Yocom tries to oust duo from hearing

The long-simmering dispute between two Salt Lake County Council members and District Attorney David Yocom erupted into a full boil Tuesday.

Yocom's office is attempting to remove Council Chairman Steve Harmsen and Councilman Russell Skousen from a hearing into allegations of sexual harassment in the county clerk's office, based on comments the two councilmen made to the Deseret Morning News.

The newspaper is attempting to obtain an investigative report, done last year by attorneys hired by the district attorney, into allegations that then-chief deputy clerk Nick Floros sexually harassed employee Marcia Rice.

Rice has filed a civil suit against the county.

Requests to obtain the report have so far been denied, and the paper has appealed to the council. The council, sitting as a quasi-judicial body, will hold a hearing and make a decision in two weeks.

Council members are deeply divided on the issue, and now Yocom has chimed in.

"Both Steve Harmsen and Russell Skousen have openly expressed their opinions" about issuing the report, deputy district attorney Valerie Wilde wrote in a motion filed Monday. "Their statements clearly show a bias towards releasing the report to the extent that the Respondent will not have a fair opportunity to be heard."

Skousen called the motion "outrageous."

"I have told no one I have made up my mind," said the outgoing councilman in a Tuesday council meeting. "This harkens back to the Doug Short days, and I'm glad to be out of here in two weeks."

Skousen was quoted in a Nov. 24 Deseret Morning News article as saying, "I'm inclined just to get it out there and let it speak for itself." Harmsen was quoted as saying, "I think you should pursue that. I'd like to see how the council reacts."

Skousen, however, points out that the state law governing release of records — the Government Records Access and Management Act — explicitly "favor(s) public access when, in the application of this act, countervailing interests are of equal weight," in the statute's words.

"My bias is the bias set forth in the statute," he said.

It is undetermined whether Harmsen and Skousen would themselves be the ones to disqualify themselves, or whether the council would vote on the matter.

"The policy is unclear," Wilde said.

An attorney in the same office as Wilde, chief deputy Karl Hendrickson, will represent Harmsen's and Skousen's side in the hearing. Yet another attorney in the office, Gavin Anderson, represents county records manager Terry Ellis.

The district attorney's office has implemented procedural barriers between attorneys to eliminate conflicts of interest.