Restrictions on campaign contributions - including checks from contractors and so-called "pay and play" money - also are addressed in the plan, which is scheduled for a vote next week.

"Here's an opportunity we should not let pass," Councilman Joe Hatch said Tuesday.

Fellow Democratic Councilman Jim Bradley, who called "pay and play" donations the "core evil in all of politics," agreed that such gifts for favors must be eliminated.

Acting County Mayor Alan Dayton - a Republican who wrote the ethics plan and is seeking an up-or-down vote on the entire package - said there is nothing the council cannot live with. He noted changes could be made through amendments when the new council takes form in January.

Meanwhile, County Auditor Sean Thomas suggested the issue of disclosures also be vetted - and perhaps folded into the new ethics policy.

"If your stockbroker has to disclose private business interests, should your elected official?" Thomas asked.

The decision may hinge on whether to strengthen recusal requirements or an existing conflict-of-interest policy that requires written disclosures by elected officials each year.

Republican Councilman Russell Skousen said strict recusal rules would send a message that the council is unbiased. "Given what we've been through recently, I think it would help," he said.

Overall, the council gave Dayton's ethics policy high marks, including outgoing Republican Chairman Steve Harmsen, who called it "good old-fashioned reform that needed to take place."

djensen@sltrib.com