Watching Republicans in the Utah Legislature try to enact ethics reform is a little like trying to get the family dog to stop chewing the cable wires in the backyard. They just don't understand what we're trying to tell them.
Watching these pathetic efforts to try to police themselves, we sincerely hope the citizen ethics proposals get enough signatures to get on the ballot this fall.
Senate Joint Resolution 3, sponsored by State Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, is allegedly an effort at ethics reform by Republicans in the Legislature. It's really a fantasy by a party so comfortable with its perks, legislative intimidation tactics and cozy relationships with lobbyists that too many of its members have ceased to understand that unethical behavior is repugnant to the rest of us.
Depending on your mood -- laugh or cry at SJR3. It forbids the public from reporting that an ethics complaint has been filed against a lawmaker unless four of five appointees to a planned weak ethics commission decide a violation has occurred.
The ethics commission would have no disciplinary power. It could only forward the complaint on to a legislative committee. That committee would then make a recommendation for a full -- Republican dominated -- House or Senate vote.
All the ethics commission hearings and documents would be closed to the public unless the required 80 percent vote of members occurred. If word of a complaint was provided to the public, the complaint would instantly be dismissed by the ethics commission.
There's more mirth: Only registered voters can file complaints, and at least two have to unite to file a complaint. Lawmakers who file complaints don't need to provide knowledge of wrongdoing. If a complaint gets a legislative hearing, the media can inform the public, but no cameras or recorders are allowed.
And finally, here's one more cover-your-rear provision: No ethics complaints would be allowed 60 days prior to a primary or election vote. In other words, that's four months out of the year a corrupt lawmaker can escape responsibility.
Valentine's ethics rule is a fantasy, and lawmakers in the Legislature should be ashamed to support it. Hopefully, proposals such as SJR3 are last-gasp enabling tactics by a legislative leadership sorely in need of ethics reform.
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