UTA may have auditor review conflicts of interest

The Utah Transit Authority is considering amending its conflict-of-interest policy for members of its board of trustees to add the eyes of its internal auditor to look over actual and potential conflicts.

At the regularly scheduled UTA trustees meeting Wednesday, board members decided to postpone voting on changes for at least another month. They asked the committee that drafted the changes to add more specifics about the role of the internal auditor.

UTA has recently come under criticism for a potential FrontRunner South stop in Draper near a 3,000-year-old American Indian village and wildlife area along the Jordan River. One of UTA's board members, Terry Diehl, is working as a consultant to the developers, according to a conflict-of-interest declaration he signed Jan. 29. Critics have accused him of being too influential on the UTA board.

According to a letter Diehl wrote to the trustees' president and secretary and UTA's attorney on Nov. 3, 2008, he is working for Whitewater VII, which may obtain the property from another landowner.

"Further, I would like to advise you that it is likely in the near future I will become a principal and a member of Whitewater Seven LLC either individually or through Wasatch Pacific, Inc.," he wrote. Diehl owns Wasatch Pacific, a development company.

Wendy Fisher, executive director of Utah Open Lands, which opposes development of the Draper stop, thinks it would be positive if more people vetted conflicts of interest.

"That's probably a good thing that they're having additional checks and balances on disclosing conflicts of interest," she said.

UTA trustee Michele Baguley, who sits on a committee that is amending the conflict-of-interest policy, said that the proposed changes come as a result of a routine updating of policies.

"We thought it would be good to have an additional checkpoint on transparency," she said.

UTA's board, by statute, is comprised of elected officials from the six counties it serves. Other trustees are business and community leaders.

Conflicts or appearances of conflicts are inevitable, Baguley said.

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