Did Valentine approve Buttars' letter?

Wendell Gibby would be surprised if Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, punished Sen. Chris Buttars over a letter the latter sent a judge last May, chiding him for a ruling over a land dispute involving the Mapleton developer and city officials.

After all, Gibby said, Valentine gave the letter his nod of approval before Buttars, R-West Jordan, sent it.

"It would seem odd to me that Valentine would sack him for something he approved," Gibby said.

Valentine removed Buttars as chairman of the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee on Monday and replaced him with Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights. The unusual mid-session action came shortly after it was discovered Buttars wrote a letter dated May 3, 2007, to 4th District Judge Derek Pullan criticizing his ruling in a case that pitted Gibby, a longtime acquaintance of Buttars, against Mapleton over issues of eminent domain.

A Senate spokesman said Tuesday that Valentine reviewed an early draft and offered some suggested edits to the letter, but did not need to approve it. It was a "private expression of disappointment" when sent, and only changed when published publicly.

"Senate Leadership was concerned the letter may have an impact in the application and confirmation process for new judges," the spokesman wrote in a statement.

The dispute goes back nearly six years ago when Mapleton tried to take a 10-foot-wide, 2,500-foot-long strip of land on Gibby's 120-acre Maple Mountain property for a public access route. The city said the path had historical use as public access to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and was also a crucial access point for emergency vehicles. Gibby refuted both those claims, saying there is no proof of the land being a public right-of-way.

In 2006, Pullan ruled in favor of the city and upheld his ruling in March 2007 when Gibby appealed.

In May of that year, Buttars wrote a letter to Pullan "to express disappointment" in the Mapleton City v. Wendell Gibby decision.

"I was subject to some criticism for having supported your confirmation," Buttars wrote. "Essentially, your critics believed you to be unseasoned and incapable of being fair."

Buttars recalled Pullan's confirmation hearing in which he stated he would not be an activist judge "in the moment of temptation." He then wrote Pullan's recent ruling "lacks statutory support," and "its conclusion could not have been reached democratically.

"I had hoped that we had appointed a judge that would err on the side of individual rights, not a liberal activist judge who would champion government," Buttars wrote. He concluded by saying, "I am embarrassed in this case to have supported your appointment."

Gibby said he did not ask Buttars to write the letter, but the senator showed it to him before he sent it to Pullan. The judge later filed it in the case as an ex parte communication. Buttars also told Gibby he showed it to Valentine.

"He was genuinely interested in making sure not to say or do anything that would offend Senate leadership," he said.

Contrary to recent assertions, Gibby also stated he has not made any contributions to Buttars, and the letter did not have any influence on the ruling.

Whether the letter had teeth or not, Mapleton City Manager Robert Bradshaw called it "unjust criticism" of what should be a totally independent judicial figure.

"The city takes the view that for such a letter to be written by Sen. Buttars was totally inappropriate," he said.

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