Senators advance Gov. Cox's pick to lead state public record office

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

A Senate committee advanced Lonny Pehrson's nomination as Utah's Government Records director.
Concerns arose over Pehrson's transparency record, but he assured impartiality in his role.
Pehrson passed the committee vote 5-2; a full Senate vote is set for June 18.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Senate panel moved ahead with the confirmation of Lonny Pehrson as the director of Utah's new Government Records Office on Monday, after some in the public and one senator raised concerns about his track record on transparency.

Pehrson, a government records attorney for the office of the Utah Attorney General, was picked by Gov. Spencer Cox last week, subject to confirmation by the Senate. If approved, Pehrson would be the first director of the new state office, which lawmakers established this year to replace the former seven-member committee tasked with ruling on access to public records.

Pehrson's work for the Utah Attorney General's Office under former Attorney General Sean Reyes — during which he argued against releasing Reyes' work calendars to KSL — has made him a controversial pick to some. Still, Pehrson told the Senate Government Operations Confirmation Committee Monday that his work for the office would not impact his rulings on future disputes over records.

"I also want to say that I recognize and appreciate the concerns that have been expressed about my experience with the Attorney General's Office and whether it might hamper my ability to faithfully carry out this new role," he said. "While understandable, I believe these concerns to be unfounded."

He said his role as counsel to the office came with an obligation to "represent my client to the best of my ability," which Pehrson said he did "whether I agreed personally with the positions taken or not."

"I understand very well the difference between representing a client and acting as a neutral arbiter of disputes," Pehrson said. "Thus, I do not believe that my current employment would in any way compromise my ability to lead the Government Records Office or to fairly and impartially decide records disputes that might come before me."

But Pehrson's nomination was met with opposition from those on both sides of the political aisle. Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Millcreek, was one of two lawmakers to vote against advancing the nomination, along with Sen. Ronald Winterton, R-Roosevelt.

Blouin said he spoke with Pehrson last week via phone and believes from that conversation that Pehrson would be willing to recuse himself from cases involving the Attorney General's Office, but Blouin still voted against advancing Pehrson.

"I think, you know, we have a qualified nominee in front of us, someone that can do the job," he said. "I still really have frustrations and concerns over kind of the optics here and how this has been put forward. ... The optics are just bad, and I think anyone who looks at it can kind of understand where folks are coming from when they express concerns about this."

Maryann Christensen, with Utah Legislative Watch, who regularly speaks in favor of conservative legislation on Capitol Hill, also argued against Pehrson. She said the director should "weigh in on the side of the citizens of Utah," and Pehrson's background made her skeptical that he would side with the government when considering whether to release the records.

"That's a really hard perception to overcome with the citizens of Utah. That's where a lot of the lack of trust comes from," she said.

Several Pehrson backers spoke in his favor, including a pair of colleagues in the Attorney General's Office and Kenneth Williams, the director of the Division of Archives and Records Service, which will oversee the Government Records Office.

"I can confidently say that Mr. Pehrson is one of the most knowledgeable attorneys practicing in Utah and when it comes to records law and his understanding of (Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act) and other statutes that have to be taken into consideration when considering records access is outstanding, and he is one of the leading experts on those issues in the state," Williams said.

Daniel Burton, an attorney for the Attorney General's Office, spoke in his personal capacity, calling Pehrson "fair," "accurate," and "always attentive to the statutes."

Pehrson cleared the committee with a 5-2 vote. The full Senate will consider his nomination during an extraordinary session on June 18.

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