Ethics panel to hold hearing on Hughes
It also decides to keep the public, press out of meetings
In the process, all but two committee members voted to close the hearing to the public and press. The committee even voted not to allow at least one media representative, a Salt Lake Tribune editor, to argue that the meeting be kept open.
An ethics hearing against Rep. Phil Riesen, D-Salt Lake, charged by Hughes and other GOP lawmakers that Riesen broke ethics rules by leaking the Hughes complaint to the press, will be held later — perhaps next week, perhaps later.
Hughes and Riesen both deny all charges lodged against them.
One Hughes accuser, former GOP Rep. Susan Lawrence, testified in private Wednesday afternoon. She declined to comment when she came out of the closed hearing late in the day.
However, Hughes' attorney, Thomas Karrenberg, said Lawrence testified that she never intended for her complaint against Hughes to be made public or be turned into a formal ethics charge. (Hughes and his attorney were allowed into the closed-door sessions and are not sworn to secrecy, like committee members and staff are.)
Lawrence reportedly stood by her letter, signed and addressed "to whom it may concern." That letter is part of the formal charge against Hughes and alleges that Hughes in 2006 offered her up to $50,000 in campaign funds if she would vote for private school vouchers, or at the very least walk off the House floor and not vote on vouchers at all.
Hughes' attorney said Lawrence said she didn't believe an ethics complaint against Hughes was appropriate, in part because the Legislature's ethics definitions are so vague as to be meaningless.
Karrenberg said listening to testimony "there is no way this conversation" between Lawrence and Hughes "could be considered a bribe, no way."
The formal hearing against Hughes is no surprise. Hughes himself asked that the hearing be held and be held and concluded quickly "to clear my good name."
Hughes told the Deseret News he's heard his hearing could last two days to three weeks. The committee scheduled hearings at least through next week.
Before the hearing was closed, Hughes said: "Bluntly, I don't have 21 days of bad press left in my political career. I have to get this over with (before the Nov. 4 election). I have to prove my innocence in the public, quickly.
"My campaign is on hold. All my brochures that are now in the can are worthless."
Both Hughes and Riesen didn't get what they both wanted — open ethics hearings. Testimony will be taken in private.
The open part of the hearing Wednesday was well orchestrated, with chairman Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, and co-chairman Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D-Ogden, reading prepared statements and motions.
Oddly enough, Kiser and Shurtliff personally made each of the other six House members swear to uphold legislative rules that make such hearings secret.
Even though all six swore the oath, when it came to vote to close the meeting, Reps. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, and Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, voted to keep the meeting open to the public.
Kiser, Shurtliff and the other members, Reps. Merlynn Newbold, R-South Jordan; Steve Clark, R-Provo; Doug Aagard, R-Kaysville; and David Litvack, D-Salt Lake; all voted to kick the public out.
Shurtliff said the committee didn't want to take even general comments from the public before the meeting was closed, not to exclude media from asking that the meeting be open but because committee members feared that various other legislators, attorneys or others would take up time with speeches that were not relevant to the taking of sworn testimony.
And time seemed to be of the essence, as several committee members said they wanted to move "quickly," apparently in part to accommodate Hughes, who fears he could be voted out of office if he can't get all the complaints against him dismissed before Election Day.
Hughes officially asked that Moss be recused from the hearing — a motion that was denied by the committee. He said Moss was on TV criticizing him last week and so showed her bias.
But Moss replied later: "Good grief, this is not a jury trial, where you try to find people who don't know anything" about the charges. "We are all insiders on the committee. We just have to pledge to be objective."
Indeed, Hughes himself was greeted warmly by several GOP committee members, including getting handshakes and slaps on the back by a few of his Republican colleagues who will be voting on his fate.
The committee is made up of four Republicans and four Democrats. And each committee member swore not to repeat witness testimony or committee discussions.
At one point, Kiser was asked what would happen if two-thirds of the committee did not vote to keep the hearings secret. "I suppose we would recess and meet as members to decide what to do." In other words, if the committee didn't vote to abide by the rules and close the meeting, the committee would just leave, go somewhere else and met in secret to decide what to do next.
Time and again, the committee was told that it was not acting like a court of law and could take secret testimony. Committee members could also take hearsay evidence, said Kiser, who then warned that such hearsay evidence should be weighed by each committee member as to whether it was valid.
The committee can, by majority vote, decide to make evidence heard public. But no such vote was taken in public Wednesday morning.
Hughes denies all six charges against him, which besides the Lawrence campaign funds include: intimidating lobbyists not to give money to challengers to GOP incumbents, pressuring lobbyists to give to Hughes' own pro-voucher political issues committee and threatening Capitol insiders if they supported a challenge to him and several other Republican officeholders.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com