AG may absorb pair
Office to study the status of education board lawyers
Deputy Attorney General Ray Hintze on Wednesday said one of his first assignments in 2001 was to rein in "illegal in-house counsel" at state agencies by making them part of the Attorney General's Office, a move he said was supported by then-Gov. Mike Leavitt.
He said the only exception were those working for the State Board of Education because they also investigate and hold hearings for teachers accused of misconduct, then advise the board on disciplinary action against teachers.
"We left these two (attorneys) in place thinking it was a workable situation, and until this issue came up, it has worked very well," Hintze told the legislative Education Interim Committee Wednesday. "This is one of the things we are going to discuss, whether we continue that relationship or insist they become part of our office."
Committee co-chairman Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, questioned whether legislators should debate a bill to that effect.
"Our jobs are detailed enough and our jobs are unlike what the attorney general does enough that ... effective government may actually win out over politics," she said in a telephone interview.
Hill said she and colleague Carol Lear, director of school law and legislation for the State Office of Education, want to talk about the process with the Attorney General's Office. She believes had that happened months ago, the current issue would not have arisen.
The Education Interim Committee on Wednesday discussed the attorney general's authority to advise state officers and agencies, including the state school board. But the board refused to take part.
Board chairman Kim Burningham earlier this week said in a letter to co-chairman Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, that he would not send a representative to the "gathering" — a term some called belittling of a legislative hearing — partly because "it is unclear what role the committee has in relation to what essentially is business to be conducted confidentially, if at all, between the Attorney General and the state board."
That miffed several legislators.
"The real problem here is the inability for people to sit down and reason together," said House Majority Assistant Whip Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace. "When we have a board that certainly has statutory obligations and relationships with the Legislature refuse to attend ... those of us trying to do things for public education are hampered by that kind of attitude."
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