Lawmakers discuss flu plan

Doctor's note to Utah legislators: Don't think you are so important that you come to work sick with the flu.

Dr. David Sundwall, State Health Department executive director, gave that advice to legislative leaders Tuesday.

Sundwall said he has gone to work when he's been sick because he just thought he was too valuable to miss work.

Legislators shouldn't do likewise.

And should the H1N1 flu hit Utahns — and state workers — hard, the governor and Legislature have various powers to avoid further spreading the disease, Mike Christensen, director of the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, said.

"If things got really bad and the flu hit many of us, we can hold electronic meetings," Christensen said. Legislature could adopt a rule to meet in general session that way.

The 2010 Legislature is constitutionally required to meet for 45 days from late January to early March, he said.

Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, R-Holladay, asked if an informal rule could be adopted not to shake hands.

Sundwall said Indiana has done just that, the elbow bump, not touch skin. "Not the hip bump, you have to be friends with those people," Sundwall said.

"That is a good idea, social contact without touching skin. I like the elbow bump. No kissing, that has to go," he added.

"It is a good thing we are not French" — who greet by soft kissing on both checks, added Sundwall, who said the Legislature should prepare what it may do, all joking aside.

Gov. Gary Herbert already has the power to move the site of the Legislature out of Salt Lake County.

"We could go to Washington County," where it would be sunny in January and February, as one escape possibility, Christensen said.

If the flu hits hard, public health officials won't want the Legislature meeting in big groups, either committee meetings or in public sessions on the House and Senate floor.

While no one really thinks that may happen, it is best to be ready, he said.

There are all kinds of electronic possibilities, including each lawmaker being able to vote at home on their BlackBerry.

"The cost would not be great since our infrastructure is there," although some new programs would have to be written, Christensen said. Legislators would use the Utah Education Network.

Christensen said lawmakers could just hold a general session later in 2010, "although that would carry with it significant political ramifications" because all of the House and half the Senate is up for election in 2010.

House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, said it's nice to know there's an electronic option. But if 20 percent of the legislative staff were out sick, that would be more of a problem, he added.

During the 2002 Olympics, lawmakers took a two-week recess during the Games and limited themselves to only 10 bills introduced.

Maybe lawmakers could do that again, Clark said. And he asked staff to come up with some recommendations thatconstrain legislators in some way, but still meet in public in the Capitol.

e-mail: bbjr@desnews.com