AS A PRIVATE PERSON, Rhode Island resident, taxpayer and small-business owner, I have wondered about something for years: How can state legislators who are full-time business agents of unions write, promote, and move legislation through the General Assembly, yet not be in violation of the ethics law?

Now, as a recently elected legislator myself, I wish to shine a bright light on this issue and seek a logical answer to this obvious question. It is incredible to me that this flagrant conflict of interest has been allowed to go on for as long as it has, right under our noses.

These union business-agent legislators may do a good job of representing their constituents. However, their livelihood is derived from representing their membership. Faced with a choice of voting for what is in the best interest of their constituents or in the best interest of union members and their legislative agents’ paychecks, these union representatives find their integrity challenged.

Wouldn’t it stand to reason that their compensation is increased to the degree that they are successful in promoting the unions’ interests? After all, that’s their job! So, while the union members benefit, as do their business agents also working as legislators, taxpayers take it on the chin.

Just the word “agent” means someone working on another’s behalf — in this case, on behalf of the union and its membership. Legislators need to be objective in their deliberations to be fair to their constituents. In many, many cases the devil is in the details. The volumes of state general laws contain details that have been promoted and passed on behalf of unions. This overly kind treatment to unions is, in many ways, at the heart of our fiscal problems today.

John Celona, a former state senator, was recently sentenced to jail by federal and state courts for his involvement in accepting money in exchange for promoting the private interests of Roger Williams Hospital and CVS in the General Assembly. If it is wrong for him to do so, as is obvious to everyone, why isn’t it wrong for the union business agents, who are paid hefty salaries to basically promote their memberships’ interests through legislation? The conflict is as obvious as the nose on your face.

It is often said that “everything you needed to know in life you learned in kindergarten.” That’s when we were taught what is right and wrong. Somehow, over the years, people in Rhode Island have come to view this very wrong situation as right. It is not right! Unfortunately, sometimes, unnatural things become natural, because they go on for so long without being questioned.

Our obligation as officials, whether we’re legislators, the governor, the lieutenant governor, the secretary of state, or the treasurer, is to promote the general interests of the taxpayer. We must take into account, of course, the perspectives of the special interests, but we must not let those special interests outweigh our obligations to the general interest.

I am not anti-union, but as a legislator, I believe I am now part of management of the State of Rhode Island. Therefore, my obligation is to the taxpayer first. The current situation lets unions become part of management, rather than having unions work with management to find public-policy solutions. The playing field at the General Assembly has become uneven, at best! As a union business agent, you are a lobbyist and therefore belong on the outside of the rail of the chambers of the House and the Senate, with the rest of the lobbyists.

Through the years, it seems to me, many elected officials have abrogated their responsibilities to the interests of the taxpayer. That needs to stop.

There is a crisis of confidence in the State of Rhode Island. In the last two decades we have seen, among other scandals, two Supreme Court chief justices chased from office in scandal, and a former governor and a former mayor of Providence do jail time for criminal conduct. Now a state senator has been sentenced to jail. A wide-ranging federal investigation into public corruption is under way and more indictments are anticipated over the next few months, probably against current and former legislators, which will undoubtedly further erode the public’s trust in state government in general, and the General Assembly in particular.

All Rhode Islanders, including honest public servants, of which there are many, look to the Rhode Island Ethics Commission to move swiftly and provide leadership in this moment of crisis.

We look to the commission to take bold action, to help restore the public’s trust in Rhode Island’s government, so that honest public servants can move on to do the people’s business, which is why we were elected in the first place!

Douglas Gablinske, a Democrat, is a Rhode Island state representative from Bristol.