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Resignations by Utah Transit Authority Board members may be piling up, but those headed out the door — or who soon may be — insist it has nothing to do with a controversial trip to Switzerland.
But all were involved in it.
Board Vice Chairman Chris Bleak resigned Wednesday. He said it was unrelated to the excursion that created headlines this week. But the UTA board announced the departure as it emerged from a closed-door discussion about the trip and complained publicly about it. The board said it expected two more resignations — but declined to say by whom or why.
One apparently is former state Sen. Sheldon Killpack, who, along with Bleak, went on the Swiss trip with some top Utah politicians.
House Speaker Greg Hughes, who appointed Killpack to the UTA Board, said Thursday that he has pondered for some time asking Killpack to resign — and discussed it with him — for reasons related to the failure of Proposition 1, and that it has nothing to do with the Swiss excursion.
Hughes, a former UTA chairman, led the Swiss trip to show politicians how mountain transportation there might help Utah ski resorts. Because taxpayer funding of similar past UTA trips created controversy, Hughes arranged to have it privately funded.
He asked a political action committee, Utah 2040, formed last year by Bleak and UTA Board member Justin Allen to provide key funding (its top donors are former UTA contractors). Allen is likely the third UTA Board member expected to resign.
The private funding kept the late-September trip out of the headlines before voters decided whether to raise sales taxes for transportation (Proposition I). If the transit agency had funded the trip, its new policies would have required approval in a public board meeting.
News media confirmed the trip through documents released this week in response to open-records requests filed Nov. 2. UTA says it did not know beforehand about the trip, and is upset board members and lobbyists might have said they were representing the agency without permission.
Hughes said Thursday that he started considering asking Killpack to resign when it appeared that Prop 1 might fail in Salt Lake County, which it did.
He said he figured a Prop 1 defeat would signal it was time "for different eyes and maybe a different perspective." He added, "I've had someone in mind for a while, and this person knows who they are."
Hughes said, "My biggest challenge is if I do it now, the optics do appear that it is somehow related [to the Swiss trip]. So it has left me in a quandary in terms of when to make a move like that. As far as my appointee goes, it is unrelated to the trip."
Killpack told The Tribune, "Truly it's in his [Hughes's] hands in terms of whatever he wants. No, I'm not planning on resigning over the trip. It wasn't a UTA-funded trip. So if he wants me to remain there, I'm happy to remain. If he wants to make the switch, that's his appointment to make, as far as I'm concerned."
Hughes appointed Killpack to the UTA Board in April, and Killpack has more than three years remaining in his four-year term. State law gives the House speaker one appointment to the UTA Board, and Killpack said he will leave early if Hughes desires.
Killpack said he went on the trip with Hughes and others "with the intent of learning more about mountain transportation."
He said he was unaware that Stadler Rail, which the delegation met with to encourage it to build a manufacturing facility in Utah, was involved in a competitive request for proposal by UTA seeking someone to share its FrontRunner maintenance facility.
UTA said when it discovered that meeting, it withdrew the competitive bid process. But it later reinstated it after figuring that no one in the decision-making process was involved. "Frankly, I commend UTA for playing it safe," Killpack said.
Hughes praised Killpack on Thursday, even though he is considering replacing him.
"I am excited to see Sheldon and his leadership skills benefiting the state once again," he said. Killpack had resigned as Senate majority leader in 2010 because of a DUI arrest. Hughes said he appointed him to the UTA Board because of his experience with transportation and because "the state did very well with his leadership."
Meanwhile, board member Allen said comments by UTA that more resignations are coming "was maybe a little premature, possibly."
"I'd like to wait to comment on the record until I have had a chance to meet with my appointing authority," he said. Allen was appointed by Senate President Wayne Niederhauser. "I haven't really had a chance to discuss some of these issues with him yet," Allen said.
Niederhauser, who had been signed up to go on the trip but stayed home because of scheduling conflicts, did not immediately return calls on Thursday.
Allen, government affairs director for the Salt Lake County Board of Realtors, is a former political director of the Utah Republican Party. Bleak is a past executive director of the state GOP.
Bleak said in his resignation letter to the UTA Board that he was leaving not because of the Swiss trip but because he had a new project for a client that likely could create conflicts of interest.
"Unfortunately, my resignation coincides with recent media scrutiny and attention around a trip I made to Switzerland," Bleak wrote. "I want to apologize to each of you for creating this issue and distraction."
Among politicians on the trip, documents say, were state Sens. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, and state Reps. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, and Jake Anderegg, R-Lehi. The wives of Madsen and Anderegg traveled with the group. Anderegg said he personally raised money to pay for his travel and that of his spouse.
The trip was arranged at Hughes' request by UTA lobbyist Jeff Hartley (brother of Greg Hartley, Hughes' chief of staff, who also went on the trip). Another UTA lobbyist — former House Speaker Greg Curtis — also traveled with the delegation.
UTA General Counsel Jayme Blakesley said the agency canceled lobbying contracts with Jeff Hartley and Curtis last week. He said it was not because of the Swiss trip, but because UTA's head of government relations recently retired and the agency is rethinking how it will handle lobbying.