Tonight on the news it was reported that a United States Senator was charged with 7 felony counts of accepting money and services that were inappropriate for his office. I believe in the American system of justice, however; I also feel those in public office have a responsibility to maintain the trust and honor granted by their constituents.
The public perception of a politician is not favorable and is it any wonder why? We, who hold ourselves out as leaders, have a responsibility to live by a higher standard of ethics. When those in public service falter and engage in unethical behavior, a broad brush is used to paint each of us with the stain of unethical behavior.
The news is replete with stories about politicians that have made choices that go counter to the trust granted by those that elect them. These stories include any number of crimes. Utah is not immune from these types of challenges. We who ask for the public trust should recognize the responsibility we have to avoid all semblance of impropriety. When compared with the total number of people providing public service the number that engages in unethical behavior is quite small yet the public perception is still cast on all politicians.
An excellent blog was written by Representative Urquart related to the budget and votes cast in the legislature. He opines on the need to bring greater light on these issues. I share that feeling and would also like to see greater light on issues related to lobbyists and the challenges related to gifts and contributions. There are many lobbyists and legislators that feel reporting all gifts and contributions would help improve public trust and policy. There are also many that feel there should be no gifts allowed by lobbyists. At a minimum, the light of public scrutiny should be allowed and pubic reporting should be a requirement. I hope as the next legislative session approaches greater efforts will be made to restore the public perception of a politician.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Where are the Ethics with Politicians???
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3 comments:
The important issue seems to be from who and when you politicians get donations. So Mr. Holdaway, maybe you could set an example by using this blog to post your donations witin 48 hours of getting them. Just an idea.
Juicyutah;
The ability to track donations is already on line. The web site is https://ucrs.utah.gov/ This has a listing of all donations to each of the canidates running for state office. The issue of when you recieve donations is sometimes information that those running for office may want to protect or an opponent may want to use to gain an advantage by; for that reason we have dates throughout the campaign that each canidate must file their disclosure statement by. If a canidate fails to file a disclosure statement they will be eliminated from the ballot. Campaign donations are but a part of the money that should be tracked. "The brighter the light we all work in the better the product we end up with."
Thanks for the link. You raise a good point.
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