Tuesday night’s big dinner outing at the Western Weights and Measures Conference was a nice social occasion, a touristy dinner cruise on a calm Lake Tahoe. The sky was alive with stars we never see in Southern California. It was a little luxury amid a conference so tightly budgeted that there was no coffee or Internet access in the meeting rooms. And it was possible only because companies that the the state weights and measures officials regulate paid much of the bill.
Colleagues from different state weights and measures agencies who rarely see one another were able to catch up outside the intensity of the meeting sessions (though they first had to escape the really bad oldies band on the second level of paddle-wheeler MS Dixie II) And no one blinked when the sponsors, including the makers of gasoline pump equipment, were individually thanked during dinner.
The petroleum marketing lobbyists ("associate members" of the regional weights and measures associations) who were so plentiful for the meeting’s first two days were not among the sponsors. But they had other funding opportunities–for the "hospitality suite" and last night’s gala dinner at our South Lake Tahoe casino-hotel. (I missed it, having left Tahoe at 6 a.m. to get back to the office.)
The state and national weights and measures officials take their jobs seriously: protectors of consumers and creators of a level competitive playing field. Their agencies are strapped for enough public funds to do their jobs well, much less cavort on the taxpayer dime. And regulators do have to talk to industries to do their jobs well.
The tradition of not just allowing, but expecting, the commercial "associates" to fund the fun at conferences is long-standing, and raises no eyebrows.
The regional associations’ "hospitality funding" request, included right in the registration form, bears a lower-stakes resemblance to the i"study trips" abroad by California legislators, paid for by foundations that are funded by industry. Yet those trips do raise plenty of eyebrows among good-government groups and even in some parts of the Legislature. And their costs are at least reported, eventually, as gifts.
At the weights and measures association meetings–Western, Central, Northeast and Southern, the commercial interests and their lobbyists don’t have voting power or committee memberships. But their paid memberships–and paid entertainment–put them into the mix. (I’m now a paid member, but had to skip the "hospitality funding" invitation.)
If the Petroleum Marketers Association of America wants to hire a room and serve free drinks or meals to regulators at Harveys Lake Tahoe Hotel, no one can stop them. Weights and measures officials could accept a boat ride, too. But should the regulators be asking them for the money and offering formal membership in the conferences where big public policy issues (including fuel temperature compensation) are being decided?
Shouldn’t the drinks, the lake outings and the gala dinner be reported in public documents as gifts, naming the givers and occasion? That’s what’s required in many states, including California, if an appointed state official accepts even a gift of breakfast.
I sympathize with how the current arrangement came about. Everyone at these intense conferences needs a breather. But the overt expectation that private funds will underwrite a conference of public regulators seems like a throwback to the Standard Oil Trust.