Commissioner Phil Lyman speaks out

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

Phil Lyman and I met a few days ago in Moab at the Moab Diner for breakfast and an interview. Up until about May 2014, most people outside of his hometown of Blanding Utah had never heard of Phil Lyman, but he has become a media target since his protest held in Recapture Canyon on May 10, 2014. I asked questions while my breakfast got cold, and Commissioner Lyman answered as he ate his veggie omelet (some kind of low carb thing).
“I am a fourth generation Blanding resident, and my one grandchild, is sixth generation, at least until her dad starts Med school here in a couple of weeks in Florida,” he said, obviously proud of both his ancestors and his posterity.
Lyman was elected as a County Commissioner in San Juan County, Utah in 2010 and took office in 2011. He just started his second four year term in 2015, and was elected as Commission Chair. Asked why he decided to run for commissioner, he said he had always felt like he needed to get involved on a civic level. He said, “as a CPA, I felt like I had a skill set that might be useful to the County. I had noticed for the past eight years that the tax rates had been increasing, the property tax valuations had been increasing, and yet the County’s cash balances had been in decline. San Juan County had one of the highest tax rates in the State for years, that didn’t bother me so much, except that now, even with revenue on the rise, the County’s expenditures were still outpacing our income.”
In a county where only 8 percent of the more than 5 million acres of ground is private, and where the county budget depends to a large extent on industries that make use of public land, a declining surplus was of concern.
“Blanding is like an island of private ground in an ocean of public land,” he said, “and if those industries lose access to public land, the county could find itself with a shrinking tax base.” Lyman said, “If you combine a shrinking tax base with a shrinking surplus and an expanding budget, that is a recipe for disaster.”
“San Juan County’s most valuable export is our kids,” he said. He has two sons in Medical School, one at the U of U, and one in Florida; a Daughter about finish her bachelors degree in psychology at Dixie State in St. George; a daughter who will return from an LDS mission in South Korea in a couple of weeks, and a son who will leave a few weeks after that for his mission in Reno, Nevada.
Lyman said that he felt fortunate to be able to live and work in Blanding. He graduated with an accounting degree from BYU with plan to pursue an MBA. Tired of school, wanting to let his wife take some time off work as a Registered nurse to take care of their first child, and feeling a little homesick, he asked his dad, (also a CPA), if the CPA firm could use some help for a year. After a year, he decided to stay for a second year. “I loved working with my dad,” he said. “Growing up, my dad spent a lot of time at work, and it was fun to get to know him better.” About that time, and now with two kids, Phil and his wife Jody were gearing up to start applying to graduate school. “It was really a hard thing, but my dad had a sudden heart attack, and died. I was left with a decision to stay and help market and sell the firm, or to try to step into his shoes, and make a business of my own. Staying was hard, but it was the best thing we ever did.”
Phil had married his high school sweetheart, Jody Shumway, shortly after returning from South Africa as a missionary. Jody had not grown up in Blanding but moved there with her family when she and Phil were both in 8th grade. They dated their senior year and then they went to different colleges. She became a Registered Nurse, and when Phil returned from his mission and the two decided to get married, Jody worked while he fought through the accounting program at Brigham Young University. Phil played one spring season on the 1987 BYU football team. “It was awesome” he said, “but I really didn’t have much hope of playing time as a walk-on. With the rigors of the accounting program and with our first on the way, I decided that my time would be better invested in my schooling than in BYU Football. I was glad to be invited back for the regular season as a tight-end, but it was time to move on.”
Apparently his education was useful at the county level, because the fund balances have grown, spending has been reduced, and the tax rate has moved from the highest in the State to around 7th or 8th highest.
So why the protest?
Regarding public land, Lyman said, “We don’t own the land, but we do own the roads. The point is not so much the roads, but the people who use them, and County Commissioners are charged with maintaining those roads, and protecting the welfare of our citizens. Whether we are talking about routes for school buses, or routes of historic significance to the residents of the county, it is the job of the commissioners to make sure those roads are useable and accessible.”
“So, in 2007 when the BLM issued an emergency temporary closure of a small section of the road and trail in Recapture Canyon, even though I was not a commissioner at the time, I was bothered by the way they went about the closure.” Lyman said, “I had been on that road in the bottom of Recapture a number of times as a kid, usually deer hunting with my family. I had hiked there hundreds of times. In fact we had a standard route we would take in the springtime. On Friday, when school got out, we would head straight East from the school on 300 South. My friend Clayton would make detour to grab his stuff, I would grab my stuff, James would go on ahead to get his, and we would meet at the last intersection and hike or ride our bikes to the end of 300 South where we would hike into Lem’s Draw, a side canyon of Recapture Canyon.”
“We weren’t worried about roads, in fact we avoided them,” Lyman said. “We were kids, fourth or fifth grade, and all we wanted to do is find a place to camp.” He said, “The truth is I have never been on an ATV on the trail in Recapture. For one thing I am more of a Jeep guy, and I have never owned an ATV (other than a small one my kids used to ride around the yard).” “I do remember driving that road in 1982, after I graduated from high school and I bought a jeep of my own. That was before the dam (Recapture Dam) was built and I loved exploring every road I could find. Since Recapture Canyon is the closest canyon to Blanding, it was driven a lot, and it was a favorite place for people to go. Recapture is symbolic to the people of San Juan County. It’s been a main trail for centuries, between Blanding and Bluff. It’s the main drainage of the Abajos and its beautiful and scenic. It was the first road designated as a road in the county in 1884. It’s a class D road. It was used before the pioneers. It has a lot of archeology, it’s a rich area with pioneer and ancient history.
In 2009, the BLM performed a sting operation supposedly targeting illegal trafficking in artifacts. In June of 2009, BLM law enforcement agents, led by Special Agent Dan Love, known more for his role in the Bunkerville cattle confiscation operation, and more recently for his requests from the organizers of the Burning Man Festival; Love led more than 140 federal agents in a raid on nearly 30 Blanding residences. “These raids took place in the pre-dawn hours and were carried out by militarized SWAT teams,” Lyman said. “I was there. I watched the rows of black SUVs and federal vehicles drive past. I was out jogging at the time, and thought there must have been a murder, or a suspicious death. As the cars filed past me on the Reservior Road, Iooked to see if there was anyone I recognized. I did see a few sheriff deputies here and there, but the rest were all strangers.”
“It became apparent pretty quickly that these guys meant business. They had flack jackets, helmets, assault rifles, the works. As I got closer to my home, I saw another similar convoy lined up on a road just north of my house. Through the course of the morning we started to learn a little more about what they were up to. I didn’t witness it myself, but a dear friend of mine who was in his late 70s was apparently a suspect. They sent a SWAT team to his front door and another one around the back in case he tried to make a run for it. Some ladies out for an early morning walk told the men, ‘you can just knock on the door, they are really nice people.’ The SWAT team still rushed the house, arrested the man, put wrist and ankle shackles on him and dragged him onto his front lawn. He ended up being acquitted as were many of those attacked that morning, but those raids were straight out of something you would expect in North Korea, or Russia (no disrespect to those countries).”
“Well, it was about that time that I had decided that I wanted to run for County Commissioner, so I was looking at this from a slightly different perspective. Our County Commissioner who I thought would speak out strongly against these raids was completely silent.”
“The most difficult part of this episode came the next day, when word went out that Dr. Jim Redd, our town doctor, whose home had been raided, was missing. There were a number of search parties that were sent out. We learned a little bit about the duress that the law enforcement officers had put Dr. Redd and his family through the day earlier. They had brutally interrogated and berated him in his garage for about four hours before hauling him, his wife and his daughter to Moab for arraignment. Now, early the next day, he had not returned from his early morning rounds at the nursing home.”
“Of course we were all devastated when they found Dr. Redd dead in his jeep. I have said many times that it would be so much more humane to simply come in and shoot people than to so harass a person to the point that he would end his own life. Why the BLM or the FBI or whoever took part in that raid felt that it was necessary to verbally and physically abuse a quiet dignified man like Dr. Redd, I will never understand. Obviously it sent a shock wave through the community. The town was too much in grief to be angry, that came later.”
“I don’t think it was anger at the BLM per se, or at the Federal government. I mean this community has a lot of productive interaction with the federal agencies and we have friends and neighbors who we love and care about who make a living working for the government. So the anger is not directed at them, or at some faceless agency. In fact I rarely hear anyone criticize the “The BLM.” Who I was angry at was the people who stirred up the public disdain in the first place by spreading lies and accusations. There are some truly despicable people in this world who find joy in the misfortune of others. For some reason we seem to attract the gaze of groups like the Great Old Broads for Wilderness (that is their real name, I am not being derogatory), the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, The Wilderness Society, and other groups who have a fetish for regulation.”
“Which brings me back to Recapture, In order to justify the emergency closure, (which by the way, is clearly defined in BLM instructions, that long-term activities such as OHV use, rarely constitutes an emergency, but the closure was somehow made more legitimate by criminalizing local people who had helped to improve the ATV trail in Recapture. At least that was the attitude of the Great Old Broads, and they pressured the BLM into prosecuting someone in order to make an example out of them.
Out of the 50 or more people who, with the full knowledge and involvement of the BLM, had improved a legal ATV trail, in an area that was 100 percent open to motorized traffic, the BLM investigators zeroed in on Ken Brown.”
“Ken is a man whose family had homesteaded the land on which he lives. For more than a century the Browns have farmed and worked that land. There is a canyon just West of Recapture named Brown’s canyon. Ken’s father Aero Brown, ran cows on the West side of Recapture and on the East, and through the years had built access roads for cattle and equipment to traverse the canyon. The same special agent who had conducted the raids, was driving the prosecution of Mr. Brown. Dan Love and his team of undercover informants and investigators were talking to everyone in town. The Browns live just down the road from Dr. Redd and when the US Attorney’s office notified them that they were next, that they were being charged with felony destruction of federal property, they were more than anxious to plea to a lesser charge and avoid the wrath that was still fresh on everyone’s mind.”
“I had just been elected in November of 2010, when I heard that Ken and his son-in-law had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, and were being sentenced. I called Ken and asked if the County had offered any assistance in the case or if he would be willing to withdraw his plea. He said that the County had done nothing for them, and that he simply wanted to have this over with. He was fairly certain that the sentencing would be minimal. When it was all done they were fined $35,000. Within days, Veronica Eagan, the executive director of the Great Old Broads was publishing articles criticizing the court and crying for harsher penalties true to form.”
“Well, in 2011, we had a small protest of Recapture and we asked BLM to please come to the canyon and show us what damage they were referring to in their indictment of Mr. Brown. More than 300 people showed up at that protest, and about 90 people walked down into the canyon. The only BLM employees that showed up were Dan Love and three or four other law enforcement officers. When we asked them about damage, they simply said they had no idea about any of that.”
“On Oct. 1, 2013, the federal government shut down. They closed national parks, and even closed the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area at Lake Powell. Closing the National Recreation Area was not needed. It was run by concessionaires who had private contracts. They wanted to work, and October is one of the biggest months at Lake Powell. That didn’t matter and on Oct. 1 I called the manager at Halls Crossing Marina to ask what was going on. He said he had just laid off 300 people, and even if the shutdown was resolved, Aramark would not be able to bring them back and resume its normal operations.”
“As a county commissioner, I took an oath to protect the health, safety, and welfare of my citizens. I made an announcement that we were going to go down and remove the barriers and let people back into their public places. The County was ready to handle the law enforcement and basic oversight. We would not have been able to run the store or any of Aramark’s fuel stations etc, but we could get people back on the Lake. Fortunately, Governor Herbert stepped in and made a deal with the Federal Government and we were able to avoid a showdown over that.”
“I guess this was just a rough few years. The BLM had been completely heavy handed in one respect, and completely unresponsive in terms of actually doing anything to help the County and the people at the same time. We had a January coordination meeting with the BLM, and Lance Porter, who was the new District Manager over the Moab District of the BLM, informed us that they were not able to do the work the County needed done because they were so busy responding to law suits from SUWA. I asked him if the County needed to sue in order to get any action from the BLM.
He said he recognized that this was not ideal and that the process was frustrating but it was just the reality of what his office had to deal with. I told him that I respected his difficult job, but that while this system might be working for the BLM it was not working for San Juan County. His reply to that was, ‘unfortunately you don’t have any other choice.’ I said, ‘people always have choices.
“As soon as I left the meeting, I called Juan Palma, and explained that I was not pleased with the attitude of his new District Manager, Lance Porter. He assured me that the BLM would finish their work on Recapture and he would personally ensure that it was a top priority.
It had been eight years since the County had first applied for permission to mark the existing trail in Recapture and to promote it as a loop route from the Blanding Visitor Center. Juan assured me that this would be top priority.
By mid-February it became apparent that we were being told the same stories. I called a town-hall meeting which had a number of purposes. First was to announce that I intended to run for a second term. I had invited the Sheriff who also announced that he would seek a second term. I handed out a booklet by Frederic Bastiat entitled “The Law,” about 75 copies. When the Sheriff addressed the assembly, they were very positive but wanted to know what he was planning to do about the closure of virtually all of the trails, and many of the roads in San Juan County. People talked about the need to demonstrate that we expected to be listened to and that the BLM was outside their right when they started closing legal roads.
“When I stood up to speak, the discussion continued and a suggestion was made to ride the road in Recapture Canyon. This was not a suggestion to ride the trail in the closed area. It was not a suggestion to damage artifacts. It was simply a suggestion that we hold a similar protest to the one that took place three years earlier, but this time we ride on the legal road in the bottom of the canyon.
The vote was unanimously in favor. The Sheriff was cautiously supportive as was I. We set the date as May 8 and later changed it to May 10.
“The next morning I called the Monticello office and spoke with Don Hoffheinz the BLM area field manager. I explained the outcome of the meeting and asked if he would work extra hard to resolve the environmental assessment which was the final element needed to re-open the canyon. He promised to work on it. I then emailed BLM State Director Juan Plama and explained the same thing and asked for any help he could give. He said he would do everything he could to see we couldn’t make some progress in the next two and a half months.
“Needless to say, there was virtually no action on the part of the BLM other than to start a full on media campaign to paint our protest as illegal and as an assault on archaeology. If they had spent one/tenth the time on doing their job as they did on trumping this up into a crime, the trail would have been approved and ready to go. But with no effort and no action to our benefit, we ultimately determined that our protest would go forward, but would stay on the legal road.”
“Our protest took place on May 10, 2014 and it was the end of September when we were charged with criminal trespass and criminal conspiracy to trespass. In the discovery documents, there were hundreds of emails and documents from SUWA, the Great Old Broads and from The Wilderness Society. I believe these documents prompted the BLM at every turn and worked to create a perception of an illegal type of activity.
“I was never questioned by anyone, BLM, US attorney, Department of Justice, no one. They just charged us. SUWA demanded that charges be brought.
“They sent a signed petition to the justice department. The justice department said there was such an outcry, they had to do something, that’s why they filed the charges.
“The two people who were convicted were me, a county commissioner, and a Monticello city councilman. There’s no question we were singled out. Juan Palma said, ‘We want make an example out of Phil Lyman.’
“The only rights we have are the ones we’re willing to defend. The ownership of these roads has always been a conflict.
In Recapture, the road belongs to the county. They put stipulations on the land, but it’s still our road. We have Title 5 rights to the road. Most of the water pipeline is beneath the existing road.
“The punishment for me has been in this process. The prosecution told my attorney’s they could care less whether I broke the law or not.
At trial the jury was not allowed to hear virtually any of our defense. The judge ruled that the road was closed and if I was on the road I was guilty. He told the jury their job was to determine if it was a criminal act. We couldn’t argue RS-2477, we couldn’t argue the first amendment. I had an audio recording of Juan Palma saying to go ahead and have our ride, and we weren’t allowed to play that. The only defense was a right-of-way document for the Water Conservancy District, but in the end, even that document was not allowed to go back to the Jury.
The evidence showed this road is used a couple times a week and that it was not “closed” by the same order which closed the “area” to “off-road” travel.
“The BLM has too much control, too little knowledge to control the land intelligently, and no political accountability. That is a bad combination.
“My sentencing will be on Sept. 15, between now and then I am just trying to get the facts out to people who might have an interest in it.
The state of Utah has been helpful. They are planning to resolve the question about the legality of the road, which seems like the first thing the US attorneys would have looked into.
“Going to jail doesn’t scare me as much as the thought of a justice systen where you can be viciously prosecuted for political motivations.
“The thought of going to federal prison scares the hell out of me, but better men than me have done it and I’ll go if it comes to that.
“My conscience is clear,” said Commissioner Lyman.