Often, folks are surprised in the light of day to discover that there was no rule or regulation that would have prevented whatever politically embarrassing miscue - or satchel full of miscues, as with the previous Salt Lake County administration - is the subject of those headlines.

Such is the case with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s welcome new policy prohibiting the political appointment of anyone to the executive branch who has an immediate family tie to a member of the governor's senior staff. It is fair to ask why such a seeming no-brainer policy wasn't already written down somewhere, but the sad fact is that government ethics guidelines are often murky, spotty, toothless or vague. For example, the existing nepotism policy for state government merely prohibits employees from directly supervising a relative.

The headline that prompted the governor's new hiring strictures appeared over a Tribune news story June 30 about Layne Palmer, the father of Huntsman executive assistant Jami Palmer, who was hired to head the state's international trade and diplomacy department. Layne Palmer had few if any credentials for the nearly $60,000-a-year job, but hiring him didn't actually constitute nepotism under the state rule.

In announcing the new policy, the governor asked Palmer, former manager of an auto-parts store in Tremonton, to resign. But Palmer was not left jobless. A member of Huntsman's staff got him hired by a private nonprofit partnership, funded by business, that advises the governor.

That aside, Huntsman deserves credit for acting quickly to correct a hiring misstep and to guard against future cases of gross nepotism, real or apparent, involving his senior staff. Salt Lake County recently strengthened its procedures to prevent county officials from hiring their own relatives or exerting influence on their behalf.

Any local governments in Utah without at least minimal nepotism prohibitions should follow the example of the governor and Salt Lake County - before failure to do so results in more of those embarrassing headlines that undermine the credibility of public officials and the governments we elect them to run.