What Utah needs is an independent counsel nominated by the governor and confirmed with a two-thirds vote of the bipartisan legislative ethics committees that can investigate allegations regarding any elected public official residing in the State of Utah (from member of Congress to special service district council members). The independent counsel should have full powers of investigation, automatic time limits for any investigation that can be expanded by a majority of the State Supreme Court, but no power to file and prosecute criminal charges. The independent counsel would submit his report of findings and recommended actions to the appropriate ethics committee or public attorney (federal, state, county, or local) for prosecution. The complainant can be anybody — just one person needed. The independent counsel’s office should be silent except for confirmation of receipt of a complaint and disposition of the complaint. All documents produced during the investigation should be made public at the end of the process, except those the counsel gets permission from the Supreme Court to keep confidential — the court could order their release at an appropriate later date. The parties of the investigation can speak publicly, as can witnesses since public awareness can lead to the discovery of new facts. No complaints should be accepted, nor reports issued, and current investigations should be suspended for 60 days prior to any election involving the target to minimize the use of the process for political motivations. The budget for the counsel’s office should be fixed with an annual COLA on a per complaint basis (i.e. something like $250,000 for base office operations that may not be spent investigating any complaint, and then a limit of no more than $100,000 to investigate any single complaint or series of substantially similar complaints — maybe the limit might apply to a target of investigation regardless of the number of complaints). Time and funding limits should prevent a rouge counsel from persecuting a target endlessly. LGRC, Gov’s Counsel or other public attorneys could then be used by the public official to defend the official if the allegation is within the scope of their activity. A target could, of course, retain private counsel and be eligible for some reasonable reimbursement if independent counsel found “no reason to believe and no further action should be taken” or “reason to believe, but actions were within scope of duties, and no further action should be taken”.