Lobbyists register with S.L. County
Letter of the law: Tetris team says it was unaware of the requirement until it heard about it from The Tribune

By Derek P. Jensen
The Salt Lake Tribune    19 August 2005

The Tetris Group is legal, finally.
   Eight months after Salt Lake County adopted a new rule requiring anyone who lobbies the county to publicly disclose it, the principals for the influential Utah firm are in compliance.
   On. Aug. 12, Tetris registered its four lobbyists with the County Clerk's Office. Two other lobbyists, including the former state Democratic Party chairman, added their names to the list this week.
   Failure to comply can lead to a five-year license suspension and a class B misdemeanor. But the District Attorney's Office notes the violation must come "willingly and knowingly" to trigger prosecution.
   The Tetris team members - who double as county lobbyists - say they didn't know.
   "Not knowing may be perceived as being dumb," Dan Hartman, Tetris principal, said Thursday. "I'm telling you, I didn't. If that's a problem, I guess it's a problem."
   The Tetris lobbyists filed their disclosures the same day The Salt Lake Tribune made inquiries about the status.
   "You've done your public service," Hartman said. "You got us to register."
   Any punishment seems unlikely. It would require evidence that the lobbyists knew about the rule and deliberately ignored it, says Jerry Campbell, civil division director for the district attorney.
   "That would be the first hurdle you'd have to jump over if you were a prosecutor," he said.
   And Campbell notes nobody has asked his office to investigate.
   Blaze Wharton, another Tetris member, says they would have filed immediately had they known about December's disclosure rule, which was reported in the news media at the time.
   Tetris, Wharton notes, had filed its client list with the state.
   "We were under the impression that was sufficient," he said.
   County Clerk Sherrie Swensen never sent notifications - "It's not like I have the authority to go police it," she said - and concedes some confusion exists because the requirement is relatively new. "It will take a little bit of time to catch on."
   Even so, at least one lobbyist filed even before he needed to.
   Donald Dunn, the former state Democratic chair-turned-lobbyist, filed his disclosure Tuesday. He has yet to sign a county-related client.
   "I'm a pretty smart guy. I can read things in the paper," said Dunn, now president of St. Louis-based Vigilant Worldwide Communications, a Tetris partner. "I can figure out I better go do this before I need to."
   Another longtime lobbyist, Charlie Luke, also registered this week. He says a new gig representing Metro Waste, not the flurry of filings, prompted the move.
   "It just happened to be coincidental timing," said Luke, a former R & R partner. "I've always believed it's important to keep everything aboveboard."
   The disclosure ordinance was conceived as part of former acting Mayor Alan Dayton's ethics reform package. It d the county's 2001 lobbyist laws, requiring political operatives to list their clients on the county's Web page.
   Despite Tetris' absence from that list, Hartman says his firm never engaged in a conflict of interest.
   "I can't think of a time since the [legislative] session that I've tried to lobby the county on behalf of another client," he said.
   But Tetris members did accompany representatives from client Diebold Election Systems to make a presentation to county officials about electronic-voting machines. The state has since signed Diebold - over county objections - to swap the punch-card voting system in favor of the company's touch-screen machines.
   And this week, Hartman ushered another client, Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan, into a meeting with County Mayor Peter Corroon to discuss building the Real Salt Lake soccer stadium in Sandy.
   Hartman concedes that "could rise to the level" of lobbying, but argues it was covered by last Friday's registration. He also said Tetris' dual role - as the county's paid lobbyist who sometimes lobbies the county - is a gray area.
   Corroon says his office is considering scrapping its contract with Tetris.
   Overall, Hartman doubts his firm's client list ever has created a conflict.
   "The answer is 'no.' But, again, what's lobbying?"