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SALT LAKE CITY — A leading critic of the Mountain Accord planning process wants a federal investigation of its top leader and the Utah Transit Authority, which he said devised proposed land trades and transit hubs for the Wasatch Canyons under a cloak of secrecy.
That planning, asserts Norm Henderson, runs counter to a nonprosecution agreement Utah Transit Authority inked with U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber in April of 2017 that requires transparency.
"It appears that UTA and certain elected officials have not taken seriously the criteria" established in the nonprosecution agreement, Henderson wrote in a letter to Huber on Friday.
UTA spokesman Carl Arky said Tuesday its attorneys are reviewing the letter and their records and may issue a response later in the week.
Henderson contends UTA's financial entanglement with Mountain Accord and its subsequent violation of Utah's open meetings law by being a key player in the accord runs afoul of its legal requirements to the federal government.
UTA is being monitored by the federal government to avoid criminal prosecution for questionable financial practices. The agreement calls for it to hand over thousands of documents to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, who was Mountain Accord's executive committee chairman, said Henderson's letter is a long-festering complaint surfacing in the heat of an election cycle to rehash old news.
"This is information from a handful of people who want to enrich themselves financially and continue to criticize something that has been a good process that solicited input from thousands of people (over) how do we protect our water and our precious lands for future generations," said McAdams, who is in a hotly contested race with Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, for the 4th District seat.
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It's been more than three years since the Mountain Accord was signed to develop a long-range plan to manage transportation and conservation interests in Utah's central Wasatch.He said land owners like Henderson were included in the planning process, didn't like the outcome and continue to stir controversy.
"But not everybody is going to get what they want. And these individuals want permission to develop lands in our canyons, sensitive lands in our canyons for their financial benefit," McAdams said.
But Henderson and the Cardiff Canyon Owners Association argued the Mountain Accord — a collection of local government entities, transportation agencies and ski resorts — skirted the state's open meeting law, bringing suit.
Mountain Accord attorneys argued before a 3rd District judge that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the organization included private entities and formed as a result of its own charter, therefore falling outside of the law's requirements.
The judge disagreed.
Henderson now contends that UTA, as a financial agent of Mountain Accord, is sideways of its agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office because it was part of a process proposing land trades between the U.S. Forest Service and multiple ski resorts.
"During discovery of the Mountain Accord lawsuit we found that UTA was not being truthful to you in its letters" that assert it complies with open meeting law requirements, Henderson's letter to Huber states.
"Unfortunately the facts do not support the claims made by UTA. In fact, UTA and Mountain Accord admitted in its response to our complaint that the Mountain Accord Executive Board did not comply with the Open and Public Meetings Act." Henderson's letter said.
Henderson said UTA administered $3 million of grants on behalf of Mountain Accord.
"Mountain Accord was proposing to construct direct transportation solutions in the canyons that reached into the billions of dollars. It was also facilitating what appears to be some of the most high dollar land trades in the state's history," his letter says.
Henderson names Jayme Blakesley, a prior attorney for the UTA, and McAdams in his letter.
