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Provo Rep. Tyler Clancy speaks with constituents during a legislative recap at Kneaders in Provo on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Provo Rep. Tyler Clancy, right, speaks with constituents during a legislative recap at Kneaders in Provo on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Provo Rep. Tyler Clancy speaks with constituents during a legislative recap at Kneaders in Provo on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald

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Most members of the Utah Legislature have months to prepare for the general session. Provo’s Tyler Clancy had days.

The 25-year-old Provo police officer was selected by Republican delegates in a special election the Saturday before the 2023 legislative session began.

With the session in the rear view mirror, Clancy sat down Saturday with members of the community to discuss the highs and lows of the past three months, what comes next and the realities of public service.

“First day, really, my main thing was, I’m gonna get with the drafting attorneys quick, because I knew the deadline was approaching, and get some bills drafted,” Clancy said. “I think just the nature of a 45-day session, you really don’t have time — everyone’s kind of on that crunch time already. So, I tried to get my bearings, but it was more just kind of learning on the fly.”

In total, Clancy sponsored six pieces of legislation that were ultimately passed and await Gov. Spencer Cox’s signature. Each bill passed unanimously through the House and Senate.

As a member of the education and judiciary committees, along with the subcommittee on criminal justice appropriations, the two bills Clancy spent the most time talking about with constituents focused on higher education for veterans and creating a scholarship for families of fallen officers.

House Bill 197, Higher Education Financial Aid Amendments, altered the Veterans Tuition Gap Program in Utah to allow the grants to go toward non-tuition needs within education. Now, grant recipients can use the funds for textbooks, supplies and other academic needs.

Clancy’s highlight during the session was passing H.B. 332, the Fallen Officer Memorial Scholarship Program. The bill creates a scholarship for the child of a police officer, firefighter or EMT who died in the line of duty.

Utah Code defines a line-of-duty death as a death caused by “external force, violence, or disease occasioned by an act of duty as a public safety service employee; or strenuous activity, including a heart attack or stroke, that occurs during strenuous training or another strenuous activity required as an act of duty as a public safety service employee.”

Any children who fall under the description may be eligible for $5,000 each year for up to four years to use on “educational-related expenses.”

“Utah is actually one of the only states in America that doesn’t have a death benefit for firefighters and police officers who died in the line of duty. So if I were to be killed, basically what would happen is, through the municipalities — Provo City would award my wife my pension,” Clancy said. “As I got to meet these families, some of the kids are 4 or 5 years old, and what really was important to me is … when that person turns 18, son or daughter, they need to know what their mother or father did was very important to our state.”

When a recipient turns 18, they will be invited by the Department of Public Safety, which is responsible for administering the scholarship, and will meet with their parents’ former colleagues. He added that, on average, three or four children in Utah each year lose a parent to a line-of-duty death.

While passing legislation introduced on his own, and co-sponsoring successful and failed bills, Clancy took the time to learn from others in the Utah House. When asked by a constituent who he worked closely with and learned from, Clancy named Orem’s Val Peterson, Sandy’s Robert Spendlove, Blanding’s Phil Lyman and fellow Provo lawmakers Marsha Judkins and Norm Thurston.

In a legislative session that included 929 bills and an average of nearly 10 minutes of discussion per bill, attention was given everywhere in the state from the Great Salt Lake to court rooms and doctor’s offices.

“I tried to approach every bill — not just the controversial ones, every bill — as like, ‘OK, what’s the problem that this bill is trying to address? What’s the solution that this bill is proposing?'”

Education: Teacher pay and school vouchers were two of the first issues addressed by the Utah Legislature in 2023. The two were joined together in a deal viewed alternately as extortion or compromise by opponents and defenders with H.B. 215 — the Utah Fits All bill. The legislation increased teacher salaries by $6,000 while creating a school voucher system to provide public funds to attend charter or private schools.

After weeks of discussion, disagreement and public protest, the measure ultimately passed the Utah Senate on Jan. 26 and was signed by Cox on Jan. 28. The only Utah County-based elected official to oppose the bill was Judkins, a former member of the Provo City School Board of Education. In the Senate, two rural members whose districts extend into Utah County — David Hinkins and Derrin Owens — also voted no on the grounds the bill would have a negative impact on rural students.

“The main thing I wanted to see was it as needs based,” Clancy said. “I thought that this would be a good program to try out.”

In all, 138 education-related bills were passed by the Legislature, covering everything from funding in K-12 and higher education, school safety, graduation attire revisions, fees and more.

Transgender health care: Introduced by Sen. Mike Kennedy of Alpine was Senate Bill 16, which bans gender-affirming surgery for minors while creating new certification requirements and health care standards to provide hormonal transgender treatments. The bill was supported by the entire Utah County delegation and signed into law by Cox.

“It just kind of came back to making sure that, these really big decisions, we’re making sure that they’re ready to take that on,” Clancy said.

Utah flag: One of the most-discussed pieces of legislation this year was S.B. 31, State Flag Amendments, which established a new state flag in Utah. After three hours of floor debate, the measure passed 45-30 in the House and 19-9-1 in the Senate. The bill from Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, was the product of several years of work and public outreach in designing a new flag. In the end, Utah County officials were divided on the measure, with Clancy among those voting against.

“I wish we spent more time on the issues that really mattered to families, not to say that we didn’t address some of those big issues,” Clancy said. “The no vote was somewhat symbolic to say ‘Let’s focus on (these) kitchen table issues.’ And then also too, I think there’s something to be said for standing for tradition in a changing time.”

Judges: Utah district court Judge Andrew Stone’s decision in August 2022 to halt the state’s abortion “trigger law” drew the ire of GOP members of the Utah Legislature. To open 2023’s session, Rep Brady Brammer, R-Highland, introduced a resolution targeting preliminary injunctions in Utah. The only Utah County official to vote against the resolution was Nelson Abbott, R-Orem.

Clancy said he supported the bill in an effort to avoid “legislating from the bench”

“I know the trigger law kind of took the oxygen from from that issue. But I think for me, I just looked at it as a separation of powers thing,” he said.

Late in the session, Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, sponsored legislation to remove rules preventing partisan influence over the judicial nominating process. No Utah County official opposed the bill, though several were absent for the votes.

“People say, ‘Well, it’s gonna make it political.’ Well, it’s already political,” Clancy said. “We should make it political with a backstop, which is that election piece.”

Utah County: Despite 25 members of the Legislature representing Utah County, the second most populous in the state, features specific to the valley receive little attention from elected officials. General issues that affect the county, including growth, housing and social media, were frequent points of discussion, while Utah Lake was mentioned in several bills focusing on water usage. Moving forward, Clancy discussed working with environmental advocacy groups and working with others to ensure responsible growth.

“There’s no price tag that’s worth destroying our natural resources, destroying Provo Canyon, destroying some of Utah Lake,” he said.

Until the 2024 session is gaveled in, Clancy will meet monthly with his committees. Until then, he hopes to shadow a teacher, work bagging groceries for a day and “get out of the bubble of the Legislature and talk to people, hear what the issues are” while planning legislation to bring to the table.

Guiding his decision making will be two questions.

“How can we best serve Provo? How can we best move into the next decade?”

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