Ethics struggles on tape

Audiotapes of testimony given in last fall's Utah House Ethics Committee hearing on charges of improper conduct by Rep. Greg Hughes shows committee members and witnesses struggled to understand exactly what their duty was.

Hughes, R-Draper, was ultimately cleared of all charges against him — including that he offered a former House member a "substantial" sum of campaign funds if she would switch her vote on private school vouchers — with both Republicans and Democrats saying the current process should be changed.

Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful, who was accused by one Ethics Committee Republican of "being at the core" of the complaint against Hughes, even though she didn't ultimately sign the complaint, said Tuesday that her experience in the two-year, ongoing issue "tells me that the Legislature can't investigate" its own members for ethics complaints.

"There has to be a better way — a way that is not so miserable for all involved, miserable for those who bring the complaint and miserable for those who the complaint is brought against," Allen said.

Hughes said Tuesday that he, too, believes the system doesn't work. Standing by his earlier assertions that the complaint was brought against him in early October to defeat him in the Nov. 4 election (Hughes ended up with a comfortable win), Hughes said: "We can't afford the political vulnerability that the current process affords" to unethical legislative colleagues who will "lie" to defeat a political opponent.

Asked if she would do it all again, having gone through what she has, Allen said she would go to GOP House leaders with the concern (as she did) over a colleague's actions. "And I'd hope that now we'd get a better outcome" in working behind the scenes, rather than having to file a public ethics complaint.

In her testimony last October, Allen was confronted with a statement that she didn't trust former House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, (who was defeated in re-election) to properly handle the Hughes matter.

And current GOP House leaders apparently don't trust Allen. House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, who acted as a go-between with Allen and leaders in the Hughes matter last summer, told the committee last year that Allen "is not looking for the truth, but seeks a political agenda ... a new weapon (against opponents) of filing an ethics complaint in an election year to destroy a career."

A review by the Deseret News of a number of hours of the testimony (which can be found at le.state.ut.us), gives further arguments to both sides — those who accused Hughes of improper actions, and those who support him, saying he's a victim of a mean political attack.