The turncoat may not take your confidential papers or corporate books over to the competition. But his head contains all that knowledge, her gut all that instinct and his eyes the recognition of, and access to, not only all of your remaining employees, but all of your customers, too.

It can be a lot more than just disappointing. If your protege was a soldier or a spy, it's treason. If he was a high-placed executive, a television personality or other person whose value was enhanced by the recognition you provided for him, it would be a violation of a standard non-compete clause in their employment contract.

If that person were a member of the Legislature or other public official of any of 23 states, it would be a crime.

Utah is not one of those states, yet. But if a bill being carried by Rep. Carol Moss, D-Holladay, becomes law, it could be. And not a moment too soon.

House Bill 365, as of Wednesday, was no more than a number and a grammatically inside-out title: “Revolving Door Limitation for Public Officials to Become Lobbyists.” The use of the term “revolving door” is a little slangy for a legislative act, but it is descriptive of the problem.

Somebody goes to work for the government, learns all the ins and outs of various issues, processes and personalities, then gets a much-better-paying job for one of the special interests that wishes more than anything else to influence those laws or the way they are applied. Sometimes, such folks go back into government, then back to being lobbyists, depending on which party is in power and how many college tuition payments they have due.

Stopping the revolving door for lawmakers, as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has already proposed doing for executive branch officials, recognizes that it is unfair, to the point of theft, for someone who has become a valuable commodity on the state's dime to then go and sell that experience to a private interest.

Huntsman proposed a one-year “cooling-off period” for executive branch officials to wait before they can become lobbyists. Two years would be better, for his branch and for lawmakers. And it should be written into law, not be left as a policy or executive order.

Open government requires the right of anyone to lobby the government, even hire experts to do it for them. It does not require that the public pay to create the weapon that will, in too many cases, be used against the public interest.