Mel Brown from Midvale was elected speaker of the Utah House by GOP colleagues Saturday. He'll be in office when the 1995 Legislature convenes Jan. 16.
Brown, 56, is the older brother of former House Speaker Glen Brown of Coalville. Mel Brown's election makes history - the first time two brothers have served in the highest position in the Utah House. Glen Brown was speaker one term in the late 1980s.Other Republican leaders chosen by the 55-member GOP majority Saturday include: majority leader, Rep. Christine Fox, R-Lehi; majority whip, Rep. Michael Waddoups, R-Bennion; and assistant majority whip, Rep. Kevin Garn, R-Layton.
Democratic House members, still stinging over losing six seats to the Republicans in Tuesday's elections, picked their current leaders to serve again. But not after some soul-searching - and near tears - as all Democratic incumbent leaders were challenged by Democratic colleagues for their leadership posts.
Democrats chose to stay with House Minority Leader Frank Pignanelli, D-Salt Lake; Minority Whip Kelly Atkinson, D-West Jordan; and Assistant Whip Grant Protzman, D-North Ogden.
Rep. Dave Jones, D-Salt Lake, who is also state Democratic Party chairman, voluntarily retired from House leadership. He was replaced by Rep. Judy Ann Buff-mire, D-Salt Lake, who won the slot as the fourth member of minority leadership.
"Those of you who had Republican opposition, you are the Rambos of the Democratic Party. You survived the tidal wave" of Republican voting, Pignanelli told the 20 remaining House Democrats.
Protzman and Atkinson, near tears, told caucus members that they had worked hard for House Democratic candidates, who were overwhelmed by GOP voting Tuesday even though Democratic candidates worked harder and were better candidates.
Brown narrowly defeated current House Majority Leader Marty
Stephens, R-Farr West, for the speakership post. While the vote totals aren't announced, GOP party chairman Bruce Hough, who counted the votes, said, "It appeared to be a very close race. All that work that Mel did for (Salt Lake) County Republican (House) candidates appears to have paid off."
Republicans picked up six seats in Tuesday's elections, five of them in Salt Lake County, Brown's stronghold.
Brown said he doesn't come to the two-year speakership post with a set agenda. "As you know, the speaker doesn't carry a lot of bills himself. It is his job to facilitate the passage" of the agenda of the Republican majority. Brown said even though Republicans hold more than two-thirds majority in the House, he'll listen and be concerned with the Democrats' point of view. "I'm not going to steamroll anyone."
He did say the Legislature needs to address issues of crime, especially the youthful offender, and find a way to fund growing needs in transportation and water development.
Brown is in the dairy business. Born and raised in the Coalville area, Brown moved to Midvale some years ago after 18 years as a teacher. "When my father died, I left teaching and joined Glen in the family dairy business." Glen and Mel own and operate Summit Valley Milk, whose main market is in Davis and Weber counties.
Said Brown, "I believe in the three constitutionally separate branches of government. The Utah House must cooperate with the other branches - with the Senate, the executive and judicial. But it must act independently as well." Brown said some people "perceive" that the Republican-dominated House and Senate along with a Republican governor are an "old-boy network" that may not operate as independently as they should.
Stephens, who lost the speakership, said last week should he be elected he had as a goal bringing public confidence and respect back to the Legislature. Brown said he didn't have specific goals on so-called "government reform" items like lobbyist disclosure, opening the now-secret House and Senate Rules committees, legislative conflict of interest and campaign finance reform. But he promised to facilitate some solutions to those matters as speaker.
In the 1994 Legislature, Brown actually made a motion from the floor to gut the current, weak lobbyist disclosure bill. The measure passed. But after later public opinion polls that showed Utahns held lawmakers in low regard, the House reversed itself. Brown said his intentions in that gutting vote were misconstrued. He said he didn't think it right that all the responsibility on disclosing gifts to lawmakers fell on lobbyists. "Where is the cross checking? We have that in campaign disclosure - those who give to us must disclose, and we (as candidates) must disclose also. I think we need something like that" on lobbyist disclosure as well.
Brown said he couldn't say if he agreed with Senate President Lane Beattie's ideas on opening the Rules Committees. Basically, Beattie, R-West Bountiful, wants to have the president and speaker - upon recommendation from staff - assign all bills to standing committees. The Rules Committees would deal only with rules, not with sifting out "good" or "bad" bills, as they do now.
"But we have to do something about Rules soon. We can't start the (1995) session and then change how Rules operates. Which is what we tried to do last year and it didn't work," said Brown.
Fox is not the first woman to be elected House majority leader. The last time Democrats controlled the House in the early 1970s there was a woman majority leader. Fox said she plans to have a successful two-year term as majority leader and then run for House speaker. There has never been a woman speaker of the Utah House in the state's history and she wants to be the first.