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By Mike Cason
January 23, 2003

   Following through on a campaign promise, Gov. Bob Riley on Thursday named the leaders of a panel to propose changes to the state's 1901 Constitution.

 Riley named former Secretary of State Jim Bennett as the chairman and Birmingham attorney Lenora Pate as vice chairman.

   "I have full faith and confidence that this commission will work to give county governments the tools they need to operate and will address the excessive amount of earmarking in state government," Riley said in a prepared statement.

   Riley said he would name the rest of the commission in the next few days.

   Bennett, elected secretary of state in 1994 and re-elected in 1998, is a longtime advocate of
constitutional reform.

   "The need for reform has never been more clear. Public support for reform has never been stronger," Bennett said during a news conference Thursday at Constitutional Hall in Huntsville, where 44 delegates wrote the state's first constitution in 1819.

   Bennett chairs another group with almost exactly the same name as Riley's -- the Alabama Citizens' Commission on Constitutional Reform.

   That 22-member commission issued a 20-page report on Jan. 16 listing recommendations for changes to the 1901 Constitution.

   "Their work will give us a running start to do ours," Bennett said.

   Pate lost to Don Siegelman in the 1998 Democratic primary for governor. She also served in the Cabinet of former Gov. Jim Folsom Jr., a Democrat.

   Pate said it was a good sign that Riley, a Republican, was willing to appoint her as co-chair.

   "I think it communicates what Gov. Riley said he was intending to do when he was running for
governor, that he intended to cut across many of the dividing lines."

   Pate said Alabamians have talked about constitutional reform since at least 1923, when Gov. Thomas Kilby appointed a reform commission. Pate said it was encouraging that Riley started the process on just his third day in office. The order creating the commission was executive order No. 1.

   "We're in a new century and a new day, and it's time for a new covenant,' Pate said. "We have a
new governor who has made it his first priority, not his last."

   Riley promised to appoint a constitutional reform commission during the campaign. His executive order states that the panel must report its recommendations to him within 120 days, or by late May. He would then submit those proposals to the Legislature.

   The Legislature's regular session ends in mid-June, which means a special session probably would be necessary to give lawmakers enough time to consider constitutional changes this year.

   If the Legislature approves changes, voters would have the final say in a statewide referendum.

   Riley's executive order outlines five areas for the panel to focus on: offering more home rule to counties, reduce the earmarking of state funds, strengthening the governor's veto power, requiring a three-fifths supermajority for the Legislature to pass any tax increases and a recompilation of the Constitution.

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