Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon to Gov. Gary Herbert: Return money

SALT LAKE CITY — Gov. Gary Herbert has been challenged by his presumptive Democratic opponent to return a $10,000 campaign donation to a coal company that got a fast-track decision from state regulators on a strip mine.

"The right thing for the governor to do here is to return the money," Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said Thursday. "The public needs to have confidence that their elected officials and government are not in a pay-to-play position."

Herbert's chief of staff rejected the call and said Corroon also accepts campaign contributions from companies, some with business before the county.

"Mayor Corroon has made inaccurate and unjustified accusations for the sole purpose of political posturing, and it is deeply offensive," said Jason Perry, the governor's top aide.

Corroon said county law prohibits him from accepting more than $100 from any county contractor, and that he doesn't know of any business donor to his campaign seeking government action.

Perry said he was at the Sept. 17 meeting with the governor where executives for Alton Coal Development LLC complained that regulators were taking too long to approve the strip mine in southern Utah.

That meeting was held the same day Herbert's campaign was banking a $10,000 donation from the company. Herbert's aides said he wasn't told of the donation and didn't order regulators to speed up a decision or issue approval.

The governor, by another account, simply turned to a mining regulator to ask when the decision would be made.

"Nothing inappropriate in any way happened at this meeting," Perry said.

The governor's office on Thursday identified the executives who sat down with the governor. They were minority shareholders Robert Nead and Stonie Barker, and project manager Chris McCourt, Herbert spokeswoman Angie Welling said.

James J. Wayland of Naples, Fla., a 50 percent owner of Alton, did not attend, she said. Alton's $10,000 donation was sent from a Naples, Fla., address, according to records. For a second day Thursday, Wayland didn't return messages from The Associated Press.

Also attending the Sept. 17 meeting were John Baza, director of Utah's mining agency, and his deputy, Dana Dean, according to Welling.