Utah Legislature: Senate ethics bills gain preliminary approval

SALT LAKE CITY — The full Senate gave preliminary approval Monday to its trio of ethics bills, including a resolution creating a new independent ethics commission to investigate alleged ethics violations by lawmakers.

"This is an historic piece of legislation," said the sponsor of SJR3, Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, noting would be the first independent investigation of ethics allegations.

The resolution, co-sponsored by all 29 senators, passed 26-1-2, with Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, opposed.

Buttars said the Utah Constitution makes lawmakers themselves responsible for dealing with complaints and the change was being make under media pressure.

"Ethics should be a personal integrity issue," Buttars said. "If you do something wrong, you should be called on it."

Most of the debate was over the other two Senate ethics bills, also sponsored by Valentine. SB136 would allow the independent ethics commission to meet in closed session, and SB138 would protect records in cases where allegations are not found to have merit.

A new Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows 53 percent of Utahns say initial investigations into ethics complaints should be kept from the public unless they are deemed to have merit. Forty-three percent disagreed that initial complaint investigations should be closed to the public. Dan Jones & Associates surveyed 410 residents statewide last week.

Valentine said the intent of the bills is to reverse the current process of investigating allegations publicly, and then holding closed-door hearing on those deemed to have merit. He called the bills "a balance between being open and also protecting the rights of the accused," noting that if the allegations are deemed to have merit, hearings by either the House or Senate ethics committees would be held in public.

Valentine said, after meeting with representatives of a media coalition that includes the Deseret News, he decided the independent ethics commission should not be exempted from the state's open meetings act.

Meetings are allowed to be closed under the act to discuss the character and competence of an individual.

Valentine said he's willing to consider amending the bill further to require the meetings be noticed.

Senate Minority Whip Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, questioned whether the legislation would be seen by the public as an attempt by lawmakers to shield themselves from scrutiny.

The resolution and two bills still must receive final approval from the Senate before advancing to the House.

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