Ethics panel to hold hearing on Hughes

The open part of the hearing Wednesday was well orchestrated, with chairman Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, and co-chairman Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D-Ogden, reading prepared statements and motions.

Oddly enough, Kiser and Shurtliff personally made each of the other six House members swear to uphold legislative rules that make such hearings secret.

Even though all six swore the oath, when it came to vote to close the meeting, Reps. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, and Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, voted to keep the meeting open to the public.

Kiser, Shurtliff and the other members, Reps. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan; Steve Clark, R-Provo; Doug Aagard, R-Kaysville; and David Litvack, D-Salt Lake; all voted to kick the public out.

Shurtliff said the committee didn't want to take even general comments from the public before the meeting was closed, not to exclude media from asking that the meeting be open but because committee members feared that various other legislators, attorneys or others would take up time with speeches that were not relevant to the taking of sworn testimony.

And time seemed to be of the essence, as several committee members said they wanted to move "quickly," apparently in part to accommodate Hughes, who fears he could be voted out of office if he can't get all the complaints against him dismissed before Election Day.

Hughes officially asked that Moss be recused from the hearing — a motion that was denied by the committee. He said Moss was on TV criticizing him last week and so showed her bias.

But Moss replied later: "Good grief, this is not a jury trial, where you try to find people who don't know anything" about the charges. "We are all insiders on the committee. We just have to pledge to be objective."

Indeed, Hughes himself was greeted warmly by several GOP committee members, including getting handshakes and slaps on the back by a few of his Republican colleagues who will be voting on his fate.

The committee is made up of four Republicans and four Democrats. And each committee member swore not to repeat witness testimony or committee discussions.

At one point, Kiser was asked what would happen if two-thirds of the committee did not vote to keep the hearings secret. "I suppose we would recess and meet as members to decide what to do." In other words, if the committee didn't vote to abide by the rules and close the meeting, the committee would just leave, go somewhere else and met in secret to decide what to do next.

Time and again, the committee was told that it was not acting like a court of law and could take secret testimony. Committee members could also take hearsay evidence, said Kiser, who then warned that such hearsay evidence should be weighed by each committee member as to whether it was valid.

The committee can, by majority vote, decide to make evidence heard public. But no such vote was taken in public Wednesday morning.

Hughes denies all six charges against him, which besides the Lawrence campaign funds include: intimidating lobbyists not to give money to challengers to GOP incumbents, pressuring lobbyists to give to Hughes' own pro-voucher political issues committee and threatening Capitol insiders if they supported a challenge to him and several other Republican officeholders.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com