If you believe Bernard Ebbers — the former WorldCom chief executive on trial after accounting fraud at the telecommunications giant led to the biggest bankruptcy in history — his company was destroyed by forces beyond his control. At the very least, Ebbers contends, $11 billion in company assets disappeared and reports falsifying fake profits were produced without him having the slightest idea about it.

Legal experts are calling his testimony last week the "I don't know" defense. Sounds absurd, doesn't it?

Yet today, when it comes to rooting out ethical problems in local governments in Texas, the main problem isn't just that we don't know where improper relationships might exist between vendors seeking public contracts and the elected officials who award them. It's that we cannot even ask about these relationships in the first place. Current state law fails to require disclosure of this valuable information.

Common sense demands that this change. Just as the federal government has taken decisive action in the wake of headline-grabbing corporate scandals to bring more transparency to our system of private enterprise, so, too, is it time for the Texas Legislature to bring more transparency and accountability to the way local government officials award public contracts.

Ask yourself two questions: If the public has a right to know how its tax dollars are being spent, doesn't it also have a right to know whether the people winning those public contracts have other business relationships with elected officials — or their relatives?

And don't public officials have the right to know whether their colleagues might be susceptible to conflicts of interest when voting to award a contract?

If local officials are to live up to their responsibilities as honest stewards of your tax money, the answer to both questions must be a resounding "yes."

That is why I am supporting House Bill 914 — a bill by state Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, that would require local government officials, vendors with business before a local government and even some government employees to make two simple disclosures.

First, if a public official or vendor involved in a contract bid has a business relationship that results in taxable income for the government employee (or a family member), he or she must disclose this relationship. Second, if a public official has received gifts totaling $250 in a year, he or she must disclose these transactions.

This isn't rocket science. It's not even new. Officials of some local government entities, such as the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, are already required to file such disclosures. Woolley's bill would simply make these common-sense standards uniform across the state.

The only people this bill would affect are those with business before a governing body. Ninety-nine percent of your city council members, county commissioners, community college board members and other officials would not file under this law.

This bill also is not designed to have a "gotcha" factor — to entrap public officials and trip them up with technicalities. Under the bill, if you are made aware of a business relationship that you did not know about previously, you have another seven days to file the necessary information.

Lastly, this bill is not designed to throw people out of office. The charge for failing to comply is a Class C misdemeanor.

In our citizen Legislature, we expect many public officials to have outside income — and the vast majority of the relationships that do exist are proper and ethical. Other government employees serve on a part-time basis, and we should also encourage them to be part of the community. We do not want to discourage them from making an honest living.

But as a matter of trust, we should know what business relationships exist so we can factor those considerations into any decision we make. We should disclose these relationships and provide the transparency that engenders more confidence among local officials, the media and, most importantly, voters and taxpayers.

"Sunshine is the best disinfectant," wrote Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1976, when the court ruled that the public's right to know overrides the right to privacy when it comes to political donations.

The same could be said for the way we award contracts in Texas, and House Bill 914 will help taxpayers and voters hold their local officials accountable. The Legislature should pass this bill — and let a little more sun shine in.