Legislators could appoint their own independent ethics commission

Utah legislators can't give up their own constitutional rights, and they can't give up their responsibility under the state constitution to decide the membership of their own legislative bodies, a special ethics panel was told Wednesday.

Still, members of the Ethics Interim Study Committee were told by their legal counsel it appears that they could set up an independent legislative ethics commission as long as lawmakers themselves appointed commission members and the commission could only recommend action for the House and Senate to take.

By questions and comments made by GOP and Democratic committee members, it is fairly clear where each political party is headed on revamping the Legislature's ethics complaint process.

Republicans are concerned about keeping ultimate control of legislators' ethical standards, as has been the case for years, and as they believe the state Constitution requires. But Democratic members say Utahns don't like the Legislature being judge and jury of lawmakers' own official conduct.

There are several touchstones Republicans worry about — one being what happened to Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, last year. Hughes was accused by three House Democrats, one month before the November elections, of inappropriate behavior.

In an ethics process deemed flawed by Republicans and Democrats alike, Hughes was ultimately found not guilty of several charges in a 4-4 vote by the House Ethics Committee — the four Democrats wanting some kind of punishment for Hughes, the four Republicans finding no wrongdoing. Other charges against Hughes were dismissed in bipartisan votes.

Speaking about the current process — where only members of the legislative body can bring an ethics complaint and it is made public at the outset — Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, said Tuesday: "We have a loosey-goosey process," where the only recourse by the accused is some kind of defamation of character charge in court "if it went to the press before it was handled internally."

Hughes, in a bitter race in his Draper district, was ultimately re-elected. So at least in his case, he was charged by Democrats, cleared by the Ethics Committee, and won re-election all within five weeks before Election Day.

But the Hughes incident still makes open wounds bleed in the Legislature.

Rep. Brad Last, R-St. George, said that if lawmakers set up a new ethics process, perhaps they could keep quiet an original ethics complaint until after a critical political moment, like an upcoming election. But if legislators let any citizen bring an ethics complaint, the citizen could call a press conference and go public in an inappropriate manner.