Hart's post resignation ends ethics complaint

A humble act from an Athol legislator on Friday resulted in a House ethics committee dismissing a complaint against him.

The seven-member body unanimously dismissed the multi-part charge against Rep. Phil Hart, after he resigned from his vice chairmanship of the House Transportation Committee.

"I felt that the committee wanted to end the process, and I wanted to end the process," Hart said on Friday afternoon. "I felt the committee needed to see me make some kind of a gesture toward them to make it easier to shut the committee down."

The complaint had been filed against Hart last year by Rep. Eric Anderson of Priest Lake, and concerned Hart's removal of state-owned timber in 2006 without paying, and conflicts over his refusal to pay state and federal income taxes.

The committee had last met on the complaint in December.

Hart said giving up his committee leadership position was difficult, especially after stepping down from the Taxation and Revenue Committee last year, due to concerns over his battle with unpaid taxes.

But he wants distractions out of the way so the Legislature can get to work, he said.

"I was trying to look at the bigger picture," the fourth-term legislator said. "I felt like if I made that offer to the committee, they could shut down the  process and we could go back on Monday and get busy with what we should focus on."

Ethics committee member Bill Killen said the panel was impressed by Hart's gesture, as well as a speech he gave acknowledging that his conduct could have been improved.

“He said if he could only go back 15 years, he would have made a lot of different decisions,” said Killen, a Democrat representative from Boise. "I think people felt that he was acknowledging that regardless of the merits of what it was he was challenging, the constitutionality of the tax law, that the way he had gone about it could have been vastly improved.”

Wendy Jaquet, another committee member, said she approved of Hart stepping down from vice chair.

“Since July, there’s been so much press about him and as a result, he didn’t really work with us, he worked with the committee through an attorney,” said Jaquet, a Democrat Ketchum representative. “He apologized for not being more engaged with the committee. That was another thing the committee was looking for, him saying, ‘I kind of messed up here.’”

Hart unsuccessfully sued the federal government in the mid ‘90s over the constitutionality of the income tax, and boycotted state and federal income tax for several years.

The federal government has filed $300,000 worth of liens against Hart. The legislator has said he has paid $120,000 in back taxes in the last five years.

These issues will be settled outside the Legislature, Hart said.

"That's taking place in the courts," he said.

The committee on Friday also dismissed a charge filed against Hart by his November write-in opponent Howard Griffiths, concerning possible conflicts with a meeting Hart attended with local judiciary and elected officials.

The bipartisan panel also dismissed a complaint against Anderson that questioned if legislation he pursued was for personal gain.

Both charges were "without foundation and frivolous," Killen said.

He is glad the ethics charge is dealt with, Killen added.

"Phil's a very straightforward, straight-up guy. I've known him going on five years, and I've never known him to do anything but speak with a straight tongue," Killen said. "That's not an issue with Phil. He's more than happy to tell you how he stands and why. Sometimes he gets a little eager."