Bruce Adams' nomination to Utah Transportation Commission splits Senate review committee. 

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• Benjamin Wood
• A panel of state senators hear comment on the potential appointment of Bruce Adams to the Utah Transportation Commission on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024.

A panel of Utah senators voted along party lines on Monday to advance the nomination of San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams to an at-large seat on the Utah Transportation Commission.

The 3-2 vote by the Senate Transportation Confirmation Committee followed lively debate over Adams' ability to impartially evaluate highway and transit projects, as well as his past statements that criticized environmentalists as the "greatest threat" facing the nation and a 2022 altercation with law enforcement that was captured on body camera footage.

"We're just rewarding behavior that, frankly, I don't look kindly upon—that I don't think most of my constituents would look kindly upon," said Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City. "It's frustrating to see appointments come forward that I think could have gone to plenty of other people who would represent a wider range of Utahns."

Adams—a prominent figure in Southern Utah politics who has worked to reduce and rescind the Bear Ears National Monument and fought against efforts by federal land managers to close roadways on protected lands—acknowledged and apologized for his 2022 run-in with sheriff's deputies, in which his son was pulled over and arrested on an outstanding warrant. Body camera footage released by the San Juan County Sheriff's Office shows Adams berating law enforcement personnel and threatening to sue the county sheriff.

"I came forward and took responsibility for my actions. I apologized, I made a mistake, I would hope that everybody recognizes that we make mistakes in our life and I certainly made a mistake," Adams said. "I apologized to law enforcement, I apologized on the TV, I apologized to everybody I thought had been offended by it. It was a mistake."

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• Benjamin Wood
• San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams, top right, appears remotely during a hearing of the Senate Transportation Confirmation Committee on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024.

But Adams doubled down on his criticism of environmentalists, objecting to efforts to reduce private vehicle access in sensitive, federally-managed areas.

"My concern has been, in the past, environmental groups trying to close access to iconic places throughout the state of Utah," Adams said. "I think my comments reflect my attitude about closing access to public roads, both in my county and around the state."

Both Blouin and Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, questioned why a person with an obvious and apparent focus on rural Utah was being appointed to an at-large seat representing the entirety of the state. If confirmed by the Senate, Adams would replace outgoing commissioner and businessman Lew Cramer, reducing representation for the Wasatch Front, where the bulk of the state's residents and transportation infrastructure is located.

"I struggle with the fact that we could not get somebody from Salt Lake County to represent our needs here in Salt Lake County," Riebe said.

The issue of urban representation was also raised during public comment by Ellen Birrell, a member of the Cottonwood Heights City Council. She said her constituents elected her to advocate for transportation alternatives beyond driving, and she questioned Adams' ability to weigh the prioritization of public transit investments against spending roads and canyon gondolas.

"Urban problems and challenges are very different than challenges that go on in the less populated parts of our state," Birrell said. "We need to see our workers have affordable mobility—affordable mobility comes from transit that is reliable."

Birrell's testimony was bizarrely challenged by the committee's chairman, Taylorsville Republican Sen. Wayne Harper, who erroneously suggested that transit services do not full under the purview of the Utah Transportation Commission. While the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has long focused on private driving, at the expense of any and all other modalities, the department was formally tasked with overseeing "fixed-guideway transit"—trains, streetcars, bus-rapid transit, etc.—in recent years, and the Utah Transportation Commission is charged with the prioritization and planning of the state's entire transportation network.

"I'm not just talking routes," Birrell reiterated after Harper's interruption. "I'm talking [about] the need for first-class transit."

Adams said he recognizes that Wasatch Front residents encounter different challenges than his neighbors in rural Utah, giving the example of air quality and the winter inversions that trap vehicle waste and other pollutants. He said he has many "friends" on the Wasatch Front and would seek their council, and that he would not jeopardize the use of federal funding or other monies that are attached to environmental regulations or other community standards.

"I would just have to look at each project and see how it's going to help and how it's going to impact, wherever the project is being built," Adams said. "We haven't denied any federal money in my county that comes with various strings attached. In fact, we would almost be nonexistent if we didn't get federal money like [Payment In Lieu of Taxes] and transportation funding and all the other types of funding that come from the federal government."