The Utah Transit Authority is quietly attempting to reverse legislation that disbands its in-house legal team, telling lawmakers that a mandate to use the Utah Attorney General’s Office instead would cost $87,000 more annually.
But emails obtained by The Tribune through an open-records request show that the Attorney General’s Office figures UTA’s numbers are wrong — and says the change would actually save taxpayers $193,000 a year.
Emails and interviews also show that in either case, current UTA attorneys may continue to provide specialized services, but if the Attorney General’s Office hires them as it intends, their salaries would have to be cut by perhaps a third to conform with state pay schedules.