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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A member of the state Board of Education is suing Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, state Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and a committee after he was ousted from the board in a nominating and recruitment process.
A governor-appointed committee voted in May to keep the name of incumbent board member Denis Morrill off the November ballot.
The 12-member panel votes to forward the names of at least three candidates to Gov. Gary Herbert, who then selects two to appear on the ballot for each seat.
Morrill, who has served on the board for 10 years, has said he believes he wasn't chosen to move on because he has been critical of charter schools and voucher programs in the past.
"Those are basically charter school people on that committee, and they don't like me," Morrill, a Taylorsville attorney and businessman, said in May.
Morrill's civil suit filed Wednesday in 3rd District Court asks for an injunction to keep Herbert from using the committee's candidate nominations.
"Some members of the committee believed that his membership on the state school board had been and would continue to be inimical to their partisan interests in relation to charter schools and other matters," the lawsuit says.
Morrill has called the process by which candidates end up on the ballot "absolutely absurd from start to finish."
Morrill represents District 9, which covers part of southwest Salt Lake County. He was the only incumbent not selected by the committee, meaning he won't be up for re-election November.
Whoever is elected in November will take over Morrill's seat on Jan. 1.
Herbert's office said he will comply with current state law, which requires that he select names from the list submitted by the nominating committee by Sunday.
Those selections are expected to be announced Monday, Herbert spokeswoman Angie Welling told The Associated Press on Friday.
Shurtleff's office had no comment on the lawsuit Friday and hasn't seen it yet.
The committee members represent education and business and industry interests. About half of the board seats open every two years. Two years ago, the committee ousted two incumbents.
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Information from: Deseret News
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
