Independent legislative-ethics commission may be unconstitutional

State legislative Democratic leaders want some kind of an independent ethics commission to at least make recommendations about legislative misconduct.

But such an independent commission walks close to the unconstitutional line, a special ethics study committee was told Wednesday.

And Republicans in the evenly split partisan study group seemed to want all legislative ethics matters kept within the Legislature itself — the 104-member, part-time body controlled by Republicans for around 30 years.

"This will not be an easy task," said Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, co-chairman of the Ethics Interim Committee, which held its first meeting Wednesday morning before lawmakers were scheduled to take up a number of budget reconciliation measures in an afternoon special session.

While the Democrats on the committee kept asking questions and making statements about how some kind of pre-screening conduct commission with citizen ethics experts was the best way to go, Republicans on the committee urged caution and strict adherence to law.

John Fellows, the Legislature's chief lawyer, said it would be unconstitutional for the Legislature to set up an independent ethics commission to rule on lawmakers' misconduct, should any members of that commission be appointed by the governor or judicial branch of government.

That's because the Utah Constitution clearly says that only the Legislature will deal with the conduct of its own members.

That is different from the case for the judicial branch. A special constitutional amendment was passed by lawmakers and citizens several years ago setting up the Judicial Conduct Commission, which has appointees from the legislative and executive branches of government.

"We could always change the constitution," said Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones, D-Holladay.

Little enthusiasm for that idea came from the committee Republicans.

In fact, House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, said that controversial ethics hearings called last summer against Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, (which ended in a letter of reprimand but no official finding of guilt) were "pure politics" by the Democrats.

After committee members Wednesday reviewed the official code of conduct for lawmakers, Garn said a reading of the do's and don'ts — mostly general in nature — could "lead to mischief" by those seeking to practice "gotcha" politics and ruin the careers of honest legislators, dissuading anyone from seeking a legislative office.

But Jones said that it is unrealistic to expect legislators to decide ethical breaches of other legislators.

"We can't just only answer to ourselves — peers shouldn't review peers," even if that is what the state constitution proposes. "We need some kind of shifting group" — like an independent commission appointed by legislators that could hear cases and make recommendations to the Legislature itself on how a misbehaving lawmaker can be disciplined, she said.

"We need to have some check and balance," said Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, who sat on last summer's House Ethics Committee probes of three different legislators.

For various reasons, none of the three was found guilty of any charges.

Several legislators said Wednesday that the public didn't feel good about those investigations.

"The ethics process is broken," said Rep. John Dougall, R-Highland, House co-chairman of the new study committee.

E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com