Ethics Commission: Independent, Nonpartisan Panel Should Be Seated

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Tribune Editorial
Salt Lake Tribune Article
Last Updated:07/07/2008 06:53:33 PM MDT

Rep. Mark Walker resigned Sunday on the eve of a Utah House Ethics Committee probe. The Sandy Republican, handpicked by GOP leaders to run for state treasurer, allegedly offered his opponent a job in a failed attempt to run unopposed in the primary election. The investigation was canceled after Walker, who lost the election, imposed the maximum penalty on himself.

    It's a shocking development, not because Walker resigned to avoid exposing his handlers to a public airing of the GOP's dirty laundry. After all, political pawns tell no tales. And not because a state legislator was accused of unethical behavior. In our estimation, at least four other lawmakers should have been brought before the committee in the past 12 months alone.

    What's truly shocking is the fact that a member of the Capitol Hill gang was about to be investigated by his colleagues. The Walker case, amazingly, would have marked just the fourth time that a lawmaker's actions have been scrutinized by his peers in the past 22 years.

    Blame it on an unwieldy, unworkable process that requires three lawmakers to file formal complaints against a cohort to activate the ethics panel, which then serves as a biased judge and jury. Obviously, self-scrutiny doesn't work, as events of the past year have indicated.

    State Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, made "dark and ugly" racist remarks on the Senate floor and improperly attempted to influence a judge in defense of a developer friend. Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, shamelessly beat the drum for nuclear power in the Legislature without disclosing his ties to the industry. Rep. Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, is alleged to have made a sexually suggestive comment to a college-age intern, a claim made public by Republican legislative leaders as apparent punishment for his seeking the investigation of Walker. And Rep. Becky Lockhart, R-Provo, is said to have pressured officials at a state-supported technical college to build a parade float for the Utah County Republican Party with public funds.

    Each case screamed for an investigation. But in each instance, lawmakers declined to investigate their own. The accused were not held accountable, nor given a chance to clear their names.

    This cosmetic self-policing, which destroys the public trust, has to stop. Lawmakers need to follow the lead of 33 other states, and empanel an independent, nonpartisan ethics commission to investigate, prosecute and mete out appropriate punishment for legislators who cross ethical lines.