The ethical accusations against state lawmakers continue to pile up.

Thursday the Alaska Public Offices Commission listened to complaints against Senate President Ben Stevens and whether he violated any financial disclosure rules.

Stevens was accused of not disclosing income from a consulting business and from his service on the board of directors of Semco Energy. Those accusations come from the Republican Moderate Party.

Thursday the APOC held a hearing to review that information in an investigative report from APOC staffers. The staffers suggest that Stevens in fact withheld information on APOC documents. They also suggested that Stevens pay the maximum fine of more than $10,000.

However once the commission deliberated the issue, they agreed there was a violation, but they also say some of the documentation wasn't updated, and it looked confusing. Therefore the group decided to fine Stevens only $5,000.

Republican Moderate Party chair Ray Metcalfe says the ruling was just a slap on the wrist, and it seems the bigger issue is APOC itself.

“I think it's time to recognize that APOC isn't working. It's not doing what it was designed to do. It's become the patsy, the alibi for politicians to do very bad things,” Metcalfe said. “For this kind of thing to go on unchecked is the source of the problem, and it's the reason this state is now under scrutiny from people from the Office of Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. I mean, this group should have been cleaning this up a long time ago, but it's not.”

Stevens was not at the hearing Thursday, and he has not released a comment on the issue.

Speaking of accusations of unethical conduct, the Tom Anderson trial has been backed up. A federal judge is pushing back the trial date to April 9. The judge is re-setting the trial date so Anderson’s attorney can prepare for the case. That's because there are about 20 discs that contain hours of both audio and video involving Anderson.

The judge also says if there's another conflict as Anderson’s new trial date approaches, the defense can ask for a further delay.

The Democratic Party of Alaska was also at APOC Thursday in another ethics issue. Just before this hearing on Stevens, the Republican Governor's Association was fined $24,000 for sending out campaign mailers supporting Gov. Sarah Palin about two weeks before the election. To put that in perspective, the Association could have been fined $6 million, but APOC says there was still wrongdoing.