Constitutional Amendment D

Resolution on Legislative Ethics Commission

By Jan Zogmaister
Weber County Commissioner

As you have seen in your Voter Information Guide there is a ballot question to amend the State Constitution to establish a five-member legislative ethics commission.
I spoke with several legislators and an independent person who is very familiar with the process and the information that I obtained is provided below.
I think that it is important to clarify how this came about and also who it came from.
There was a real concern coming from the citizens as to the ethics of our legislators because of actions of a few. There was a committee with membership from both parties that met to form a new system to address these concerns. (This idea precedes the UEG initiative) and was worked on though the summer of 2009 and approved 2010.
The goal was to create an independent body to judge, that did not conflict legally with the state constitution. The committee actually created in rules an independent commission that is already up and operating today.
There was concern from both parties that this independent commission could at some time just go away because it was just in rules. They were comfortable putting it into the actual article of the state constitution making it impossible for the legislature to not have a functional Ethics Commission.
Something interesting about how this has all come together is that the “cart was actually before the horse” In this particular case, the rule was already in place and the commission formed before it became Law. Usually the law is passed and then rules established to put it into action. This is a real advantage to the people because they can actually see how the law will be enacted before it becomes law.
You can ask why do we want to put this requirement into the constitution? Can you really expect to be able to legislate ethics? What this does is sets a very high expectation within the state constitution of conduct and ensures that an independent Ethics Commission will remain in place. It also ensures that in cases where enough evidence is presented to the independent commission that it will be announced publicly.
Please note that this has bi-partisan support from Speaker Dave Clark and Minority Leader David Litvack it passed the Senate 25 to 4 and the House 70 to 3

I would encourage you to get the resolution on the Legislative Ethics Commission and read it.