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Posted: 10:21 PM- When Utah's 104 lawmakers descended on Capitol Hill last week, they brought with them at least that many potential conflicts of interest.
That's not unusual. Most states have part-time legislatures, with members taking time out from their day jobs as real-estate developers, lawyers, school teachers, bankers, and energy prospectors to don their public-servant hats.
But one thing is different - Utah has one of the nation's weakest conflict of interest laws. And it's something that few legislators, if any, have a desire to change.
"We all have conflicts, don't we?" says Rep. Mel Brown, R-Coalville. "As long as you're dealing with a citizen Legislature, people have to make a living, and it's not easy to regulate."
Peggy Kearns, a former Colorado lawmaker and director of the National Conference of State Legislatures' Center for Ethics in Government, says citizens expect their elected officials to bring their real-world experience to government.
"The challenge for lawmakers is to separate the public interest from their personal interest," she said. "It's not a black and white issue. There is not a clear line and that's why no state defines conflict of interest in a very exact and clear way."
But there are several recent examples where Utah legislators have, at the very least, wandered deep into those gray areas, prompting some to say more needs to be done to ratchet down Utah's conflicts laws.
Jordan Tanner, a former Republican lawmaker who crusaded for years for ethics reform, says conflicts of interest is "an issue that has been festering and boiling on Utah's Capitol Hill for many years."
"I'm not only frustrated, I'm disappointed, and I think the apathy of the citizens . . . is letting things happen that shouldn't happen," he said.
Utah has one of the weakest conflict of interest laws in the country. Thirty-five states require members in one or both of their bodies to abstain from voting if they have a conflict of interest, according to NCSL. Others leave the option to the member.
In Utah, the members are required to vote if they are on the floor, regardless of any conflict. They are, however, required to declare a conflict, either orally or in writing.
Enforcement is lax at best.
In October, Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, updated his conflict of interest statement to list his company that is seeking to get approval to build up to four nuclear power plants in Utah.
The disclosure came months after a committee he served on began discussion of nuclear power development proposals.
Five days after he filed the conflict notice, Tilton moved from his seat on a legislative committee considering a bill on nuclear power development to testify before the committee on his company's plans.
To get the water for the project, Tilton signed a deal with a Kane County water district led by fellow Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab.
As a member of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s energy advisory panel, Tilton had cajoled fellow members to support nuclear power, but told The Tribune later that he had no interest in nuclear development.
"I considered that one of the most blatant examples of conflict of interest that we've had at Utah's Capitol Hill in any Legislature's history," said Tanner.
Tilton maintains there was no conflict, because he never took any official action that would benefit him. He opposed the bill the committee was considering and points out it would only have helped utility companies, not his private project.
Not long after the Tilton uproar, Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble began working on potential changes to Utah's conflict of interest law, looking at potentially letting legislators abstain from voting if they have a conflict.
But after months of work, Bramble's plan has run aground because he has been unable to define what a conflict of interest is.
He uses teachers as an example: Should teachers vote on education issues, like pay raises? And if they can vote, why shouldn't the roughly half-dozen legislators with interests in charter schools do the same?
"What we're trying to deal with on conflicts of interest is creating a quantifiable bright line for recusal," Bramble said. "The bills aren't abandoned, but they aren't moving forward at this time."
Bramble has had his own brushes with conflicts.
Last summer, he was hired by Allied Waste to run cost projections on a waste transfer station near Orem, and approached the Orem mayor about selling the city's station.
Bramble said he was clear with the mayor that he wasn't acting as a senator and he no longer works for Allied, so there is no longer any conflict.
Bramble also was under scrutiny for arranging to have the a technical college build a parade float for the Utah County Republican Party. His wife is an official in the party and the party paid his son to drive the float.
Bramble said he made a passing suggestion that the school build the float and the college was paid for the work. Talk of a legislative ethics probe never resulted in any action. But the president of the state's technology colleges lost his job, in part because of the float incident, and also because he took an unjustified compensation package.
If nothing else, the incidents show the problems that arise for a legislator, particularly one in a leadership position, who represents a number of clients.
Similar questions have been raised about legal work that House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy, has done, representing clients like Anderson Development in planning meetings.
"More people know where I work than any other legislator because it's been covered more times," he said. "You deal with it by being completely up-front with your colleagues and completely up-front with the issues before you. . . . I don't do a quid pro quo. I never have."
Two Utah lawmakers have peculiar conflicts - both Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, and Rep. Jennifer Seelig, D-Salt Lake City, were registered lobbyists in 2007.
Stephenson is registered to lobby on behalf of the Utah Taxpayers Association, a business-backed group that advocates for lower taxes, but he says he only lobbies the governor's office, Utah Tax Commission and executive agencies, not the Legislature.
Until the middle of last year, Seelig was registered to lobby for 1-800 Contacts, although she is now listed as inactive.
Kearns says if Utah lawmakers are holding out for a clear definition of conflicts, they could have a long wait.
"I think conflicts of interest is the biggest ethical issue in any legislative body," she said. "I think elected officials in all levels of government constantly struggle with this. But the bottom line is the elected official must represent the public interest not his own interest."