A bit of "gorilla" theater was staged Monday in the Capitol rotunda aimed at encouraging Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to investigate alleged misdeeds by the Utah Transit Authority.

Utah Jobs With Justice and their committee, the Salt Lake Transit Rider Union, presented a dramatic sketch with two characters. One was a reporter and the other, a person in a monkey mask and business suit, who was identified as Shurtleff.

The drama was used to present the group's list of grievances against UTA which include claims that the agency lied to the Federal Transit Administration, overstated ridership figures to garner public support and has unfairly raised fares and eliminated bus routes. Much of the information cited by the group is drawn from a January 2008 audit of UTA conducted by the Utah Legislative Auditor General.

Linda Parsons, director of Utah Jobs with Justice, said changes in UTA service, some of which were based on inaccurate rider information, have unfairly targeted working-class citizens.

"TRAX and commuter rail doesn't serve the main portion of the public," Parsons said. "We're talking about some choice riders ... it's built basically for people to drive their SUV's to the TRAX station, hop on the TRAX to do what they do, then go home."

The legislative audit does make note of problems with UTA data collection and states, "We feel that the combination of deficiencies highlighted in this report demonstrate a pattern of accuracy and reliability problems with UTA's passenger data that should be corrected."

UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware responded in an e-mail that the group's allegations are without merit.

"UTA believes this group's claims are grossly inaccurate and unfounded," Bohnsack-Ware wrote. "Ridership figures reported to the FTA and to other organizations were obtained from a common, accepted transit ridership counting methodology, which was the industry standard for many years, and as soon as more accurate technology was available for obtaining ridership counts, UTA began to employ it."

Tammi Diaz, director of the Salt Lake Transit Riders Union, said she is particularly concerned about a reduction in bus routes.

"I would like to see a thorough investigation into why they've cut so many routes to people who absolutely need transportation," Diaz said. "There are people practically homebound due to route cuts."

Bohnsack-Ware's e-mail stated that bus service had been "increased in the last year through the Salt Lake Bus Route Redesign, which involved a rearrangement of service to provide additional resources into areas with high ridership."

Shurtleff spokesman Scott Troxel said the attorney general's office was aware of the matter, had reviewed the audit and found no basis for a criminal investigation.

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E-mail: araymond@desnews.com