Salt Lake City, Utah - Standing on the Capitol steps, Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon set the high water mark for ethics reform.
“I’m here today as we begin this legislative session, because I want to see Utah set a high water mark. A mark the voters in Utah can look back on through the session and afterwards to see if this legislature has fulfilled their commitment to pass meaningful ethics reform and that the Governor has signed it,” stated Mayor Corroon.
Calling on the Legislator [sic] and Governor to take immediate action, Mayor Corroon outlined five needed reforms that are critical to ensuring the needs and interests of the people of Utah are represented in the government.
1. Immediately limit the amount an individual or entity can give to a state-wide candidate to $10,000 and $5,000 for a legislative race, and prohibit state contractors (people who financially benefit from state contracts) from donating to state wide candidates and legislative candidates.
2. Immediately ban all gifts to statewide elected officials and legislators.
3. Immediately end of the personal use of campaign funds.
4. Stop the revolving door by giving legislators a cooling off period of 2 years before they can lobby their former colleagues.
5. Create an independent ethics commission to address ethical violations by legislators and state wide elected officials.
Mayor Peter Corroon ended his statement by urging immediate action. “Our society is based on values and ethics. Our values as Utahns are deeply rooted in ethics. The ethic of hard work, the ethic of being good stewards, the ethic of doing the right thing. Our Legislature and Governor can and should do the right thing. They can make this easy. They can and should do this now.”
To accept comments and build on his ideas, Mayor Corroon is encouraging the people of Utah to submit their thoughts on ethics reform on his website, www.votecorroon.com. “This is a critical issue for all
Utahns, and I’d love to hear what you think. Please post your comments about ethics reform on our website votecorroon.com. We’ll be reporting back as the session progresses.”
As Mayor of Salt Lake County, Peter Corroon worked with the Republican controlled legislative body and together, the Republicans and Democrats passed real and meaningful ethics reform. They took it head on and passed it.
Under Utah State Law, the Legislature and Governor have the authority to pass legislation and have it go into immediate effect. The process requires take a 2/3 vote in both the House and Senate and the Governor’s signature.
I highlighted the pertinent parts of the release. This is the type of leadership this state needs.
1 comment:
Go Peter Go!
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