It’s awful that Snow College gave Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and Utah Sen. Evan Vickers honorary degrees.
Adams lied about not having COVID-19 during this past Utah Legislative session.
He stands to privately benefit from a public investment that he promoted as a public official -- as a member of committees overseeing Utah’s transportation budget and policy, and as the chairman of the state transportation commission.
He made sure two years ago that Utah stored a bunch of hydroxychloroquine even though there wasn’t any evidence it was effective. A pharmacy got $800,000 in taxpayer dollars to buy the drug. Utah health officials didn’t know.
He gave a sweetheart deal to developers on the final day of the 2020 legislative session. It permitted developers to annex land in Summit County without giving the appropriate governments any advance notice.
Further, Adams was the chair of the Military Installation Development Authority when MIDA used a financing tactic that makes taxpayers responsible for bonds while not getting local financial benefit for many years. And the Legislature made it so locals wouldn’t have a role in how the property is developed.
Adams guided gerrymandering that the Senate did, when it blew off maps from the voter-approved Utah Independent Redistricting Commission. The Legislature has been sued for the gerrymandering.
Adams also jettisoned Senate rules to push a resolution repealing mask mandates in Salt Lake and Summit counties.
Adams is indeed an “authoritarian.”
Vickers sponsored what is today a law that limits the length of a public health order to 30 days and allows only the Legislature to lengthen or end it. And as Vickers said, the Legislature can end any restriction or order that comes from a health department, minus public hearings.
The college can do better.
Rhett Wilkinson, Manti
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