Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson pledged that his time, place and manner restrictions for the Main Street Plaza would solve the plaza problems, but the LDS Church has rejected the restrictions, saying the rules don't adequately protect its property rights.
Meanwhile, the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints retained prominent attorney Alan Sullivan to fight Anderson over dueling interpretations of a severability clause, negotiated in the contract that deeded a block of Main Street to the church three years ago.
Wednesday, Sullivan sent a letter to Anderson and new City Attorney Ed Rutan restating the church's position that — given the severability clause — the city's easement on the plaza no longer exists. Sullivan previously represented AT&T in a lawsuit disputing ownership of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Anderson's restrictions were to be made public at a 3 p.m. press conference at City Hall today. However, Presiding Bishop David H. Burton and other church officials received a preview of Anderson's restrictions this week and decided the restrictions weren't adequate.
The sneak peek was delivered by billionaire Jon Huntsman Sr., who said he spent the past six days working as mediator between Bishop Burton and Anderson, who drafted the restrictions along with Rutan.
Still, even with Huntsman — founder of the Huntsman Cancer Institute, owner of Huntsman Chemical Corp., philanthropist, LDS Church member and personal friend to Anderson — working as mediator, an accord between the city and church couldn't be reached.
Which begs the question: If Huntsman, with all his credentials, couldn't mediate a solution, who can?
Huntsman maintains he is still the right man for the job. He just needs more time.
"We're just getting started. We're going to work this thing through, and it's going to come out fine for everybody," Huntsman said via telephone from Washington, D.C., Thursday. "I have a great love and respect for my faith and, at the same time, I have a great fondness for my friends in the community not of my faith and I get along with all of them, so if I can help in some way, I desire to do that."
The Main Street Plaza dispute has divided Utah and Salt Lake City along religious lines, with a majority of LDS members supporting their church and a majority of members of other faiths supporting Anderson, according to a recent Deseret News poll.
In 1999, the city sold a block of Main Street, now a pedestrian plaza, to the church but retained a public access easement across the plaza. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the easement creates a free-speech forum, similar to what exists on public sidewalks.
That decision irked the church since it paid $8.1 million for the land and the ability to control what happens there, including restricting protests, demonstrations, leafletting, some dress and speech.
The court suggested that the city either give its easement to the church — dissolving the right to public access and free speech — or craft time, place and manner restrictions for the plaza. Anderson said that since the city bargained for the public access easement, he won't give away that public right.
Hence, his time, place and manner restrictions, which can prohibit things like protesting at late hours or using overly large signs. The rules will also define the easement.
Huntsman said he worked "virtually around the clock" for the past six days trying to mediate a resolution. He was first given a copy of Anderson's time, place and manner restrictions nearly a week ago. He then took that document to Bishop Burton.
"Jon and I are longtime friends," Anderson said. "I wanted to share my proposals with him, expecting, of course, that he would pass the proposal on to church officials."
Over the next six days Huntsman went back and forth between city and church, trying to negotiate an agreement. Throughout the negotiations, Huntsman said, each side made some concessions to find some middle ground.
"As someone who is trying desperately to bring them together, I have to say that both sides made some concessions," Huntsman said.
In the end, however, there wasn't enough middle ground to appease the church.
"I've tried carefully to review them with Bishop Burton and his associates, and the time, place and manner restrictions that Rocky presented were not acceptable to the LDS Church," Huntsman said.
Anderson said he "bent over backwards" to accommodate the church's wishes through his restrictions and Huntsman's mediation. The mayor said the church seemed unwilling to settle on any solution other than the city giving up its easement on the plaza.
He also wondered why the church is so insistent that the city give up the easement if it really believes the easement no longer exists, as outlined in Sullivan's letter. The mayor reiterated his earlier offer that the church and city should have a 3rd District Court judge give a declaratory judgment deciding whether the easement does exist.
In his letter, Sullivan said such a declaratory judgment "would be premature."
Anderson says the church seems unwilling to seek a compromise.
"It concerns me that I have never received any suggestions or proposals regarding a resolution of this on the part of the church other than an insistence that the easement simply be conveyed," Anderson said.
Huntsman signed on as mediator in his capacity as co-chairman of the Alliance for Unity. Anderson is the other co-chairman of the group of 18 Salt Lake community leaders who work to unify the city across religious and cultural lines.
Huntsman had hoped to strike a deal between the city and church and then have that deal ratified by the alliance today, just before the mayor's time, place and manner restrictions were made public. However, a special 2:30 p.m. meeting of the Alliance was canceled Thursday as Huntsman realized the deal wasn't going to happen.
"At this point we haven't made as much progress as I'd have hoped to. But we've certainly put in enormous amounts of time and effort and hours on both sides, and we're going to keep working until we can help solve the problem," Huntsman said.
As a hugely successful businessman, Huntsman said he's been in successful negotiations that have taken four or five months. Therefore, he is not discouraged that he couldn't solve the plaza issue in six days.
Today, a church spokesman downplayed the idea that it had been in extended negotiations with Anderson about time, place and manner restrictions.
"We received the mayor's proposals late Wednesday, which is the first time we had seen them. They are in no way a result of negotiations with the church. There have been no negotiations between the church and the mayor," spokesman Dale Bills said. "While we have said all along that the church has serious reservations about this 'time, place and manner' approach, we feel that as a courtesy to the mayor we should wait until he has made his proposals public before we comment."
Elder Lance B. Wickman of the Quorums of Seventy has said that any protesting, demonstrating or leafletting on the plaza is unacceptable.
Meanwhile, Anderson is growing seemingly weary, besieged by countless e-mails, letters and phone calls from angry people calling for the city to give its easement to the church. Through all the anger Anderson said he has lost faith in many LDS people.
"There have been so many mean-spirited, cruel, personal shots taken at me because of my position that promises and written agreements need to be honored," Anderson said. "It's taken a terrible toll. I physically feel the hatred and bitterness directed at me personally . . . the e-mails, the phone calls, the calls by stake presidents to get people to come to public meetings to speak out. . . . I have to wonder sometimes about people who hold themselves out to be religious when they can so maliciously attack another human being for doing what he thinks is the right and honorable course. . . . I'm getting absolutely pummeled."
Huntsman believes Anderson is being honorable, as is the church. Both parties are doing what they feel is the right and honest thing. The separation is a legitimate difference of opinion, Huntsman said.
"I really feel everything will work out well," Huntsman said. "I believe both parties are honorable and honest."
E-MAIL: bsnyder@desnews.com