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By Michael Waddoups
President of the Senate

Re: this.

When Governor Huntsman announced he would be leaving his post, I noticed an additional security presence watching after the Lt. Governor. It made sense. I thought it was appropriate for his new role as acting governor. It's my understanding that was done at the UHP's insistence and not at the LG's request.

At the time, I called the governor's staff to encourage the added security to continue.

Today, apparently, the AP found a piece of the Utah Code of which I was previously unaware. It says Executive Protection will be given to the governor and his immediate family. Security can be extended to others but must be renewed every 15 days by a majority vote of three people: the Commissioner, the Speaker, and me. That makes sense too - it's a good check-and-balance to ensure executive power is not abused.

I think the UHP acted with common sense and in good faith. Obviously, we need to comply with the law and should have done a formal authorization. Had we done so, I would have voted to approve it, and I'm sure the Speaker would have done the same. We did vote our approval today, as soon as the requirement came to our attention. Thanks to the person to caught that citation - it helps to have many eyes.

2 Comments:

 Ric Cantrell said...

Gotta LOVE that KSL comment board: restoring faith in democracy and verifying the need for security all at the same time.

8/06/2009 8:50 PM  

 Misty Fowler said...

Yeah, a formal authorization should have been done. But, this is by no means some sort of scandal. Slow news day?

8/06/2009 11:37 PM  

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