During the last session of the Utah State Legislature, lawmakers faced the possibility of citizen initiated ethics reform. In response, they created their own ethics panel, and this week former Utah Supreme Court Justice Michael Wilkins was named as its chair.
The Independent Ethics Commission met for the first time on Monday in Salt Lake City, and after electing Wilkins, the group talked about possible problems created by the legislature.
One problem is transparency. The group meets outside of the public view. If an ethics grievance against a legislator is made public, the rules say it must be automatically dismissed. But what if the person being investigated for an ethics violation makes it public - either personally or through other means? Commission member John Memmott, former head of the Legislature's Office of Research and General Counsel and a retired state judge sees this as "a very easy out."
The reason for the rule, according to John Fellows, current General Counsel for the Legislature, is that the media would recognize the motivation behind the leak so it wouldn't happen. If the person behind the leak is the person being investigated, the embarrassment is supposed to be enough to stop them from leaking any information to save them. Fellows added if there was a leak, there would be an additional complaint filed about the leak, and a possible charge of contempt of the Legislature in court.
The committee consists of three retired judges: Wilkins, Memmott, and retired appeals court Judge Russell Bench. There are also two former legislators: Salt Lake City Council member Joanne Milner and former Lt. Governor and legislator Gayle McKeachnie.
Please click on the subscribe button to receive an e-mail when Alison publishes new articles.
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
Comments