Thus Tuesday's preliminary 5-4 decision by members of the Salt Lake County Council to simply forbid the acceptance of anything of real value by themselves and other elected officials was the right thing to do.
In discussing whether to lower the cap on gifts they could legally accept from the current $50 to a proposed $20, council members correctly were moved to wonder why they should be accepting anything at all - other than inconsequential consumables and trinkets such as a bottle of water or a souvenir coffee mug - from anyone who might be trying to influence the behavior of those officials. From, that is, anyone.
The argument that no council member's vote could be bought for $50, much less $20, is probably true, and definitely irrelevant.
People who give things to elected officials, whether extensive dinners, expensive liquor or exclusive tickets, expect to get something in return. Not a decisive vote on a particular issue, necessarily, but something that, in the long run, can be even more important.
They buy time. Heart-to-heart talks. Familiarity. Even a feeling of indebtedness.
The judgment of any human being will always be influenced by the advice and obvious interests of people we have spent some pleasant time with, those who have treated us to a football game, lunch, a round of golf.
It's not that the officials have been brainwashed or browbeaten. They simply hear more of one side of the story than the other, at least when the other side is the people who did not, cannot or will not stoop to the ingratiating practice of crossing the official's palm with a little freebie.
No matter how official the public's business sounds, doing it is like doing any other business. It is the interaction of people with people. And, without rules to the contrary, it can be more than awkward for even the most upright public official to refuse to accept a gift from a constituent or someone else with an interest in that business.
If it is in the public's interest for a council member or other official to have dinner with someone, then the public should pick up the official's check, and make the transaction a public record.
If such an event isn't in the public interest, then the dinner - or Jazz game, or round of golf - should not happen.
