SUWA challenges public-lands hiring

Utah's public lands coordinator has offered a no-bid $175,000 one-year contract to former Assistant Attorney General John Boyden, who is also the brother of Stephen Boyden, the state's deputy public lands coordinator.

Lynn Stevens says he needs the extra help to prepare for legal clashes over roads through federal lands. But a critic is challenging the contract, saying it should be put out to bid first.

Heidi McIntosh, conservation director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, filed a formal challenge just hours before the comment period ended Friday evening.

Her letter claims the no-bid justification is vague, and she said Boyden's familial relationship to the deputy public lands coordinator raises "questions of nepotism."

"This is an example of how some officials have overstepped their boundaries at the expense of the taxpayers — and public lands as well," she said.

The wilderness alliance has been at odds with the state for years over an 1866 Utah law granting rights of way across federal land. The law was repealed in 1976, but existing roads were grandfathered in, sparking a battle to determine which rural tracks are roads and if the land around them still qualifies as wilderness.

A 10th Circuit Court ruling in September broadened the definition of a county back road, and Stevens' office developed a plan to identify and map county roads in order to claim them.

Stevens promised in early November to provide county commissioners with technical assistance.

During John Boyden's four-year tenure at the Attorney General's Office, he created a state database of the roads in dispute, including satellite coordinates.

Counties in need of technical information would contact Boyden.

The no-bid notice, which must include a justification of why the contract is not going out to bid, does not mention the database or Boyden's expected role.

Rather, it says, Boyden's job would be to "provide technical implementation assistance to the state in solving the multitude of issues" surrounding state law governing Utah's assessment of the roads.

The notice mentions Boyden's role in drafting that legislation and his ability to advise Stevens on "the various aspects of the effort."

Stevens said Boyden's brother, Stephen, had nothing to do with the contract offer, and he rejected criticism that the contract should have been open.