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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah Transit Authority board member who took an undisclosed trip to Switzerland with state lawmakers and lobbyists in September stepped down Wednesday.
The board announced the resignation of Vice Chairman Chris Bleak after a closed-door meeting but declined to discuss the reasons behind it. The board also announced that two other board members would soon resign but declined to name them.
Neither Bleak nor board member Sheldon Killpack, who also traveled to Switzerland, attended the board meeting.
In a letter to the board, Bleak said he submitted his resignation last week due to a new client project at his place of business. He wrote that although the work issue is not in conflict with UTA's vision and mission, it does present a problem for him serving on the board. He served on the board for 7 1/2 years.
"Unfortunately, my resignation coincides with recent media scrutiny and attention around a trip I made to Switzerland," Bleak wrote. "I want to apologize to each of you for creating this issue and distraction."
UTA general counsel Jayme Blakesley said the board and agency executives learned through news reports this week about aspects of the Switzerland trip they did not know before and would now launch its own investigation.
The Deseret News first reported the trip Monday.
"We now really need to look into that and figure out what we didn't know, and when we've learned that, take whatever action is appropriate," Blakesley said. "It's my understanding that none of the individuals on this trip were authorized by the board or by management to negotiate on behalf of UTA or act as agents of the organization."
Blakesley added that UTA "can't tolerate that kind of behavior."
Bleak and Killpack, along with state legislative leaders and lobbyists, including some who represented UTA, met with a railcar manufacturer in Switzerland without notifying the board. The company, Stadler Rail Group, was bidding to lease space in UTA's FrontRunner maintenance facility.
The Governor's Office of Economic Development has been courting Stadler Rail the past few months to build its North American headquarters in Utah. The office scrambled to send a representative on the trip at the last minute to make sure any commitments made were within state law.
UTA has also canceled contracts with its state lobbyists, Blakesley said. Lobbyists who made the trip are former Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis, Jeff Hartley and Dave Stewart, according to documents obtained through an open records request.
Because of the open bid process, the board likely would not have allowed the board members to travel, Chairman H. David Burton said earlier this week. Once UTA found out about the trip, it canceled the bidding. It started soliciting bids again after verifying that nobody on the trip would be part of the decision-making process, he said.
Utah lawmakers defend their trip to Switzerland
State lawmakers say they play a role in building relationships with people who can help Utah grow economically, including a September trip to Switzerland that surprised the governor's office.Bleak and Killpack told UTA that they did not go to Switzerland on behalf of the agency, said UTA spokesman Remi Barron. UTA did not pay for their travel.
World Trade Center Utah, a nonprofit trade association, and the transit-related Utah 2040 PAC helped fund the trip, though House Speaker Greg Hughes, R-Draper, said he kicked in some funding from his leadership PAC, and others paid their own way.
The announced resignations came on the same day the UTA board unanimously approved changes to its code of conduct that now requires board members, executives and some staff members to disclose conflicts of interest, personal finances and travel reimbursements. The policy extends to spouses and dependent children.
Blakesley said the purpose of the new ethics policy is to ensure that decisions are made without conflicts of interest and solely for the benefit of the transit authority and mass transit users.
The policy is modeled after federal civil service rules and "goes above and beyond" what Utah law requires, he said.
An ethics committee comprised of UTA attorneys and auditors will review the disclosure documents for potential conflicts of interest, Blakesley said. The documents, he said, would be treated as personal information and be classified as private under Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act.
Board members spent little time discussing the changes except for a couple of technical questions.
UTA has spent the past several months revamping its code of conduct, including restricting executive pay and bonuses, and requiring board members to get approval for any travel involving agency business, regardless of who pays for it.
