Former state Rep. Lou Shurtliff told a small crowd at Weber State University that many "protective" votes -- aimed at avoiding reprisal from politicos on both sides of the aisle -- were cast during last year's ethics hearings.
"What happened in those hearings really bothered me," Shurtliff said during a question and answer session following a debate on a controversial ethics reform initiative that backers hope to land on the ballot next November.
The forum, hosted by Weber's Richard Richards Institute, featured Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, facing off against Alan Smith, an attorney who helped draft the expansive initiative being advanced by Utahns for Ethical Government.
Shurtliff, an Ogden Democrat, served in the House of Representatives for 10 years before retiring, and co-chaired the House Ethics Committee that deliberated last fall over complaints brought against Reps. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, and Phil Riesen, D-Holladay.
Charges against both were dismissed, but the committee did reprimand Hughes for behavior unbecoming of a legislator.
Lawmakers sponsored over 30 ethics bills this year with six passing into law. But critics, including UEG initiative supporters, say the changes were largely cosmetic.
One measure required a one-year cooling off before a lawmaker leaving the Legislature could become a paid lobbyist. However, it only applied to those who end up working for lobbying firms.
"The bill had an enormous loophole that you could drive a Mack truck through," said Alan Smith, an attorney arguing in favor of UEG's initiative Monday. Their ballot measure would eliminate that loophole and expand the one-year wait to two.
Hillyard worried that lobbying language in the bill would bar former lawmakers from immediately holding other offices. He cited Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker and Lieutenant Governor Greg Bell as examples because of their need to interface with legislators.
Smith called Hillyard's reasoning "a false analogy."
"The definitions in the bill don't apply to Bell and Becker," Smith said. "They're not specifically engaged as lobbyists or paid to lobby."
Hillyard, now the longest serving lawmaker on Utah's Capitol Hill, warned that the initiative is poorly written, and if enacted into law by voters, will bring a raft of unintended consequences, among them discouraging good people from running for the House or Senate.
"When you read the language, it goes way too far," the lawmaker and attorney said. "I've been told by other states that when they've done these things, the groups backing them are never satisfied."
Smith countered that meaningful ethics reform is needed and that Hillyard's 29 years on the hill had not brought it forward.
"Slow and deliberate is one thing," Smith said of the need to carefully draft any new law. "Inexcusable delay is another.
