From Deseret News archives:
S.L. Council chastised for a lack of decorum
Deputy district attorney Gavin Anderson told the council that its conduct during two recent "quasi-judicial" meetings — in which the council acts as a judicial body in hearing administrative appeals — detracted from the main focus and lessened the confidence of participants.
"I'm frankly concerned about the decorum," he said, repeating Councilman Joe Hatch's own description of a meeting earlier this month being "a circus."
Anderson criticized the members' walking in and out of chambers, conducting side conversations, answering cell phones and other distracting behavior. During such hearings, he said, council members should act like judges, who are expected to preside silently and solemnly over the proceedings.
The council heard one appeal late last year and another earlier this month from a county Government Records Access Management Act appeals board. The first was brought by the Deseret Morning News seeking release of an investigative report, the second by a small business owner seeking release of pet information.
Little Dogs Resort & Salon owner Melva Kravitz said she was shocked by what she called the "unprofessional" behavior of the council during the hearing.
The council is accustomed to the much more free-wheeling nature of legislative debates, not the solemnity of judicial proceedings. "I had no idea what our exact responsibilities were, so this is a revelation," Councilman Jim Bradley told Anderson.
Hatch criticized Anderson and other county attorneys "whooping it up" as well.
"It goes both ways," he said.
The Deseret Morning News hearing was also long and contentious, and afterwards many council members expressed disgust with each other and the process in general. Councilman David Wilde is proposing that the hearings be eliminated altogether by punting appeals to the State Records Committee.
Salt Lake County is currently the only governmental body in the state that hears such appeals.
"When we are the minority of one, it tells me maybe we are doing something we shouldn't be doing," he said.
E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com
