Ethics Proceeding Confidentiality Takes a Hit in Utah, Logically Enough

Let me take a logical approach to the topic of government ethics proceeding confidentiality before I look at what has been happening in Utah this last week.

Government ethics is intended to protect the public from officials acting in their own interest rather than in the public interest.

Acting like this is considered unethical conduct.

It is in the interest of officials to hide their unethical conduct from the public.

It is in the public interest to know about officials' unethical conduct.

Therefore, it is unethical conduct for government officials to try to hide their unethical conduct from the public.

Inserting into an ethics code a provision to allow unethical conduct is doubly unethical.

And yet, once again, that's the approach at least some officials choose to take, this time in Utah, according to an editorial in the Salt Lake City Tribune this week. Two state bills would make the Independent Legislative Ethics Commission the only public body exempt from the state's Open and Public Meetings Act.

This is not just about the investigation and early discussion of ethics complaints, for which executive sessions are already allowed, but everything the EC does, from meetings to documents.

The Tribune editors point to an essential problem with such a rule:  "the aura of secrecy that would surround commission proceedings would undermine the very purpose of the body -- to help bolster, or restore, the public's faith in state government by assuring that lawmakers are held accountable for poor conduct."

But it's worse than this. This bills show that some legislators will do anything they can to protect their personal interests, even when it comes to ethics codes.

Thank goodness for the news media. The criticisms of the bills worked. The sponsor of the bills, Sen. John Valentine, also a leader in pushing the concept of an independent ethics commission, has said he has changed his mind, according to an article in yesterday's Deseret News.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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