Long before he was governor, before he had any clout with anyone, Gov. Mike Leavitt took his first assertive stand against a drunken driver.
Standing on a sidewalk in Cedar City, a young Leavitt watched as a vehicle careened out of the traffic lane and sheered paint and metal off a row of parked cars. When the dazed driver stopped his car and lingered briefly, Utah's chief executive officer-to-be sprinted up the street, opened the car door, pulled the driver out and made his first citizen's arrest.
"It appears to me like you've had too much to drink," Leavitt told the driver. As it turns out, he was right. The police came, and the man was hauled off to jail for drinking and driving, Leavitt said.
Many years later — his commitment to get drunken drivers off the road still strong — Leavitt stood on the steps of the state Capitol and announced his own Governor's Council on Driving Under the Influence.
Recently, Leavitt said he has honed his thoughts on the areas where Utah must improve to keep residents safe — but he still intends to dismantle the landmark council that has studied the issue for two years.
The fate of the council — a group encouraged by the National Transportation Safety Board and lauded by Millie Webb, president of the national Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization — has cast a political pall over the council's works in recent months.
State department leaders are lobbying hard to regain responsibilities for DUI issues, which have gained widespread attention with news accounts of high-profile alcohol-related accidents and pitfalls in the way DUI offenders are treated, tracked and sentenced in Utah. But victim advocates who for too long have seen no action on DUI solutions want someone to be accountable.
"I'm going to recommend we keep the council going," said Mary Phillips, who lost her daughter to a drunken driver and is a victim representative on the governor's council. "It's critical. We have done good work, but there is still much more to do. To stop the momentum now is nuts."
Leavitt says the 18-person group has moved at light speed to study issues and move legislation and policy suggestions forward. It recommended five bills to the Legislature last year — and all became law. It will propose more legislation and policy adjustment this year. It is developing a comprehensive plan to troubleshoot the state's formidable data problems.
If every state council worked as effectively, "the world would be changed," Leavitt said. Still, he said he will sunset the council at year's end and turn all responsibilities for DUI issues over to Camille Anthony, executive director of Utah's Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.
It is now appropriate to turn DUI matters over to state departments, said council member Ed McConkie, director of the Utah Sentencing Commission. "The council has accomplished important work that it alone could only bring about," McConkie said. "But such a council has inherent limitations and, in my opinion, it is approaching its ceiling."
Leavitt emphasizes the state has basic flaws in the way it keeps track of drunken drivers and their histories. Utah has computer systems that don't talk to each other. It has a whole slew of small-town justice courts that aren't automated and therefore are out of the information loop — a scenario that is unacceptable to Utah's technology-savvy governor.
About five people per day are injured or killed in alcohol-related crashes in Utah, according to Phillips. About 14,000 people are arrested for DUI here each year.
If a single person dies or is injured, it's one person too many, Leavitt said, but he adds Utah has fewer people drinking and driving per capita than any other state in the nation. "Still, it's clear to me that we have more progress to be made," he said.
Leavitt's council, organized two years ago, has given life to a series of subcommittees. They are trying to get the history of repeat drunken drivers into the hands of the police and prosecutors who need that information, trying to determine who is accountable for policy changes and what laws need to be tweaked — and trying to find money to pay for these changes.
Lt. Col. Scott Duncan, who has been a member of the council since January, says the group has succeeded in keeping the DUI issue forefront in the minds of the public and the lawmakers. "We certainly are not finished yet, but without this council's input and work, I wonder how far we would have come in resolving this problem."
"I do not think it is a bad idea to turn the projects over to CCJJ as long as they involve some of the same players to some extent," Duncan said. "I am sure if the governor asks CCJJ to make DUI a priority, they will do that."
The council has made progress on each assigned goal and will keep working on these issues, said member Lynn Jones, prevention coordinator for the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and a council member.
In the course of the council's research, Jones was surprised to learn blood alcohol tests are not performed in every fatal or serious injury accident in order to identify problem drinkers, which could help track the problem and refer offenders to treatment.
Jones was also surprised arresting officers do not usually have access to a DUI offender's prior record and how this affects an officer's ability to properly charge those they arrest. "We (various agencies) will need to continue working together, and it may be less likely with the ending of the council. I am not sure how it will go . . . ," Jones said.
Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith, who represents the Utah Sheriff's Association on the council, says he has learned a lot on the council.
The biggest surprise is the lack of coordination of information. "As a highway patrolman for 21 years, I know it's frustrating to pick up a drunk driver, run their history and find no arrests or convictions. And lo and behold, later down the road you find out they had two or three DUIs," Smith said. "I guess I really didn't realize how widespread that was."
Lawmakers clearly have their eyes on the issue. "We have got to get that records problem straightened out," Senate President Al Mansell, R-Sandy, emphasized. Mansell said the council could be reconvened if more issues come up.
The council is scheduled to present its recommendations for legislation and any other action in September.
E-MAIL: lucy@desnews.com