"There are 104 of us. And no one should assume that we know all of our colleagues' conflicts. We can't," even with the current public-disclosure forms, he said.

Becker is a nonpracticing attorney who heads a local city planning/environmental consulting firm. He lists all his firm's clients on his legislative conflict of interest form. And he believes other legislators can do the same thing, especially attorney/legislators.

"There may be a rare — and it would be rare — instance where (an attorney/legislator) can't list a client because of attorney-client privilege. But by far most of the times they can." That's because it is no secret who a lawmaker/attorney represents, their names may be on court documents or readily known within the legal community.

Yet no practicing attorney/legislators list those clients on their disclosure forms.

"These job-related connections (of all legislators) can affect a legislator's financial or personal situations, and certainly can impact their judgment" on an issue before the Legislature, Becker said.

"Strong conflict of interest ethics protects not only the public but legislators as well. And they can remove even the hint of impropriety," he added.

Kirk Jowers, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, says there is great value in having a part-time, citizen legislature.

But, he adds, there is a hidden conflict of interest on legislation that few people talk about: Legislators' legal ability to take cash out of their own campaign accounts and spend it any way they wish.

"It is almost legalized bribery," said Jowers, "if a lobbyist or special interest group gave money to a legislator's campaign account" in hopes of getting special treatment. "If they gave you $10,000 or $20,000, that is the ultimate conflict of interest."

At the very least, legislators should pass a law that says they can't use campaign cash for personal use, Jowers said.

Sunshine or fog?

The key to any good conflict of interest process is extensive disclosure by legislators.

A Morning News review of all 104 conflict of interest forms shows that some legislators are very good about disclosure, others quite poor.

Contributing to the problem are the disclosure rules themselves — they can be interpreted in a very broad way. For example, a legislator may list "utility stocks" in general and not list which specific stocks he holds. It could make a major difference if he held stock in Exxon, an international oil firm, or Questar, Utah's local natural gas company.