MINUTES
PARK CITY BAR ASSOCIATION
May 17, 2001

Members in attendance: Christina Miller, Frank Normile, Mark Kozak, and Dwayne Vance

(Barbara Sharp had an excused absence as she had informed Dwayne ahead of time of a family matter that would take her out of town, but she did supply a TNB report by e-mail which was duly presented at the meeting as set forth below—this is just a teaser to entice you
to read on to see what fabulous news was passed on regarding the TNB)

1. Minutes from April meeting promptly approved and the meeting immediately moved on (just like taking medicine, ripping off a band-aid, or any number of other unpleasant tasks, the quicker you do it, the better)

2. Tuesday Night Bar Report presented by Dwayne as authorized proxy for Barbara (this actually was the first item of real business addressed in the meeting, however the remainder of these minutes groups items more or less by topic rather than chronological order of presentation at the meeting, because we were basically all over the map all morning long; at first Christina whined and moaned about Dwayne bringing things up out of order, but it wasn’t long before Christina was the worst offender)

a. TNB went “ok”, with only six to eight people showing up, which Barbara characterized as the “lightest turnout in memory” (but let’s be honest folks, Barbara’s memory isn’t what it used to be, and is fading faster every day)

b. Barbara did note that Doug showed up to translate, and needs to be paid (more on this later in the Treasurer’s report—yet another teaser)

c. Dwayne reported that his secretary, Shannon, was doing his dirty work and contacted the Utah State Bar about assisting us in taking reservations for the TNB similar to the reservation system it runs for the Salt Lake Bar

i. She talked to a Richard (direct line 801-297-7029 for anyone who wants to call him and complain), who apparently oversees the reservation process, who basically whined and complained that the Utah State Bar doesn’t have the personnel to even keep up with taking reservations for the Salt Lake Bar so they aren’t in a position to take on even more work

ii. Dwayne decided he may actually have to get his hands dirty on this, and will follow-up himself with Richard, and then start going over his head, possibly talking to Scott Daniels (the esteemed President-Elect of the State Bar, and supposedly assigned as the Bar Commission liaison with the Park City Bar), even a disgruntled letter to the editor of the Bar Journal is not out of the question if the Salt Lake Bar is going to get preferential treatment over us (it looks like Dwayne may be spending a lot of time perched atop a soap box, so he has been encouraged by all to actually shine his shoes for once)

3. Joint CLE Report by Christina and Mark in place of Natalie (although Mark failed to produce any documentation authenticating his proxy representation of Natalie, unlike Dwayne who had a very official looking e-mail from Barbara)

a. Apparently Natalie has arranged for a Tuesday evening presentation, May 29, 2001, by Judge Hilder on the new courthouse and transition, which we hope will be communicated in more detail to all of the Bar members (and officers) in the very near future (at this point Christina provided a further update on the court transition, but you’ll have to wait to hear more about that later in the minutes under that topical heading)

b. Bill Mullen, a local CPA who primarily operates through Mullenium Finance, will be presenting a brown-bagger at Noon on Wednesday, May 23, 2001, in the conference room at the Bellmarc Building, on something to do with the new rules governing retirement distributions (that’s about as much detail as I can give you; I suppose if I actually knew what he was talking about, I wouldn’t have to go, which only highlights the whole point behind these functions—an opportunity for us all to learn just enough about something we knew nothing about before so we can pretend to give professional advice on the topic and hopefully not commit malpractice)

c. Dwayne’s CLE earlier this month on S corporations vs. LLC’s was well attended (without making any claim to actually having set any attendance record—which record is probably held by Gerry D’Elia anyway—Dwayne threw down the gauntlet and challenged the rest of the Board and all of the bar members at large to do a CLE presentation and try to set a new attendance record; hopefully we can create some of the same excitement chasing an attendance record as we created when “Slamming” Sammy Sosa and Mark “Big Mac” McGuire were chasing Roger Maris’ home run record)

4. Mark reported on the unusually bad week he has experienced (not wanting to be outdone, Christina claimed to have had a bad week as well, but Mark regaled us with a number of stories that pretty convincingly established that he had experienced a banner bad week)

5. Update on the New Courthouse Addition and Transition by Christina (this is more of a Reader’s Digest condensed version of the report, with bits and pieces gleaned from comments made throughout the course of the meeting)

a. An update had previously been faxed/e-mailed to all bar members on April 26, 2001, along with a plug for the And Justice For All shindig last week and advertising the upcoming meeting and soliciting nominations for officers next year; Mark and Frank both claim never to have seen any such beast, so Christina will have Tassie re-send the memo to everyone again today (with the omission of the And Justice For All shindig which has come and gone virtually unnoticed—once again, more on this later in the minutes)

b. All the courts (even the Park City court currently located on Marsac) are moving in on June 1—anyone who wants to help is more than welcome to attend

c. One courtroom is empty and won’t be usable; you see, the brain trust behind the construction didn’t budget enough money to finish the building, and the Administrative Office of the Courts refused to provide funding to even complete the wall to enclose this courtroom; Summit County ponied up enough money to complete the wall, but that’s about it

d. The original design also did not even provide for the transportation of prisoners back and forth from the jail and the courtroom (the prisoners would have been shuttled to court on a sidewalk outside, without any fence or other means of restraint or separation from the public at-large, and regardless of the weather conditions); the “Green Mile” has been constructed, which is a very long hallway between the two buildings, with some lovely green carpet (Christina really went on and on about the poor design, and Mark even chipped in with an anecdote of poor courthouse design in Minnesota, but I think you get the gist of it now)

e. All court hearings and proceedings will be at the Justice Center, with the exception of actions involving the County, probate matters, or cases specifically filed in Coalville (and Judge Hilder will likely encourage the lawyers who file general cases in Coalville to still hold all of the hearings, etc., at the Justice Center)

f. The Justice Center will have offices for the prosecutors and public defenders

g. The Justice Center will also have a small library (that you have to gain access to through the clerk’s office)

i. PC Bar is donating a set of the Utah Code, which may be the only books in the so-called library

ii. The County has approached Christina about having the PC Bar donate a computer for the library, and the County will provide Westlaw on CD-ROM; which idea was received well by all in attendance, and will be explored further

h. The Justice Center will also have small rooms where attorneys can meet with their clients, in which there will be a window looking into court so the attorneys can still keep track of what is going on in court

i. All small claims actions will now be in the Justice Center, and no real judges will be hearing small claims (previously Judge Saddler had been hearing some cases), so there is a greater need for “wanna-be” attorneys to pretend to be judges and handle the small claims matters; small claims court is held the first and third Wednesday of every month, starting at 3:00 p.m.

j. Apparently there are monitors all over the place, but they need more bailiffs to staff the facility

k. There is no art to speak of in the building, and no budget for any; Christina has talked to Joanna Charnes (Executive Director of the Park City/Summit County Arts Council) and Judge Hilder about having local artists donate/loan framed art to hang in the building, with some identification of the artist right on the piece of art itself, and possibly a brochure in the lobby identifying all of the artists who have donated/loaned art; there may be an opportunity to get some leftover Olympic art donated/loaned through the Arts Council

6. Discussion of Torrey Summer CLE Retreat

a. Scheduled for Thursday, July 19 through Saturday, July 21, 2001

b. Torrey is only a 2½ hour drive from Salt Lake, and actually has pretty moderate temperatures (cooler than Salt Lake)

c. Tentatively planning on holding this gala event at the Holiday Inn Express/Hidden Falls Resort just outside of the entrance of Capitol Reef

i. Beautiful swimming pool for the family

ii. Conference room for our functions

iii. Tassie is looking into group rates and getting a block of rooms reserved

d. Same plan as last year, $75 for 5 hours of CLE

i. Some type of water law CLE on Thursday, July 19, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., so people can work a half day and drive down if they don’t want to take two full days off; last year we had John Mabey talk about water issues and national parks, this year likely do something more general regarding water law with a yet-to-be-determined speaker

ii. Environmental law CLE (in a nature walk format) conducted by Herb with SUWA on Friday, July 20, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.; he was pretty good last year, and we think we can get him back

iii. Continental breakfast (cost included in the $75) on Saturday, July 21, with Judge Hilder speaking on the Summit County courts and pretty much whatever he wants to speak on

e. Planning on having a social/barbecue in the park Saturday evening for all to attend (probably $15 a head)

f. Mark has already noted he will be in Cape Cod and unable to attend; Frank is a definite yes; try to talk it up with the members so we can get a little better showing this year

g. Tassie and Christina will get out save-the-date memos with the initial information in the next couple of days

7. Report on CLE & Ski by Christina

a. Looks like we made a profit of about $6,000 (there is some doubt as to whether The Canyons charged us for the food at the evening social)

b. The application for Restaurant Tax grant is due May 31, 2001; Christina has the application ready to be sent in and will personally see that it gets filed in a timely manner

8. Discussion of donation to Park City Education Foundation

a. PC Bar donated $1,000 to scholarship fund

b. Christina and Lade have both made inquiries into other worthy education-related endeavors to which we might donate, but nobody has gotten back to them yet (who knew it was this hard to give away money)

9. Discussion of And Justice For All Jubilee

a. A mere handful of attorneys cared enough to show up at the pre-movie social

b. The official count at the screening of “To Kill a Mockingbird” was 12 (which count was duly certified by Frank); kudos to Frank for all of the legal fandangling he did to get permission to show the film (at least we think we had permission to show the film)

c. $500 donation to And Justice For All from PC Bar unanimously approved

10. Discussion of Annual Meeting/Spring Social

a. Thursday, June 14, 2001, in the general vicinity of Dynamite Dom’s/Picasso

b. Christina will prepare a ballot for electing next year’s officers

i. Surprisingly, Christina hasn’t received a single response from anyone regarding at-large nominations

ii. Sam Adams and Doug Johnson were not exactly thrilled with their nomination for the Tuesday Night Bar, but they don’t have much of a choice and are going to be co-chairs anyway (very interesting that Doug Johnson showed up to Tuesday Night Bar for the first time the week before the newspaper splash about their new firm touting their pro bono efforts in conjunction with the Tuesday Night Bar)

11. Frank confirmed that the PC Bar should get a concession booth during the Olympics.

12. Update on Olympic Court by Christina (perhaps we could get the concession booth out at the Justice Center?)

a. Visa card machine (the official credit card of the Olympics) may be installed at the jail so miscreants can bail themselves out using plastic

b. Discussion of selling jail jumpsuits to inmates to keep as souvenirs of time spent in our fair city

c. Chief of Police is considering closing the city limits except for mass transit and local traffic (however his idea of local traffic would be a law firm employing approximately ten people gets a grand total of two parking passes, so the concept of “local traffic” still needs some work)

13. Treasurer’s Report by Mark

a. We still have $5,000 plus in a CD that hasn’t changed much

b. Checking account has current balance of $8,237.62; year-to-date check register presented at meeting and attached to hard copy of these minutes (anyone desiring a copy should contact Dwayne’s secretary, Shannon—the secret password is “I am a special investigator from the Internal Revenue Service and I’d like to ask you a few questions”)

c. The above balance doesn’t include a $2,000 check from Frontier Bank for the CLE & Ski that was just received yesterday

d. Mark also needs to pay the interpreter, pay $250 to the Park City Film Series (more on that below), and pay $500 to And Justice For All

e. Christina reported that the PC Bar gave Tassie a $50 gift certificate to dinner in appreciation for all of her efforts on the CLE & Ski, and a fruit basket will be sent to all of the judges who participated along with the cards we signed last meeting

14. Discussion of Public Relations and Community Involvement

a. PC Bar underwriting “Before Night Falls” this weekend at the Park City Film Series; we have four light-hearted slides on the pre-movie advertising carousel that have generated many favorable comments

b. Frank noted that the Park City Library needs funds to expand its public internet sites, and floated the idea of possibly sponsoring a computer in the library, and seeing if Westlaw would donate CD-ROMs for use at that computer

c. Christina is still sand-bagging our own website, which could really be a good tool for use in communicating with our members and the community in general (Lade, can you give Christina a good swift kick in the pants and get her to do whatever she has to do so you can do that thing you do?)

d. Work with local media to get mentioned in articles about the Justice Center and Olympic Court; see if we can get a photographer at our annual meeting to photograph newly elected officers and put a blurb in the paper

e. PC Bar sponsor ads in paper to recognize achievements of members, such as Vicki Bushnell getting Young Lawyer of the Year, and Christina receiving the Governor’s Silver Bowl Award; we’ll try to spread these out, Vicki’s ad will be first and then Christina’s ad will be second, and mix in with above blurb about elections and new officers

f. Main idea is to generate goodwill in community, and help people see us as real human beings (a monumental task, but we think we can do it)

15. Next meeting 8:00 a.m., Thursday, June 21, 2001 (same bat time, same bat channel)

The meeting was thereafter adjourned (even though there were still donuts that hadn’t been eaten yet)

Dwayne Vance, Secretary