This morning, a group of Utah House members will start a formal ethics investigation of two of their own — and the current ethics process will be on trial along with Reps. Greg Hughes and Phil Riesen.
One of the main complaints by some House Democrats and Republicans is that having the Legislature investigate its own members is inherently flawed, riddled with conflicts of interests, and complicated by friendships (both broken and held) and partisan politics.
That is certainly part of the case with both Hughes, R-Draper, and Riesen, D-Salt Lake.
It is a point that former Rep. Susan Lawrence finds most disturbing — that the Hughes/Riesen matter may derail some true ethics reform in the 2009 Legislature. "My concerns are just one small part of all this," Lawrence told the newspaper Tuesday, 24 hours before she answers a subpoena to appear before the House Ethics Committee as a witness.
Lawrence said she wrote a "to whom it may concern" letter containing her concerns about Hughes' actions in the 2006 elections mainly because she believed it would be used to convince House GOP leaders to take ethics reform seriously.
Meanwhile, complaints by House members about retaliation and meddling over internal ethics complaints seem to have been reflected in the current situation. House chief of staff Chris Bleak called Lawrence last week offering to help her "draft" a media response to her original Hughes letter. Bleak's suggestions "were not a clarification" of her original statement, Lawrence said Tuesday. She felt uncomfortable with those suggestions, and she decided not to agree to the changes. Bleak said he was just responding to leadership's request that Lawrence may desire help in dealing with the "early" release of her information. "I never tried to get her to retract what she had said," said Bleak.
That call came after a private meeting between GOP House leaders and those bringing concerns about Hughes — a meeting that contained some harsh language "and was tense," one of those attending told the Deseret News.
But on Tuesday, Lawrence said Riesen releasing her letter to the media and including it as part of a formal ethics complaint against Hughes, was not what she intended.
"I think that (making her allegations public) was a betrayal of trust, a breaking of a confidence, and (Riesen) stabbed everyone in the back that (Riesen) was working with" to get real ethics reform, said Lawrence.
Whether Riesen's actions are a violation of legislative ethics will be up to the committee. Whether it "derails" ethics reform, as Lawrence puts it, remains to be seen.
Riesen is unapologetic. "It is unfortunate (Lawrence) feels that way. She signed the 'to whom it may concern' letter that makes serious charges (of offering campaign cash in return for Lawrence changing a vote) against Rep. Hughes."
The complaint filed against Hughes by Riesen and Reps. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, and Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake, contains six other charges against Hughes, including that he bullied lobbyists to contribute to Hughes' pro-voucher political issues campaign, actively tried to dissuade intra-party challenges to Hughes and other GOP incumbents, and tried to get lobbyists not to contribute to challengers' campaigns. Hughes denies all allegations.
Specifically, Lawrence in her letter says that Hughes offered to raise upward of $50,000 for her 2006 re-election from pro-private school voucher special interests if Lawrence, who was against vouchers, would either change her vote or be absent during pro-voucher votes in the 2007 Legislature. Lawrence declined Hughes' alleged offers, told other GOP lawmakers about them in 2006, and ended up losing her re-election bid to Riesen, who now holds that seat.
Outside of the current ethics charges, GOP Reps. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful; Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan; and other GOP and Democratic House members complain that the current legislative ethics complaint process doesn't work.
They have felt pressure not to bring ethics charges, they say. They complain of covert and overt actions by fellow legislators for bringing an action against former Rep. Mark Walker, R-Sandy, who is being investigated by prosecutors for alleged bribery attempts in Walker's failed GOP state treasurer race. Walker avoided a House ethics probe, brought by a bipartisan group of representatives, by resigning his seat.
Allen said Tuesday that she is working with the National Conference of State Legislatures to draft some ethics reform legislation. In talking with NCSL staff, "it appears it takes some kind of a scandal" in order for a state legislature to reform ethics, said Allen.
Peggy Kerns, director of NCSL's ethics center, said about half of the 50 legislatures moved on tougher ethics reform after the Jack Abramoff scandal hit Congress in 2005.
"Utah is not one of them," said Kerns, who said other state legislatures are banning lobbyists' gifts, restricting campaign contributions and making lobbyists wear badges listing their clients, even publicly reporting how much lobbyists are being paid — all attempts "to bringing more transparency" to the lobbying process.
Allen, Mascaro and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have suggested taking the investigative responsibilities of ethics complaints out of the Legislature and setting up an independent panel along the lines of the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission. Initial complaints against judges are made and investigated privately. If there is merit to the complaints, public hearings are then held.
Hughes and Riesen — who had an ethics complaint filed against him by Hughes and fellow Reps. Kevin Garn, R-Layton, and Brad Dee, R-Ogden, over Riesen's release of the Lawrence letter and an unsigned, preliminary complaint against Hughes — have both asked that their ethics hearings be open. But it appears that by legislative rule the initial witness statements must be in private.
The first hearing is today, with another hearing scheduled for Friday. More hearings, closed or open, could be held later, attorneys for both sides say.
Witness list for the ethics investigations of Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, and Rep. Phil Riesen, D-Millcreek. Some are House members, others are lobbyists or those who deal with the Legislature.
Former Rep. Susan Lawrence
Rep. Paul Ray
Joel Briscoe
Rep. Greg Hughes
Rep. Sheryl Allen
Rep. Phil Riesen
Rep. Roz McGee
Rep. Neil Hansen
Rep. Aaron Tilton
Jeff Hartley
Elisa Clements
Rep. Brad Last
Michael Cragun
James Evans
Rep. Kevin Garn
Blaze Wharton
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com