The acting mayor of Salt Lake County - who's acting because the elected mayor has been caught up in a major ethics scandal - is pushing a package of reforms that might help his operation take a step away from the traditional list of oxymorons.

The list of reforms is incomplete. But it's a good start and one that ought to be approved as a package by the County Council.

With a couple of changes.

Acting Mayor Alan Dayton gave up waiting for the befuddled council to settle on a list of ethics reforms. So he proposed his own. It would:

l Apply the registration and client disclosure requirements for those who lobby Utah state government officials to those who earn money seeking to influence county government decisions.

l Set limits on the amount of money individuals can contribute to candidates for county office and require, in some cases, disclosure of those contributors. It would also ban campaign contributions from county employees and businesses with contracts to do work for the county.

l Require that meetings of the mayor's cabinet be open to the public.

l Formalize ethics training requirements for county employees, in the manner of current mandatory training for sexual harassment and disabilities issues.

l Require all county employees to take an annual oath of office that, in addition to swearing allegiance to the Constitution and laws, pledges them to “always meet the highest ethical standards implicit in my employment.”

l Remove county vehicles or car allowances as a perk of high office and reserve them for county employees whose daily duties really require them to put a lot of miles on their cars.

Of the reforms on the list, only the last might have prevented the fall of a few former county employees by avoiding the sneaky atmosphere that has so besmirched the reputation of everybody, even the hard-working and honest ones, who works for the county.

We remain concerned that the proposed campaign contribution limits - no person could give more than $2,000 for council district elections and $10,000 in county-wide races - seem awfully high and not based on any recognizable standard. A personal limit of $2,000 toward any county contest seems sufficient.

We'd also like to see a strong anti-nepotism policy - perhaps grandfathering in any grandsons who are already on the payroll - so as to move away from the feeling of entitlement that has so damaged public faith in county government.

That said, Dayton's reforms seem the least that the county can do to start reclaiming the public's trust. At least until there's a new mayor on the job in January.