Provo » In Brad Agle's mind, there's one word that sums up a proposed ethics reform initiative: Accountability.
Agle, a professor at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management, said the initiative -- which would create a code of ethics for the Legislature and a commission to review ethics complaints against lawmakers -- makes legislators accountable to the public. And, he said, that seems to be upsetting some of them.
"If there's some uproar, it's because people do not want to be accountable," Agle said in a standing-room only hearing on the initiative at the Provo City Public Library on Wednesday night. Utahns for Ethical Government scheduled the hearing for residents of Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties.
But Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, said he saw a different tone to the initiative: Punishment.
"The idea is to punish legislators," Valentine said, his voice showing emotional strain. "As someone who has spent 21 years serving the state, and losing significant income because of it ... I feel like myself and my colleagues are on trial."
Valentine said if the rules sought by initiative organizers were applied to school boards and local government, there would be an uproar.
Among the provisions of the initiative is a ban on lawmakers doing double duty as lobbyists -- as does Sen. Howard Stephenson, who is also the registered lobbyist for his Utah Taxpayers Association. It would also prohibit lawmakers from donating their own campaign funds to colleagues and accepting gifts from lobbyists. It requires more disclosures of conflicts of interest and caps donations at $2,500 per individual.
But it was the commission that will review complaints and how members are picked that drew fire from critics. The five-member commission will be chosen from a pool of 20 nominated by the House speaker, Senate president and the majority and minority leaders of both houses.
If they cannot agree to 20 names, then the five founding drafters of the initiative -- former University of Utah President Chase Peterson, former state Sen. Karl Snow, former Rep. Jordan Tanner, former Common Cause Utah lobbyist Cassie Dippo and Carole Peterson, former clerk of the Utah House of Representatives -- will choose. To some, that was too much power for one group.
But Snow doubts he and his colleagues would have to appoint a panel. He said the threat should be enough to goad legislative leaders into doing their duty.
Janet Jenson, one of the attorneys who drafted the initiative, said it provides more than enough due process for an accused legislator. The complaint has to be filed by three people who have to pay their own legal fees; the commission must deem it credible before proceeding; and the legislator is represented by an attorney paid for by the state. The findings would be turned over to the Legislature, which will decide what actions to take.
