Did Weber County Commissioner Candidates Violate Utah Election Law While Filing Bad-Faith Lawsuit Against Opponent?

On May 27, 2026, three Weber County Commission candidates — Katrina C. Gibson (Seat A), Richard A. Hyer (Seat A), and Jon D. Beesley (Seat B) — jointly filed a court petition in the Second Judicial District Court seeking to disqualify fellow Seat A candidate James Ebert from the June 23 primary ballot. The petition was filed the day before primary ballots were mailed to voters.

The basis for the petition was a paperwork technicality. When Ebert filed his candidacy on January 2, 2026, a staff error at the Weber County Clerk's office resulted in him leaving without signing his conflict of interest form. The clerk's office subsequently texted his wife and he submitted the form electronically before the January 8 deadline. Weber County Clerk/Auditor Ricky Hatch — a named defendant in the petition — publicly stated that the clerk's office bore responsibility for the error, and called the petitioners' legal position weak relative to the political force with which they pursued it.

The petitioners' own attorney, Gibson herself, identified the underlying issue in April. On April 14, Gibson emailed the clerk's office flagging that the conflict of interest form was not posted online. The clerk's office uploaded it immediately. The petition was not filed until May 27 — six weeks later, timed to land after the pre-primary financial reporting deadline and the day before ballots were mailed. Judge Craig Hall noted from the bench that there was no reason the petition could not have been filed a month earlier.

Utah Civic Compact reviewed this conduct and found it warranted scrutiny. What we found when we looked at the public campaign finance records is the subject of this complaint.

We reviewed all six campaign finance reports filed by Gibson, Hyer, and Beesley — the pre-convention filings and the May 26 pre-primary filings. The attorney of record in their petition is Matthew Koyle of Ogden.

His name does not appear in any of them.

Not in Gibson's pre-convention report. Not in Gibson's May 26 report. Not in Hyer's pre-convention report. Not in Hyer's May 26 report. Not in Beesley's pre-convention report. Not in Beesley's May 26 report. Across six reports covering campaign activity from the start of the race through May 26, there are no legal fees, no payments to Matthew Koyle, and no expenditures identifiable as legal services of any kind.

The petition was filed on May 27 — the day after the pre-primary reporting period closed. The timing is not coincidental.

On June 4, 2026, Utah Civic Compact filed a formal complaint with the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Elections Division alleging that Gibson, Hyer, and Beesley violated Utah election law by failing to disclose campaign expenditures.

The absence of any legal fees across all six reports raises three possibilities, each with its own disclosure implications:

• The fees were paid from campaign funds but not disclosed — a reporting violation.
• The fees were paid personally by one or more candidates outside their campaign accounts — a potential violation if the expenditure constitutes a campaign expense.
• A third party paid Koyle on behalf of one or more candidates — an undisclosed in-kind contribution.

Any of these scenarios represents a failure to comply with Utah's campaign finance disclosure requirements. We have asked the Elections Division to examine Koyle's retention and payment in the context of the pre-primary reporting deadlines, and to complete their review before the June 16 filing deadline.

We also note that Jon Beesley is running for Seat B, not Seat A. He has no competitive interest in James Ebert's removal from the Seat A ballot. His inclusion in the petition raises questions about coordination across races that we have asked the Elections Division to examine.

Weber County Clerk/Auditor Ricky Hatch is a named defendant in the petition itself, which is why this complaint was routed to the Lieutenant Governor's office rather than the county clerk.

Filing a bad-faith lawsuit timed to land after the financial disclosure deadline and just before primary ballots hit mailboxes is an attempt to subvert the will of voters — removing a competitor through procedural maneuvering rather than competing on ideas. That conduct warranted scrutiny.

When we reviewed the public records, we found what appears to be a violation of Utah election law. We filed a complaint because that is what accountability looks like in practice.

Weber County voters should ask themselves whether candidates willing to weaponize legal technicalities against political opponents, while apparently violating their own obligations under campaign finance law, are the commissioners they want making decisions on their behalf.

Item	Detail
Petition filed	May 27, 2026
Ballots mailed	May 28, 2026
Issue first known to petitioners	April 14, 2026
Legal fees disclosed across all six reports	$0
Attorney of record	Matthew Koyle, Ogden
Complaint filed with	Utah Lieutenant Governor's Elections Division
Next reporting deadline	June 16, 2026
Primary date	June 23, 2026

All campaign finance reports referenced in this complaint are publicly available. Utah Code Title 20A, Chapter 11 governs campaign finance disclosure requirements.