If you want to be thankful that Utah is about to have a new attorney general, just look at the latest flood of information about Utah’s old attorney general and take a little confidence in the future.
After months of legal wrangling, Attorney General Sean Reyes recently released five years worth of his office calendar entries. That was information that he and his allies in the Utah Legislature had tried to keep secret, taking legal action against The Salt Lake Tribune and KSL-TV in hopes of keeping the lid on, even getting a law passed that allows state officials to keep their schedules secret.
At least that barrier to public awareness wasn’t retroactive. And now that Reyes has lost his legal battle, and reporters have spent many hours going through what investigators call an intimidating “document dump,” we see why he wanted to keep it under wraps.
The state’s chief law enforcement officer apparently devoted much of his time to self-promoting tech wizards and self-appointed crime fighters. These were contacts that later proved embarrassing, as products sold as expensive high-tech crime-predictors turned out to be ineffective and crusading anti-traffickers were accused of committing fraud and even sexual assault.
Reyes also had more than his share of junkets, including paid expeditions to oil-rich monarchies, where he took in World Cup soccer matches and promoted himself as an expert on child trafficking and opioid addiction.
The attorney general also operated much of the time, not from his official office, nor from a normal campaign headquarters, but from the confines of an expensive private club in downtown Salt Lake City.
A spot called Mac’s Place, which claims professional athletes and rock stars among its exclusive membership, served as Reyes’ cozy hideaway for many campaign-related meetings. And, his people tell us, also for more than a few official A.G. doings, seeing as how it was easier just to stay in the comfy club — away from the prying eyes of the public — than to be chauffeured all the way back to his Capitol office, a mile and a half away.
With all the time Reyes spent cultivating his personal brand, it is little wonder that Utah taxpayers have been stuck with large bills for outside legal help promoting causes that Reyes claims to support but apparently can’t be bothered to actually file motions or appear in court for.
As all of this information dribbled out over the past many months, Reyes had the decency to not stand for reelection.
His replacement, elected this month, is Derek Brown, a former legislator and former chairman of the Utah Republican Party. Brown started organizing his campaign even before Reyes bowed out, promising to clean up the operation and restore public trust after three straight office-holders left under an ethical cloud.
Brown refreshingly promises that his appointment calendar will be an open book. It is a stand more public officials should take.
If they know that we know what they are up to, it is much less likely that they will be wasting their time at celebrity turkey shoots or cosplaying as Mycroft Holmes at the Diogenes Club, and more time attending to the public’s business.
