The citizens’ Ethics Initiative, currently authorized to gather signatures throughout the state, is on it’s way to your doorstep.  Required for the initiative to be placed on the November 2010 ballot are 95,000 signatures collected from various communities throughout the state.  Please, BEFORE you place your signature on the initiative petition…read and understand the entire ballot measure.  Know what you are signing.  This initiative fundamentally alters the ‘Checks & Balance’ and ‘Separation of Powers’ principles found in the Utah State Constitution.

This Initiative Is An Election

By voting FOR (or supporting) the Ethics Initiative YOU WILL BE ELECTING, BY DEFAULT, FIVE INDIVIDUALS (in effect, a state-wide race similar to Governor/Lt. Gov., Attorney General, State Treasurer, etc.) who effectively become “ethics” SUPER CZARS.    Normally, candidates for elected office are listed on a ballot individually and elected individually.  (Exception: U.S. Presidential/Vice-President ticket, and, Governor/Lt. Gov. ticket.)  Instead of voting for these candidates individually, as you would on a normal ballot, you vote for these five perons together AS A BLOCK.  What happens if you only like three of the five candidates?  Therein lies one of the problems…a big one.  You’re voting everybody up or everybody down.  And, even though these “SUPER CZARS” are ”non-partisan,”   (i.e. Carole Peterson ran as a democrat for the state legislature last election cycle; and those who know the political backgrounds of former state Senator Karl Snow and former state  Representative Jordan Tanner will tell you, without hesitation, they are liberal republicans; Cassie Dippo, lobbied for 15 years for Common Cause of Utah a “citizens’ advocacy group; and, Chase Peterson is a former University of Utah president), this group is hardly “bi-partisan.”

It is possible the “SUPER CZARS” may be responsible for choosing the “CZARS” (or, Ethics Commissioners).  If a bi-partisan leadership team, comprised of House and Senate leadership from both sides of the isle, cannot agree to a common pool of twenty potential candidates for the Commission, the responsibility then defaults to the “SUPER CZARS” to make those 20 selections.   OK, let me get this straight.  If the democrat leadership and the republican leadership teams cannot completely agree on the total of 20 candidates’ names to toss into a hat, of which five names are selected, then the five “non-partisan”SUPER CZARS” make the selections.  Right.  [You've got to read this Editorial from the Daily Herald.]

No Checks, No Balance

“CZARS”  Quoting from the Initiative:  The Commission may”…do all things …which are necessary or convenient…” [36-27-201(7)] and “there shall be no judicial review or agency review of any commission action.” [36-27-501(2)]  Once appointed, the Ethics Commission is not accountable to anyone, including the Courts, not the Attorney General [36-27-201(7)], not the Legislature [36-27-201(4)(b)], not the Judicial Branch [36-27-501(2)].  Members of the Commission are removable only upon death, voluntary resignation, or the end of their terms [36-27-201].  The Commissions budget cannot be cut [36-27-501(7)], and they may increase their agency staff at their discretion [36-27-501(7)(b)].

“SUPER CZARS”  The sponsors of the Initiative attempt to give themselves lifetime privileges unavailable to other citizens, in violation of the Utah Constitution.  Who are these SUPER CZARS?  Chase W. Peterson, Carole E. Peterson, Jordan Tanner, Cassie Dippo, and Karl Snow.  These five individuals give themselves, for the duration of their lives, the “…absolute unconditional right to intervene in any…litigation” on the constitutionality of this initiative [36-27-505(6)].  If legislative leadership fails to unanimously agree on Ethics Commission members, these five SUPER CZARSwill select the commision themselves [36-27-201(4)(a)].

More to follow…

Quote from message delivered Sunday afternoon, October 4, 2009:

“The societies in which many of us live have for more than a generation failed to foster moral discipline.  They’ve taught that truth is relative. And, that everyone decides for himself or herself what is right.  Concepts such as sin and wrong have been condemned as value judgements.  As the Lord describes it, ‘Every man walketh in his own way and after the image of his own god.’  As a consequence, self-discipline has eroded, and societies are left to try to maintain order and civility by compulsion.  The lack of internal control by individuals breeds external control by governments.  One columnist observed, ‘that gentlemanly behavior, for example, once protected women from coarse behavior.  Today we expect sexual harassment laws to restrain coarse behavior.’  Policemen and laws can never replace customs, traditions, and moral values as a means for regulating human behavior.  At best, the police and criminal justice system are the last desperate line of defence for a civilized society.  Our increased reliance on laws to regulate behavior is a measure of how uncivilized we’ve become.

In most of the world, we’ve experiencing an extended and devastating economic recession.  It was brought on by multiple causes, but, one of the major causes was wide-spread dishonest and unethical conduct, particularly in the U.S. housing and financial markets.  Reactions have focused on enacting more and stronger regulation.  Perhaps that may dis way some from unprincipled conduct, but others will simply get more creative in their circumvention.  There could never be enough rules, so finely crafted, as to anticipate and cover every situation.  And, even if there were, enforcement would be impossibly expensive and burdensome.  This approach leads to diminished freedom for everyone.  In the memorable phrase of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, ‘We would not accept the yoke of Christ, so now we must tremble at the yoke of Caesar.’  In the end it is only an internal moral compass in each individual that can effectively deal with the root causes, as well as symptoms,  of societal decay.  Societies will struggle in vain to establish the common good, until sin is denounced as sin, and moral discipline takes its place in the pantheon of civic virtues.”

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Do you know where your legislator is?