Utah Senate confirms judge Robert W. Adkins and advances a package of bills amid voting-system outage

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Senate on Feb. 8 confirmed Robert W. Adkins as a judge for the Third Judicial District and advanced a slate of bills affecting taxes, consumer protections and court operations, while technical problems with the chamber’s voting system forced manual roll calls and slowed business.

The chamber unanimously confirmed Adkins after the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee reported a favorable recommendation following several hours of testimony. Senator Chris Butters, who led the committee, called the nominee “the cream of the crop” after reviewing his decades-long record as a prosecutor and trial attorney. The roll call for the concurrence returned 28 yes votes, 0 nays and 1 absent. Shortly afterward the Senate resolved into a committee of the whole for Adkins to address members; Adkins thanked the governor and the committee and said he hoped “to be able to see things clearly and judge fairly,” pledging to use the authority entrusted to him wisely.

Beyond the confirmation, the Senate moved a number of measures to the House or passed them on the floor:

- First Substitute Senate Bill 31 (local government omnibus) passed and was referred to the House (27–0, with 2 absent). - Senate Bill 136 (justice court operations amendment) passed on the floor (16–12, 1 absent). - First Substitute Senate Bill 10 (liability reform act amendment), described by the sponsor as a negotiated consensus package, passed (vote announced as 26–0, with absences noted) and sponsor language was spread on the journal to capture legislative intent. The sponsor referenced the Liability Reform Act (1986) and subsequent case law (Field v. Boyer) as background for the change. - Senate Bills 53 and 54 (both involving property-tax study authority and property-tax confidentiality) passed on roll calls and were referred to the House (SB 53: 25–0, 4 absent; SB 54: 28–0, 1 absent). - Several House bills were also handled on second reading: House Bill 30 (consumer sales practices amendments) was uncircled and advanced; House Bill 186 (consumer protection amendments) was readied for third reading after floor debate and amendment activity. House Concurrent Resolution 7, opposing renewed nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site, passed on the floor (26–0, 3 absent).

A central substantive debate during the session focused on HB 186, a package of consumer-protection changes that includes updates to telemarketing rules, adjustments to administrative fines, and clarifications on rescission notices and spa/telemarketing definitions. Senator Thomas pressed the sponsor and colleagues about the effect of removing a criminal penalty provision in the bill as drafted; he warned that deleting the enhanced criminal penalty risked removing “some of the teeth” from enforcement. After floor discussion, Senator Thomas moved to reinstate lines that had been struck, and the chamber voted to reinstate the language. Sponsor explanations during debate cited federal consistency and the division’s request for the drafting changes; senators also raised concerns about rural impacts (for example, changing a maximum spa relocation distance from 10 to 5 miles) and fund liquidity for a consumer-education account that the bill would allow to retain a $100,000 balance.

Midway through debate, the presiding officer announced the Senate’s electronic voting system had failed; members switched to manual roll-call voting and the presiding officer warned that manual voting would slow the day’s business. The outage affected several roll calls and prompted the chamber to proceed cautiously while staff compiled printed vote lists.

Other floor items included a bill to codify drug-court provisions previously set in uncodified intent language (first substitute SB 135, passed 28–0) and measures addressing workforce programs and the Federal Health Coverage Tax Credit program (HB 69), which the sponsor said would allow Department of Workforce Services to continue a bridge program and make parts of the statute permanent.

What’s next: Many bills that passed the Senate were referred to the House for its consideration. HB 23 (work-experience and training programs) was circled for further information about workers’ compensation protections; HB 186 returned to third reading with reinstated penalty language. The Senate adjourned to 2:00 p.m. to allow time to address technical problems and continue remaining items.

Quotes from the floor: Senator Chris Butters said the committee’s recommendation reflected thorough vetting and endorsed Adkins as outstanding for the bench. Judge Adkins told the chamber, “I hope to be able to see things clearly and judge fairly.” The presiding officer noted, “Our voting system just went down,” before the body proceeded with manual roll calls.

Documents, references and process notes: The governor’s appointment letter and the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee report were read into the record; sponsors cited Utah statutory provisions and prior case law when explaining bills (examples on the record include references to Utah Code Annotated §67‑1‑1 et seq. for appointment transmissions and prior judicial decisions used in liability-reform context). Several items were circled for further work or information pending committee follow-up.