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State Lecturing Policy

Click to see original imageWe wonder about the consistency of a proposed policy on what Utah state employees should do with money they make lecturing or doing consulting work. The current draft of the policy, now being circulated among state officials for their input, would require employees traveling at state expense and lecturing on state time to pay whatever they make to the state. If they travel at their own expense and on their own time they could keep whatever honorariums they are paid. But: As explained in press association dispatches, the proposal would exempt elected officials and university professors, allowing them to keep the money no matter whose time and expense they lectured on, Our question: Why should the policy for the elected officials and university professors be different from the policy for other employees? Shouldn’t one set of rules govem all state employees? The board of examiners discussed the proposed policy last week but wisely delayed taking action until it is evaluated by the attorney general, the Utah Public Employees Association, and state department heads. The policy, said news dispatches, is an outgrowth of a controversy that brewed after Attorney General Robert Hansen reportedly distributed a brochure offering his services as a lecturer on capital punishment and the execution of Gary Gilmore. We suggest thorough discussion of the proposed policy plus an explanation to the public by its backers explaining the thinking behind the double standard arrangement.