A former EDCU board chairman, PacificCorp vice president Bill Landels, maintains that something, anyway, has to be done. He called current corporate recruiting in Utah "amateur night" and "a debacle."

Salt Lake County officials responded with cautious optimism when Jury appeared before the County Council on Tuesday.

"It sounds like a no-risk proposition," County Mayor Peter Corroon said. "I'm not sure I want to be the guinea pig, but I don't see a whole lot of downside. Why not give it a try?"

The big incentive for government would be that it wouldn't pay anything unless U'n Utah achieved results — the very results so many government economic summits and meetings and conferences are devoted to.

Councilwoman Jenny Wilson pointed out that U'n Utah would benefit as well. If the firm reaches its goal of bringing in 50,000 new high-paying jobs by 2009, government could wind up forking out up to $50 million ($100 per job for 10 years).

"That's a pretty hefty remuneration," she said.

Jury responded by pointing to studies concluding that one $35,000-paying job brings more than $100 to government coffers, with jobs paying more bringing in commensurately more. Also, along with the jobs, U'n Utah aims to attract $6 billion in capital investment.

Jury contends everyone would win.

The unique contingency-pay nature of the scheme would stretch the traditional structure of government. Salt Lake County chief deputy district attorney Karl Hendrickson said the fit between U'n Utah and government would be "somewhat problematic" — such as the requirement of a general bid process before awarding any contract — but doable.

As for how to determine whether U'n Utah was the one to attract a particular job to Utah — an important question, seeing as its answer would determine whether the firm is paid or not — Jury said ambiguities would be eliminated by careful documentation being kept throughout the process.

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Contributing: Wendy Leonard

E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com