Contracting and contractors are a big topic in Salt Lake County government nowadays: Former housing developer Ellis Ivory is a candidate for mayor, and now council candidate Jenny Wilson is calling for ethics reforms in contracting.

Wilson said Thursday that council members, or businesses associated with council members, should not conduct any business whatsoever with the county, saying it is a conflict of interest.

"Wouldn't we all like to be paid twice? Wouldn't we all like to enter the sweepstakes that our own company offers?" she said in a news conference.

There are no rules now prohibiting companies associated with council members from doing business with the county, though there have been proposals from time to time that council members should at least remove themselves from decisions regarding business with their companies.

Wilson pointed to her opponent, Republican Council Chairman Steve Harmsen, as an example. According to purchase records, Steve Regan Co., an agricultural supply and equipment company that Harmsen is part-owner and president of, has done more than $22,000 worth of business with the county while he has been on the council the past four years.

Harmsen said everything has been done according to the rules and that he had nothing to do with how the county decided to buy some of his company's products. He also said the purchases were made according to a contract with the state, not the county.

"I've filed all the proper (conflict of interest) disclosures," he said. "Everyone at the county knows this . . . If the purchasing department decides they want to buy some fertilizer pursuant to a state contract, I don't know how I can remove myself from that since I have nothing to do with it."

Harmsen said that in 2000, the year before he took office, his company did $73,538 in business with the county. Last year it did $14,620.

"It's clear that my coming to work as an elected official has cost me," he said.

In any case, Harmsen is not the only council member with such conflicts. Councilman Michael Jensen is the spokesman for the Unified Fire Authority the county belongs to. Other council members' companies have done business with the county as well.

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