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SALT LAKE CITY -- A state lawmaker wants to keep schools from putting lobbyists on the districts' dime.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, introduced SB 123, which would prevent schools from hiring lobbyists as contract workers. He says it isn't aimed at the Canyons School District, but is in response to the part-time lobbyists they have on staff.
"They're the first [to have lobbyists]," Jenkins said, "and I just don't want there to be a third and a fourth and a fifth."
We just hate to see any dollars spent and diverted from the classrooms, and ultimately that's what ends up happening here.
–Scott Jenkins
Jenkins believes there is an ethical concern to the school districts having lobbyists, because they are funded by government. He said it would be like having the government lobby the government. On top of that, he believes the schools have good relationships with their representatives on Utah's Capitol Hill, and therefore lobbyists aren't needed.
"Those people have open access up here on a regular basis," Jenkins said about Utah's school districts. "Each and every one of us are contacted by our school district on a regular basis. I had breakfast with mine two weeks ago. We know exactly what they're doing, we know how they're doing it, we know the money they receive and what they spend. We have a very good insight to our school districts."
The lobbyists who work for the Canyons district are not technically contract workers, so there is some debate over whether Jenkins' bill would apply to the district. He believes it would apply to the district's part-time lobbyists; officials with the district tell UtahPolicy as district employees, they would be exempt from his bill.
The district's full-time director of government relations works with two part-time government relations specialists, earning a total of just under $200,000 a year. Jenkins says it's $200,000 the children aren't able to use right now.
"We just hate to see any dollars spent and diverted from the classrooms, and ultimately that's what ends up happening here," Jenkins said.
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
