Fighting Last Year's War Is Not the Way to Draft an Ethics Code

Type "ethics" into the search line at utah.gov, and all that comes up is Archery Ethics Course Online.

In response to what are referred to in Utah as last year's "ethics wars," a new legislative ethics bill has been drafted. What is interesting for local government ethics is how focused the new bill is on fighting last year's war, with little thought about anything else.

According to an article in this week's Salt Lake Tribune, here's a list of last year's ethics battles:

So, guess what appears among the very limited provisions of the new ethics bill. Yes, a no bribery provision, a no threatening of employees and lobbyists provision, a may not request a state entity contract with a specific company provision, and a no intervention in legal proceeding provision.

This is not the way to draft an ethics code. Yes, there is a vague conflict provision and an equally vague gift provision. But there was no attempt to draft a real ethics code. It's window dressing, featuring an "independent ethics commission" that is toothless and appointed by legislative leaders.

One of the bill's few provisions includes references to criminal provisions relating to legislators, which would appear to create jurisdictional problems and in some cases covers the same areas as other ethics provisions, such as bribery and threatening. Another couple of things to avoid.

The bill requires that the ethics commission staff complete its investigations in 30 days (although the commission, if it meets in time, can extend this period). But legislative leaders are not in a rush themselves: "House leaders have indicated that they want to spend a year studying the process for screening ethics complaints, but [the bill sponsor] still plans to 'throw this out there' to get discussion started because she believes it has merit."

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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