arrangement for Senator Elliott. And started asking questions. Because state law says, quote, “no person elected to a constitutional office, after being elected to the constitutional office and during the term for which elected, may enter into employment with: (A) Any state agency; (B) Any public school district of this state in a non-certified position; (C) Any vocational education school funded by the state; or (D) Any education service cooperative.”-Arkansas Code Annotated 21-1-402.

Uh oh. After the story made the papers, Ms. Elliott eventually resigned from the post. It was one of her better decisions. The only thing wrong with it was that it should have taken so long for her to resign. Since she should never have taken that cushy post in the first place.

Let’s hope that one Mark Biviano can read state law, too. And, if not, then maybe the board doing the hiring will. That little part of the law, specifically (A) Any state agency, would seem to include the state board setting up this state-run health-insurance exchange. And a state representative shouldn’t be able to take the job. But a sharp lawyer might be able to explain that the law doesn’t really mean what the law says in this case. Lawyers are talented that way.

“I’m sure [the law] will be evaluated,” Rep. Biviano told the paper. “I want to do everything in accordance with the law.” In that case, his next step should be clear, simple and immediate: Pull your application, Mr. Biviano. Even if some escape clause can be found, invented, or inserted into the statute explaining that a state-run health care exchange isn’t really state-run.

Even if that’s a possibility, giving this plum job to the very state rep who took the leading role in creating it . . . well, it doesn’t look good. Or to be more specific, it looks awful. Maybe because it is.

You might even call this a textbook example of a conflict of interest. But that might not make any difference to the kind of lawmakers who can’t tell right from wrong-which is just another technicality to some folks. Or at least it is when they have a stake in arranging a nice job for themselves.

“Politics have no relation to morals.” -Machiavelli, N.