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Lawmakers take the first step toward a new Utah state flag

(Steve Griffin | Tribune file photo) In this July 24, 2017, photo the Utah state flag waves in the morning sun at the start of the Days of '47 Parade in Salt Lake City. A Utah state lawmaker is leading an effort to redesign a clunky Utah state flag that critics have called an "S.O.B.", seal on a bedsheet. State Rep. Steve Handy recently announced he will introduce a bill creating a flag review commission that could ultimately scrap the turbulent form of the 100-year-old flag for a new, simpler one, The Salt Lake Tribune reports .

  | March 6, 2019, 1:52 a.m.

A bill creating a commission to study and recommend new designs for the Utah state flag earned committee approval Tuesday.

The House Government Operations Committee voted 8-2 for HB219, which would form an 11-member panel to review flag proposals and ultimately issue recommendations to lawmakers later this year.

“There would be a very short, quick timeline,” said bill sponsor Rep. Steve Handy, R-Layton. “This commission would have to really get after it.”

Utah’s current flag is more than 100-years old and largely consists of a variation of the state seal on a blue background. The design includes a number of images symbolic to Utah’s history — including sego lilies, a beehive and dates corresponding to the arrival of Mormon settlers in the Salt Lake Valley and Utah earning statehood — but violates most principles of good flag design espoused by vexillologists, or flag experts.

John Hartvigsen, a Utah vexillologist, defended the current flag during Tuesday’s committee hearing and said he was concerned about launching a process that could replace it.

“It’s a beautiful flag,” Hartvigsen said. “The symbols on the flag tell the state’s history.”

Handy said the bill, if enacted, would not mandate the adoption of a new flag by the state. It would also designate the current design as Utah’s “historic” flag.

The bill is one of two sponsored this year dealing with the adoption of a new Utah state flag. The other, HB292, proposed immediately replacing the flag with a ready-made design by The Organization for a New Utah Flag, but it failed to gain committee approval.

(Courtesy of The Organization for a New Utah Flag) A proposed redesign of the Utah State Flag.

The description of the HB292 design, known on Capitol Hill as the “Martin” flag, is included in Handy’s bill — with some alteration — as a potential option for the review commission to consider.

Handy’s bill, HB219, will now move to the full House for consideration.