For the third time in little more than a year, Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes is in another conflict-of-interest controversy — and this time it is apparently part of an ongoing federal probe into the Utah Transit Authority, where he was once chairman of the board.
Documents newly released by UTA show the agency raised red flags in 2016 when it found that a company co-owned by Hughes, Urban Chase Property Management, was listed among partners aiming to build low-income housing as part of a “transit-oriented development” that would use surplus UTA land in West Jordan.
“UTA believes that Greg Hughes’ proposed participation in this project, even if it is just as an investor, appears to be a conflict of interest,” said a 2016 letter to project developers from then-UTA President and CEO Jerry Benson and then-General Counsel Jayme Blakesley.