Bill aligning AG's office with client agencies passes House committee

The long shadow of former Democratic Attorney General Jan Graham fell across the Capitol Wednesday as a bill that "straightforwardly" says the attorney general must follow the wishes of state client agencies passed a House committee.

"When I tried to do this" about half a dozen years ago "I was called a sexist and (the issue became) a real media firestorm," said House Majority Leader Greg Curtis, R-Sandy.

No media circus this year, although Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, asked the House Judiciary Committee to kill Rep. Kathy Bryson's HB170.

The committee declined to do that, passing the bill to the House floor.

"This is a slap in the face to 190 dedicated attorneys" in his office, said Shurtleff, as it questions their ethics and commitment to their state clients and whether his office can "take the position for the people" of Utah.

"And I represent them" as well as state agencies, he added.

Bryson, R-Orem, had previously been reluctant to say why her HB170 is needed. But in debate Wednesday it became clear that she and others still believe assistant AGs at times are not following the wishes of DCFS staffers.

That complaint brought Graham, former Gov. Mike Leavitt, Curtis and GOP legislators into a highly publicized fight.

Ultimately, Leavitt and Graham reached an agreement in 1999, avoiding lawsuits and public name-calling. But the fight was the peak of legislative anger with Graham, then the only statewide elected Democrat in GOP-dominated Utah. Graham retired in 2000 and Shurtleff won the open seat.

Curtis said Wednesday that Bryson's bill goes where he would have gone five years ago, but couldn't do it politically.

HB170 deals with the power of the attorney general's office, not with personalities, said Rep. Chad Bennion, R-Murray.

"We have to deal with reality. And we may not always have Attorney General Shurtleff" in office, Bennion said. "It's good now to clarify the attorney-client relationship."