Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — An influential and yet controversial member of the Utah Transit Authority board of trustees is stepping down and a resolution was passed to allow him to pursue transit-oriented development in the future.
Denying that he was pressured to resign, Terry Diehl made the announcement during Wednesday's regularly scheduled board meeting.
Diehl, who has served on the volunteer board for 10 years, said that although it was legal for him to work on development deals and disclose them as potential conflicts of interest with the board, he'd rather avoid drawing up controversy for himself and the board.
"I make my living being a developer," he said. "It's not really fair to the agency that every time I step out to do a development, I recuse myself and declare the conflicts, and yet we have to have all this news every time."
Media attention to the potential development of a Draper commuter rail site last year led to a legislative audit that revealed Diehl may have violated procurement and contracting code. With stricter rules now in place, Diehl's participation in the development would have been prohibited even with the proper disclosure of his interests to the board.
"I'm just trying to do what's best for the agency." Terry Diehl
"I'm just trying to do what's best for the agency," Diehl said.
The board voted Wednesday to approve a waiver for Diehl, side-stepping current policies that prohibit parting members from benefiting from UTA-related developments.
It's not a new consideration, chairman of the board Greg Hughes said, as exceptions have been made for other out-going board members before.
Hughes said the year-long cooling off period is intended to prevent board members and UTA employees from double-dipping upon retirement. As it is written, he said, it would have behooved Diehl best to stay on the board and continue recusing himself from board decisions.
"At least now, he'll be able to pursue the same opportunities he would have had he been on the board, but we felt it would be best for him to do that off the board," Hughes said.
Hughes credits Diehl for UTA's bragging rights of being ahead of schedule and under budget on its current projects and said it will be impossible to replace a man like Diehl.
Diehl plans to spend more time switching gears in his primarily residential development business, to delve into more transit-oriented development.
"It's the wave of the future," he said. "Mixed use development that is high density along transit lines is where we're headed."
Some still believe that his inside track will continue to give him an unfair advantage.
"The fact they're waiving the one-year cooling off period makes me question UTA's transparency and ethics," said Claire Geddes, a long-time government watchdog and member of bipartisan group Fix UTA. "He still is an insider. He still has a relationship with all those board members that will give him the inside track. It looks like it's going to be a very profitable public service for him."
Hughes said he doesn't like to see people's critics define them.
"We're battling a perception issue here," he said. "There is nothing wrong, nothing has happened that has not followed the law, however there is a perception issue that we have to be realistic about. We are sorry to see him go, but in the end, we think it serves him and the board well to see this happen."
Email:wleonard@ksl.com
