Utah Legislature is rife with 'conflicts'

SALT LAKE CITY — Most Utahns trust the 104 part-time legislators, otherwise they wouldn't vote them into office.

But once lawmakers take a seat in the 75-member House and 29-member Senate, do they always make decisions in their constituents' best interests, or do they at times act to help themselves, their families, their own businesses, professions or special causes?

That's the ongoing issue of conflicts of interests in a part-time Legislature, and how best to deal with it.

One of every five bills introduced this year in the Legislature creates an apparent conflict of interest for the sponsor, an analysis by the Deseret News shows.

That means there is "a conflict between the private interests and the official or professional responsibilities" of a legislator, according to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of law.

"Many believe that disclosure" of conflicts of interests "is not enough," said Kirk Jowers, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. "But certainly more disclosure is needed. As it is now, it's sometimes hard to see where special interests arise that can warp legislation."

Not all conflicts are bad, and many are probably actually good.

Many part-time lawmakers use experience from their full-time professions to tweak laws affecting them — hopefully making them better — from dentists writing bills about dentistry, veterinarians writing about veterinary law and police writing bills about criminal law.

But conflicts — good or bad — abound, and lawmakers are debating this year how best to disclose those conflicts, even whether to allow members to abstain from voting when conflicts arise.

The Legislature, in theory, requires members to vote on every bill (although some have occasionally taken a walk to avoid problematic votes).

"It's best if (legislators) can recuse themselves from a vote," Jowers said. But Utah could also use a mechanism where other legislators could bring a possible conflict to the attention of an affected legislator. Most times, Jowers believes, the legislator would recuse himself if informed of the concerns others may have.

"Most legislators would actually welcome some direction, from an independent ethics commission or from colleagues," as to when it may be appropriate not to pursue a course that could put them into a conflict, he said.