Utah Legislature: Ethics test unknown to most

SALT LAKE CITY — Want to know if you would be an ethical legislator or lobbyist?

You, too, can take the same ethics training test that the 104 Utah legislators and approximately 500 registered lobbyists are supposed to take online.

The three-part test is at le.state.ut.us/. Click on "Legislative Ethics Training" and move through the online course.

While the ethics training may be a good idea, few legislators or lobbyists the Deseret News spoke with Wednesday had taken the test they are required to take before the Legislature adjourns March 11.

Most of the lobbyists didn't even know about the test, or that they had to take it.

"There's a test?" said lobbyist Dave Spatafore, who has lobbied the Legislature for 36 years for various clients. "Where? When?"

"It would be nice if someone told us about it," said Robin Riggs, executive vice president for policy and law for the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce.

"Yeah, a few of us took it yesterday on our computers" in the newly housed lobbyist conference center in the basement of the Capitol "after someone said we had to do it," said lobbyist Jeff Hartley. "I thought it was dumb and overly repetitive, although I understand the desire to have ethics training."

You can't really fail the test, says Michael Christensen, director of Legislative Research and General Counsel, the legislative staff office that under a law passed in the 2009 Legislature had to put together the exam.

With each question, there are two or three possible answers, one of which is correct. If you pick a wrong answer, the test says why it is wrong and asks you to pick another.

So even if you are a complete ethics dope, at some point you select the right answer and, hopefully, learn something along the way.

Christensen said he and several of his staffers thought up the questions and answers after looking at what other states do in ethics training.

There are three sections to the test — ethics training, campaign finance training and lobbyist disclosure and regulation training.

Lawmakers and registered lobbyists must complete all three sections to be electronically counted as taking the required test.

"I know there's a test, but I haven't taken it," said Rep. Craig Frank, R-Cedar Hills. "Someone showed me some of the questions, though."