People should rid Capitol Hill of political 'roaches'

"Roaches check in but they don't check out." That old commercial about roach traps evokes the present-day image of our Utah legislators. Once in office, it's almost impossible to get rid of them. They keep building more barriers and finding more excuses to remain as permanent residents of the people's house.

While a bit facetious, it's a sad day when citizens have to fight their elected officials to carry out requests for ethics reform to have a government they can trust. But like roaches, the elected leaders keep building up their immunity in order to resist any suggestions to change. Over the years, they have come up with some creative tacks — ignoring constituent concerns, becoming offended, assuming they "know best," "killing the messenger" and making token changes while doing the same.

Before leaving office, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. created the Governor's Commission on Strengthening Utah's Democracy to recommend ways to "have an impact on citizens' ability and desire to vote," with a focus on elections, lobbying and campaign financing. Legislators resisted the governor establishing such a commission. The commission completed its work this month after its chairman met privately with several legislative leaders to work out a compromise on its recommendations (www.strengthendemocracy.org).

It appears that legislators were quick to compromise on the issue of campaign contributions ?— $10,000 over four years for the Senate, and $5,000 over two years for the House. According to Senate President Michael Waddoups, those limits were so high it "really is not a big thing" (quoted in Wednesday's Deseret News). The commission compromised one of the key things Huntsman wanted to review in order to give voters a "desire to vote." It appears the commission's work may go the way all commissions go.

Some legislators still seem set on establishing a commission to handle complaints of ethics violations as a way of diffusing public criticism. Why wait for members to fail? They would do well to let their ethics study committee upgrade its code of ethical conduct to provide clear guidelines for members to follow. It would go far in preventing violations and reduce public criticism. How will they police themselves?