The governor should have a full-time attorney on his staff, but other state departments don't need in-house legal counsel, Attorney General Paul Van Dam says.
The Utah Constitutional Revision Commission is considering possible modifications in the job responsibilities for the attorney general's office and questioned Van Dam Friday about his responsibility to advise the governor's office.Testimony from some department heads and questions posed by members of the advisory commission posed concerns that the current system contains inherent conflicts between the attorney general's staff and the executive branch departments that it serves.
But Van Dam, a Democrat, said complaints about the attorney general staff performance seem related less to the system than to the inadequacies of legal staff and salaries.
"To say we're spread thin may be the understatement of the decade," he said.
The attorney general's office employs a staff of about 140 people, including about 80 lawyers, with an annual $6 million budget. A private legal firm of such size would spend four times that much, Van Dam said.
He said at least 20 more attorneys are needed for his office. His hope, he added, is that the commission study will add weight to his efforts to secure more money from the Legislature.
Bud Scruggs, chief of staff to Republican Gov. Norm Bangerter, also said the governor ought to have the flexibility to appoint his own legal counsel.
Scruggs said the governor's office has been comfortable in dealing with Van Dam on "sensitive" items, but that may be explained by the attorney general's personal character rather than the constitutional inhibition to having full-time, personal legal counsel.
In the future, under different political figures, there could be conflict, Scruggs said.
He also was disinclined to restrict the attorney general from serving as legal staff for state agencies. There is no complaint that cannot be explained by the severity of budget problems, and the governor "would be hesitant and I think resistant" to seeing independent legal staff for state agencies, Scruggs said.
Van Dam said he believes personal legal counsel for the governor's office is appropriate because of the complex and broad problems facing the chief executive, the need for a confidential relationship in broaching solutions, and the political differences that could arise with the independently elected attorney general.