Making little headway after haggling over its own ethics review for an hour Tuesday, the nine-member County Council quickly embraced Dayton's package that focuses on lobbyist registration, open meetings, campaign finance, car allowances, employee training - and the employee oath.

Dayton told the council it must vote up or down on the entire package, or he would withdraw all of it.

"If we're to get anything done, we have to do it as a package," Dayton told the council. "I fear that if we single [individual items] out, they will become watered down."

Councilman Joe Hatch, a Democrat, eagerly urged the board to take the Republican acting mayor's proposal. "I move that we vote this up or down in one week," Hatch said.

In an interview, Hatch noted that he didn't like everything about Dayton's package, but joined the council in unanimously agreeing to vote on it Tuesday. "His proposal is so positive that I'm willing to take a lot of good with a little bad," Hatch said.

"Alan Dayton has come in here and said, 'I only have four months,' '' Hatch said. "As a lame duck, he can solve a lot of problems."

The council took up Dayton's package after floundering on various ethical topics. Tuesday, the council kicked around such items as tuition reimbursement for employees, who could use the county government complex and how to set up a whistle-blower hot line.

Republican Councilman Dave Wilde said he was troubled by Chairman Steve Harmsen's approach to review county ethics "on a piecemeal basis."

Wilde wondered aloud whether the council was actually accomplishing anything.

"I feel we're going through this so that we can say, 'Yes, we care about ethics.' But we're doing this hastily and so far, I'm seeing these things come back."

But Harmsen, also a Republican, said the council should continue with its own review even if Dayton's package is approved.

"We're talking about the same nine issues the mayor [Nancy Workman] brought up," he said. "These are major suggestions [by Dayton]. But that doesn't preclude us from going forward with our own."

In an interview following the meeting, Dayton said his strategy of proposing new ethics guidelines as a package was to ensure passage. "They would look bad voting against an ethics package," he said. "As a package, it will pass, and the council will get due credit."

The ethics proposals will send a message to the public, county employees and county managers, Dayton said. "But the truth of the matter is, these proposals are substantive."

Included is a provision to make the mayor's executive meetings open and to disallow anyone with a contract with Salt Lake County from making campaign contributions to candidates running for county office. Also, cars and car allowances would be prohibited as benefits of employment, and ethics training would be required of all county officers and employees.

csmart@sltrib.com