UTA trustees nominate Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, as chairman

SALT LAKE CITY — The board that governs the Utah Transit Authority is considering a state legislator as its new chairman.

The UTA Board of Trustees' executive committee nominated Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, to be the next chairman of the board. The board will vote on whether to make Hughes chairman and Michelle Facer Baguley vice chairwoman next month.

No other trustees have been nominated, but that could change if others feel the urge to nominate a trustee, UTA spokesman Gerry Carpenter said.

Hughes, who has been in the Legislature since 2003 and on the UTA board since 2006, will disclose his involvement with UTA to the part-time Legislature but will continue to vote on UTA issues.

"If you have a citizen (part-time Legislature), it's been the thought that those citizens bring the perspective, so long as it's transparent," he said.

With the UTA board, Hughes signs a conflict of interest statement each year disclosing that he owns property near the 900 South TRAX station, Carpenter said. Hughes has owned the property for years, before he became a trustee.

"Some of his earliest interactions were as a property owner when that station was being built," Carpenter said. "He had concerns on how that might impact his property."

Claire Geddes, a longtime Utah Legislature watchdog who now is monitoring activities at UTA, said she was surprised by the nomination of Hughes.

"Maybe they should have picked someone who hadn't already declared a conflict of interest," Geddes said.

The Office of the Legislative Auditor General is conducting a mini-audit of UTA over possible conflicts of interest with development. Legislative leaders who are members of the Legislative Audit Subcommittee will then either accept the results of the audit or order the auditor general to conduct a full-blown audit.

Hughes believes the audit will clear UTA and trustees of any suspicions of wrongdoing.

Hughes said he believes trustees should be more forthcoming with the public, citing as an example the recent questions about UTA executive salaries.

"We should provide the information that people want to know about this complete process" of determining salaries, he said.

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