Former Utah House Speaker Mel Brown will work as a consultant/lobbyist for the state School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, administration Executive Director Dave Terry said Friday.
Brown will be paid $40,000 for work from September 2000 to the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 2001, Terry said. The money comes from an administration contingency fund. Terry said his agency is putting another $40,000 into its proposed 2001-02 budget for government consulting. Under the contract recently signed, Brown can have other lobbying clients as well, Terry said.
"He is not an employee of the state. He is a contractor," Terry said.
Brown told the Deseret News several weeks ago that he hoped negotiations with the Trust Lands Administration could be completed soon. Terry said Brown actually started working for the administration in September, even traveled to visit some trust lands in July, while he was still a sitting legislator, to learn about the southern Utah lands.
Brown is a recognized expert on school trust lands — 3.5 million acres given to the state by the federal government at statehood to support public education. Brown sponsored some of the trust lands reform laws in the 1990s and co-chaired a task force on making the trust lands more profitable.
"We imagine Mel will work 40 to 80 hours a month" for the administration — contacting lawmakers about possible trust land sales or leases, lobbying his former legislative colleagues on trust land issues and so on, Terry said.
Brown resigned his Midvale/Murray District 45 seat this summer after 14 years in the House. He served two terms as speaker, from 1995 to 1999. Brown now lives in Coalville where he and his brother, former House Speaker Glen Brown, operate a family dairy.
Mel Brown becomes the third speaker in a row to become a paid lobbyist after leaving office. Former speakers Craig Moody and Rob Bishop are also registered lobbyists.
E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com