If you want to see politicians get religion, just watch how they act after one of their peers gets caught with a paw in the till.

Former Senate majority leader J. Kalani English and resigned state Rep. Ty Cullen, charged in federal indictments with taking thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for legislative actions, including killing bills, were the most recent bad examples.

To its credit, the state House reacted by putting together a credible panel of local political and good government leaders to figure out how to toss the Legislature in the tub and give it a good scrubbing.

Right off the bat, the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct, headed by Dan Foley, former member of the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, prescribed sunshine, always the best legislative disinfectant.

Sometimes lawmakers cheat out in the open, such as when they would brazenly gut and replace the subject of bills at the last minute and without public debate on the new topic. But, most of the time, legislators do their political misdeeds out of public view.

The report is just the initial effort of the seven-person panel, which is expecting to wrap up its suggestions by the end of the year.

Right now, some of the commissioner’s early suggestions include dealing with both “fraud and criminal prosecution, plus openness and transparency, ethics oversight, and campaign reform.”

First off, the Foley commission didn’t duck the big issue: It was attempting a cleanup job for a lawmaking body already soiled. The report said it wants to “improve standards of conduct among elected officials” and at the same time halt the “further erosion of public trust and confidence in government.”

So this obviously is work with eyes wide open, knowing there are serious problems.

The commission’s first recommendation is to increase enforcement and prosecution “of fraud, white collar crime, and public corruption.”

If you are caught making illegal contributions to political candidates, the commission approves pending legislation to triple the fines and allow the state Campaign Spending Commission to refer possible violators to the state attorney general or county prosecutor for prosecution.

The commission also urges the Legislature to make sure that legislative expenses are clearly posted online.

Another piece of needed open-government reform is providing public information for public boards meeting in public.

Many times state boards and commissions don’t make the needed materials public. So the meeting is open, but the public just doesn’t know what the board or commission is voting on.

It is the sort of bureaucratic hedging caused either by government incompetence in having the ability to provide information, or simply the government’s desire to keep its operations secret.

Finally, the commission repeats the longstanding ethics concern about legislators holding fundraisers during legislative sessions.

“We recommend that the practice of raising campaign donations during session end,” the interim report said.

As former legislators English and Cullen proved, this year it is not a question of what is or isn’t ethical. It is whether legislators obey the law or not.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.