SALT LAKE CITY - The grassroots fight to ensure growth of Utah credit unions and to demonstrate new political muscle in state politics was stoked hard March 17 and 18 by the Utah League of Credit Unions at its annual convention here. From keynote speeches to breakout sessions, the theme of the annual conference was political "renaissance" for CUs in the state eager to show new-found legislative strength to beat back the powerful banking lobby which a year ago enacted restrictive field of membership curbs on multi-county expansion. "Let me give you some advice," intoned State Rep. Susan Koehn (R-Salt Lake City), the retiring chairman of the House Rules Committee. "You are most effective when we hear from those constituents who are well educated on the subject at hand and can engage in a dialogue instead of giving us a scripted message." The Salt Lake City lawmaker was referring to orchestrated business lobbying campaigns in which sometimes poorly-informed employees phone or e-mail lawmakers with identical or repetitive messages obviously written by others. "Sure, quantity is good," acknowledged Rep. Koehn, but "guerilla tactics in which lawmakers are threatened do not work well." Without exactly defining "guerrilla tactics" or identifying who was at fault, she did say the bruising CU-bank battle in 1998-99 left plenty of scars and created among lawmakers a "bunker mentality." In that kind of mental framework, she said, legislators stick together in their voting patterns as they try to thwart whatever industry is most threatening. "I suggest a gentle and reasonable" approach in pushing bills, she said speaking during a convention panel, "which will be more well received in the future." She added also that CUs need be more upfront about their tax-exempt status. CUs, she observed, have a good case in demonstrating their service record and the reasoning behind their tax exempt status but in some cases it has been seen as a "brick wall." One of the conference highlights was a keynote luncheon speech by the state's Democratic candidate for Utah Governor, William Orton, a former U.S. Congressman from Provo and a six-year member of the U.S. House Banking Committee. Orton, who is in a tough uphill fight to beat popular Republican Governor Michael Leavitt, who was invited to speak at the conference but was unable to because of previous commitments, was introduced by League President Scott Earl as being "a staunch friend of credit unions." Orton joked with the crowd. "I don't mind taking his place" in speaking to the gathering as he went on to criticize Gov. Leavitt's close ties to big business in the state as well as the governor's campaign finance practices. The 51-year-old Orton, who is a tax attorney and now lives in North Ogden, told convention attendees he is now a member of America First Credit Union of Salt Lake City and has been a CU member since he was 16 when he joined his father's federal CU while working on the family farm. While decrying special interest pressure on lawmakers, Orton confessed that "I'm in love with a lobbyist and I sleep with one every night" referring to his wife, the former Jacquelyn Massey, who he met through his work on the House Banking Committee. Massey is former associate chief of legislative affairs for the National Association of Federal Credit Unions in Washington. Underscoring the political theme of the conference were introductions of credit union executives who are running for office in state races. Indeed, there were eight CU executives who stepped forward to announce they are already in House or Senate contests. Since the 1998-99 fight with banks over FOM restrictions arising from the national battle over H.R. 1151, the Utah League of Credit Unions has worked tirelessly to build the CU profile among state lawmakers by electing some of their own. A special booth at the League convention was open for CU executives to sign on as volunteers or to pick up campaign literature for the various races. Among the CEOs in state races is Curtis Doman, president of Granite Credit Union in Salt Lake City and a Republican running for a state Senate seat. In addition to the candidates' booth, convention attendees were given a primer by a group of state political consultants and lobbyists on how to prepare for state caucuses, how to become a delegate and how to participate in local conventions slated this spring. In her remarks, Rep. Koehn told CU executives they need to start early in the political process to get their legislative message out to lawmakers. "You need to spell out the issues clearly, but don't scare legislators," she warned. Earl said he would be canvassing the membership in the next few weeks to determine the league's exact positions on FOM, business lending and other issues. "We don't want to head in different directions and so we must decide what we want to go for" in terms of proposed bills before the next session, said Earl. One Salt Lake City consultant on the legislative panel, Caroline Roemer, told the League that visits with state lawmakers has convinced her that "credit unions are becoming a voice" following the big initiative battle over FOM and H.R. 1151. "You can expect to be heard," she said. Echoing that view was Travis Wood, the League's new vice president of government relations, who forecast that because of higher political involvement by CUs across the state "you have a better shot next time around" of winning favorable treatment by Utah lawmakers. Wood's appearance on the panel was also his first day on the job. He formerly was a legislative staffer for the Utah Public Employees Association In a separate swipe at Gov. Leavitt's failure to appear at the meeting and citing CU political clout in the state, Roemer told the gathering "Leavitt should be very concerned he wasn't here today." -
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