County Mayor Peter Corroon nimbly dodged endorsing Salt Lake City, Murray or Sandy, the contending cities.

All the while, Corroon's $140,000-a-year lobbyist - The Tetris Group - was pushing Sandy. After all, Sandy is a Tetris client, too.

"It certainly is a conflict for them," Corroon said Wednesday. "They end up serving a lot of different masters."

In November, the County Council unanimously passed legislative intent language prohibiting a county lobbyist from lobbying the county on behalf of another client. The measure carries no punishment.

Even so, the problem has prompted Corroon to consider severing his office's contract with the longtime county lobbyist.

"We are definitely going to be looking at it again," he said.

Tetris lobbyist Dan Hartman, who huddled Tuesday with Corroon and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan over that city's push for the soccer stadium, says his client list has never been secret. Any conflict, he notes, should have been raised when his team first met with Corroon during the transition in December.

"No one ever brought that up," he said.

During 14 years spanning multiple administrations as a county lobbyist, Hartman insists Tetris never has been restricted from representing other clients.

He acknowledges there can be direct conflicts but says Tetris is never adversarial.

"We always disclose we're representing [each client]," Hartman added. "Uniformly, almost unanimously, they're happy we do. We're in a unique position to mediate and solve problems."

Yet, for more than seven months, Tetris lobbyists did not disclose on county rolls that they worked for the electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems - or anyone else.

Under a state contract Tetris helped secure, county officials must implement the touch-screen ballots by Jan. 1, even though they dread the multimillion-dollar cost.

According to Tetris' contract with the county, the firm is required to disclose a complete list of clients with detail of the services provided. If it is not, or if county officials determine a conflict exists, they can terminate the agreement and reduce or withhold payment.

djensen@sltrib.com