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Show A-14 Wednesday, February 12, 1997 The Park Record GUEST EDITORIAL A Sundance retrospective s Ml 0 nil 6 Wait Until You See What We're Unpacking! Just Arrived, a 40 foot container (our sixth!) of antique furniture & accessories from Indonesia Large Teakwood Cabinets Sturdy Benches (the 2 & 3 sealers you've been asking for!) Solid Wood Bowls & Trays Hand-carved Trunks cHafce an Hinder statement . . FWith Simply jreat Jurniture 312 S. Main Heber City 801-654-3868 Mon thru Sot 10 AM to 5 PM (Just 15 minutes from Pork City) 1 I 1 7i ) I I 'orld-Class Orthopedics In A World-Class Resort Town. A WON I !)-Rf NOWMED SKI TOWN KE PARK C 1 T Y REQUIRES AN CR1 HOI'E DlC SPE CIALIST LIKE DR. LONNifT PAULOS. NOW OPEN TO SERVE THE COMMUNITY, Dw Paulos' office: can be reached at 655-0055. Appointments can he made by calling i 80 I i 269-4006. The Orthopedic Specially Hospital In Salt Lake City JVLI SNOW CREEK EMERGENCY ! AND MEDICAL CENTER In Par k C ity II 9 if T1 11,1 X 'TK 1 1 STATES' Ol A M i: 1 ! 1 A LjJSP -ffS -i. -. ,. ' W f PRESIDENT'S DAY SALE! Your Choice... iiv" V" " " 1 Year Interest Free financing -or- l;..,;.'':,hvs,'-vM.,.n.rx3 WWMWmm. Itillilii P& Pv TIIK 1 Nm:i,s'''Ks,Mii:iti(-A f I. 85117ms M 12 Vfc.Vf LSli7U19 We'll pay your Sales Tax! We don't carry any Colonial or Early American Furniture, but our old fashioned values would make either of our former Presidents feel at home. This weekend shop Utah's largest collection of fine western & contemporary home furnishings furn-ishings at monumental savings! After you've made your selection, you can choose 1 year interest free (balance must be paid within one year or intrest accrues from date of sale, offer O.A.C.) -or- We'll pay the sales tax on your purchase! Visit us this weekend, you'll be surprised how far your buck can go. SAVE 10-50 STOREWIDE! Park City 1890 Bonanza Dr. 645-7072 Mon-Sat. 10-6 Salt Lake 2970 Highland Dr. 467-2701 M-F 10-7 Sat. 10-6 by GERALD K. McOSCAR Park City, Utah: since 1985, home of the Sundance Film Festival, where members of the independent film industry gather each January to press the flesh, make deals and watch dozens of generally grim and self-conscious self-conscious films about every conceivable social issue of (he day which, according to Sundance alumnus and actor, Tim Roth, are but thinly veiled auditions for the studio system their makers love to hate. Cut off from the outside world by the magnificent Wasatch Mountains and seasoned by the festival crowd. Park City resembles a wintry theme park where the common folk can mingle with the mysterious mysteri-ous denizens of Hollywood (along with an odd assortment assort-ment of pretenders and hangers on) at work and play in this little bit of heaven on earth. It's quite a spectacle. specta-cle. An outsider is immediately struck by the childlike innocence of the film crowd, an undeniably endearing trait were it not so far removed from the stabilizing influences of shared experience and reasoned thought. Park City during Sundance becomes an Alice-in-Wonderhmd world where common sense and logic are in short supply, where feeling counts for more than thought, where acts have no consequences. In this world, consequences (especially unpleasant ones) are always someone else's fault or someone else's responsibility. respon-sibility. Fantasy will always clash with reality and Sundance is no exception. Here the old gives way to the new as Park City's colorful past is pushed aside to make way for ski slopes and luxury condominiums to accommodate accommo-date the whims of the glitterati. Words like "bunky" and "genre" hang suspended in the still night air. Small-time actresses with vacant stares primp and preen in ladies' rooms of trendy Main Street restaurants and prattle about empowerment empower-ment and sexism, oblivious to the thousands of pioneering pio-neering women who, side-by-side with their men, tamed this rugged land before them. The dust of these early settlers is disturbed by cell phones ringing at the most unexpected of times in the most unexpected of places. Their ghosts smile and wink at each other as they eavesdrop on a transit driver dri-ver (tongue planted firmly in cheek) warning his riders rid-ers about the police crackdown on latte abusers. Paradox, inconsistency and contradiction abound, but no one notices. Diversity is the order of the day' but everyone looks and sounds the same. Brotherhood and sisterhood are expendable when it comes to schmoozing invitations to the best parties or tickets to the best flicks. Party goers are more likely to be sensitive to the feelings of those "in the business" than to those who aren't. There is an incestuous air to all of this. Arthur Dong, the director of Licensed to Kill, a powerful documentary doc-umentary about homophobia, bristles at a questioner's question-er's suggestion that his subjects six convicted killers of gay men are as much victims of their dark impulses and desires as their victims were of theirs. His apparently appar-ently accidental objectivity and even-handedness add texture and nuance to a film that would otherwise be a propaganda piece. Artists should resist the temptation tempta-tion to surround themselves with those who see only what they see. The giddy ride ends too soon. The film people depart for Los Angeles and everyone else goes home. The East Coast looks staid and dull by comparison, but at least one visitor's world has been brightened by the kind and gracious and dedicated people of Park City and Sundance. His only wish is that the next time one of them decides to make a film that says something some-thing that he first take a moment to listen to what his audience has to say. GUEST EDITORIAL Regulating the lobbyists Submitted by UTAH FOUNDATION "Utah's lobbying laws are 'moderate' when compared com-pared to the other 49 states," concludes Dr. Michael Christensen. executive director of Utah Foundation, a private public policy research organization. In a 50-state 50-state study of lobbying regulations, conducted by Utah Foundation, the states were placed into one of three categories restrictive, moderate and non-restrictive. non-restrictive. The report placed Utah in the second or moderate group of states. "Utah's registration requirements are in the mainstream. Utah does not prohibit entirely the giving of gifts as the 'restrictive' states do, but limits those gifts to a value of less than $50," states Christensen. "However," he continued, "Utah's limit of $50 is weakened by the exclusion allowed in the law. The legal definition of a gift excludes such commonly given items as Jazz or symphony sym-phony tickets, meals, green fees and other forms of entertainment." However, this loophole is not complete. Another restriction is the requirement that any expenditure on a public official oyer $50 in. a single day by a lobbyist must be reported in detail, listing the public official receiving the benefit. Since public officials do not like their names on lobbyist's reports, the $50 level is a real restriction. Nationally and in Utah, public opinion surveys indicate that citizens look on the lobbying of these special interests with suspicion. Many citizens feel the constant presence of lobbyists before government and the close association they develop with public officials give them too much influence at the expense of good public policy. "Despite the criticism of special interests inter-ests and their influence," notes Christensen. "the right of the America people to have access to their government govern-ment and to advocate for particular public policies is among our nation's basic fundamental rights." Because of public pressure, the federal government govern-ment and all state governments have passed lobbying regulation laws. The main effects of lobbying regulation regula-tion laws have been twofold: 1) make the activities of special interests more visible to the public; and 2) restrict the flow of money to elected officials and to detail any monetary contributions. The 50-state survey found that some states are very ' restrictive and others have virtually no regulation other than requiring lobbyists to register with the state. Despite variety among the states, there still are some common threads. Every state requires lobbyists to register. All states have records keeping requirements. require-ments. Every state but Wyoming requires lobbyists to submit reports to a state regulatory agency. Almost all states have specifically prohibited some lobbying activities." It should not be surprising that special interests are a major part of the nation's fabric. In a society as diverse as the United States, groups of like-minded individuals have always organized, pooled their resources, and tried to influence public policy. Literally thousands of special interests are organized and work to influence national, state, and local government gov-ernment policies. In the 1996 legislative session in Utah, 536 special interests hired 486 professional lobbyists lob-byists to represent them before the state legislature. The report points out that an important point about special interests is the existence of competition in the process of making public policy. It states, "Seldom, if ever, are all the special interests aligned on the same side of any given issue. Far more common are differences differ-ences of opinion among interest groups on a particular particu-lar public issue." The report points out that lobbyists spend the majority of their time making a case for their interests through providing information, realizing realiz-ing that there will often be another interest group providing pro-viding information that make a case contrary to theirs. The report concludes with three recommendations for the legislature. First, require the Lieutenant Governor's office to publish an annual summary of the reports submitted by the lobbyists. Second, enlarge the election's office in order to provide for the auditing of reports to verify accuracy and compliance. Third, extend the current lobbying regulations to the local government level. Publishing an annual report and providing the resources for auditing makes the information more assessable and enhances its acceptance accep-tance among the public. "This is the heart of the concept con-cept of disclosure and placing local government officials offi-cials within this arm is appropriate and timely." concludes con-cludes Christensen. Utah Foundation is a private, non-profit service agency established to study and encourage the study of state and local government in Utah, and the relation of taxes and public expenditures to the Utah economy. The opinions expressed in our guest editorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the Park Record. Park City and Summit County Government Directory Park City Council Members Hugh Daniels, 645-81 87 Chuck Klingenstein, 649-1057 Roger Harlan, 649-2624 Paul Sincock, 649-2181 Shauna Kerr, 649-6718 Mayor Brad Olch, 649-8352 Summit County Commissioners Sheldon Richins, 336-5550 Jim Soter, 783-4462 Eric Schifferli, 649-8145 Summit County Planning Commission Chairmen East side: Glen Brown, 336-5952 Snyderville: Max Greenhalgh, 649-4166 Park City School Board Colleen Bailey, 649-1346 Burke Jolley, 645-5100 Ext. 126 David Chaplin, 649-9613 Nikki Lowry, 649-6100, 649-0424 Roger Fulmer, 645-7844 Carol Murphy, 649-3385 State Government Governor Mike Leavitt, 538-1000 Sen. Alarik Myrin, 454-3494 Sen. Lyle Hillyard, 752-261 0 Rep. David Ure, 783-4650 U.S. Congress Rep. Chris Cannon, (801) 374-8880 Rep. Jim Hansen, (801) 393-8362, (202) 225-0453 Rep. Merrill A Cook (801) 524-4394, (202) 225-3011 Sen. Bob Bennett, (801) 924-5933, (202) 224-5444 Sen. Orrin Hatch, (801) 524-4380, (202) 224-5251 |