The speaker-elect of the Utah House of Representatives, like most other members of the Utah Legislature, also needs a paying job. He gave up his last one, counsel to disgraced Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman, when he was caught up in the county's vehicle misuse scandal.

Because Utah properly clings to its tradition of a part-time Legislature, Curtis is far from being alone in the need to serve two masters - those who elected him and those who employ him. The taint of a conflict of interest, real or imagined, haunts lawmakers who are also firefighters or farmers, educators or independent business owners.

But lawyers with the new firm of Hutchings, Baird & Jones have not only represented big-time land developers in court and before local governments. They have also been known to bash citizens who oppose their clients' plans with frighteningly expensive lawsuits clearly designed to silence any opposition.

For Curtis to hitch his wagon to that star suggests a level of arrogance and/or political tone-deafness that will bode ill unless he is able to convincingly excuse himself from legislative matters that affect his employers.

Curtis argues that his new firm won't seek to influence state government - just locals. His knowledge of local government will indeed make him valuable in that regard.

But while the Legislature does not rezone property or approve local redevelopment areas, it does make the laws that govern how cities and counties do those things. Developers will want those laws written, or re-written, to favor their interests, not the interests of those who may wish to limit the growth of their communities.

It will also take an extra level of grit for city councils to reject developers' plans if they know that the developer has on retainer one of those largely responsible for determining how much state money those communities will receive for their transportation and other needs.

The Curtis situation is only the most recent, and most troubling, example of how the healthy theory of a part-time Legislature often works in practice. With so few citizens choosing public service as either a career or an avocation, we are left with a small pool of people who wind up serving as both elected officials and government employees, or as those employed to influence government employees.

The solution is not more laws, but more people willing to serve in government, and more people who will hold their public officials accountable for their conduct and their conflicts.