Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller will present findings today to support her contention that paying rent on three different facilities to house her employees is wasting taxpayer dollars and won't accommodate growth in her office necessary to keep pace with the county's expanding population.

The study concludes that the solution is to combine the current two offices in West Jordan and one in Salt Lake into one new ?ber-office in Salt Lake or, alternatively, into two new facilities, one in West Jordan and one in Salt Lake. The key to optimizing costs, according to the study, is county ownership of the new building(s).

How to fund the purchase or renovation of new D.A. digs falls to the council. On Monday, Council Chairman Joe Hatch said he was willing to consider the idea, as long as it made sense from a fiscal standpoint.

Last time this issue was raised, in the early 2000s, Republican Nancy Workman was the county's chief executive and Democrat David Yocom headed the district attorney's office. Yocom made a pitch then, very much along the lines of Miller's current proposal, to get his staff out of too-small, too-pricey rented space and purchase a permanent home for attorneys and, in the long run, save money. What followed was a year-plus political imbroglio revolving around the county's failed attempt to purchase the downtown First Security Building … and, ultimately, a new round of lease contracts to keep a roof over the heads of county lawyers.

— Arthur Raymond