Lawmakers dueled with citizen activists Wednesday over ethics reform measures, then unanimously passed out of committee a bill that would set up an independent commission to screen complaints against legislators.
The 35-page bill unveiled Wednesday would set up a five-member commission made up of retired judges and lawmakers to thoroughly investigate -- behind closed doors -- complaints against legislators to weed out those deemed frivolous or politically motivated. Charges found to have merit then would be forwarded to the House or Senate ethics committee, where they would become public.
Some lawmakers worried about the standard of proof for this independent panel to make charges public.
"Once this goes to the Legislature, that guy's political career is done" -- regardless of guilt or innocence, said Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City. "In most cases, if it goes to the next level, they're likely to resign."
The proposal, allowing private citizens to initiate complaints, would bring in an independent voice to ethics enforcement on Utah's Capitol Hill for the first time. Currently, only sitting lawmakers can bring allegations against their colleagues and the complaints are judged solely by other legislators meeting behind closed doors.
But the Legislature's bill doesn't satisfy some ethics advocates.
"We still have some major concerns" regarding transparency and fairness, Utahns for Ethics in Government leader Kim Burningham told the Ethics Interim Committee. "We believe in a lot more openness."
Burningham's group is attempting to get an initiative on next year's ballot that would enact sweeping ethics reforms, including setting up a commission of five citizen members to screen complaints against lawmakers. It also would establish a clear code of conduct for legislators.
Some lawmakers have acknowledged that the initiative is driving the Legislature's move toward ethics reform, while others insist reform legislation was already under way. In any case, many members of the House and Senate are openly hostile to the ballot proposal.
House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, blasted the ethics initiative for what he views as overreaching authority and a raft of potential unintended consequences.
"Under the citizens initiative, you're guilty until proven innocent," Garn said, charging that initiative sponsors set themselves up as lifetime czars accountable to no one. "You really create a fourth branch of government," Garn charged.
Dixie Huefner, communications director for Utahns for Ethical Government, fired back that Garn mischaracterized the language and intent of the initiative.
"It's not right at all to talk about czars and super-czars," Huefner said in support of the initiative's methods for commission selection.
Huefner also reminded the committee that the initiative's commission would be an advisory body only, without the power to assign guilt or penalty.
