As he leaves office, AG’s calendar sheds light on how, and where, he spent his time on the clock

SALT LAKE CITY – Where does Utah’s attorney general work? At the Capitol, you might assume. And he did hold meetings there, along with another official office in Murray.

But the work calendar of outgoing Attorney General Sean Reyes shows he also spent his time as the state’s top lawyer in a less conventional space: a private, members-only club called Mac’s Place in Salt Lake City. Run by a friend of Reyes’, Brady McIntyre, the club has conference rooms, along with a barber shop and massage services.

After a two-year public records battle, the KSL Investigators won access to Reyes’ calendar and reviewed its more than 9,000 pages. The interesting part isn’t just who he met with, but where.

The KSL Investigators looked into those locations and what they reveal about Reyes’ approach to the job.

His calendar entries from 2021-2023 indicate he took about two dozen meetings at Mac’s Place. They include a work session with employees, a lunch with Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks and sit-downs with an array of businessmen.

The calendar entries also include a conversation in 2022 with conservative activist Kimberly Fletcher of Moms for America. The group supports getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education. The topic of Fletcher’s meeting with Utah’s AG wasn’t listed in his schedule.

So, should a top state official do the public’s business at a private club?

Chris Toth, the retired executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General, said the states’ top lawyers have an obligation to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

“If it’s the people’s business, as a matter of practice, the work for the people should be done in the people’s office,” Toth said.

The KSL Investigators asked Reyes’ office why he chose do some of the public’s work in the private venue, and a spokesperson told us in a statement, “Mac’s has meeting space and public meetings are often held in private locations.”

If Reyes had a day with a mixture of public and private meetings, it was easier to spend the day away from his official office, the spokesperson said, because it would be improper to hold campaign meetings on state property.

McIntyre told KSL his club is in part like other co-working spaces that provide offices and conference rooms, and said he believed it was a convenient place for Reyes.

“I personally don’t see any harm done with any government official or anyone else having a meeting in our conference room? That’s what it’s for,” McIntyre said.

“It was, I think, very convenient for him with as much as he was doing TV interviews and things where he could have meetings here and then sit in the barber chair and get cleaned up before going on camera,” McIntyre continued. “I think it made a lot of sense for him.”

Outside of Utah, the job routinely took Reyes to Washington, D.C., calendar entries detailing his flights and meetings show. One page indicates he flew to Ireland to attend a 2022 conference of the Attorney General Alliance.

The group brings state attorneys general together to learn from one another and, at times, connects corporate sponsors to the states’ top lawyers. It also arranged a 2022 trip to the World Cup that Reyes attended on the dime of the host country of Qatar.

That trip is one of many not listed in the calendar, indicating Reyes saw it as a personal engagement.

Under a settlement agreement Reyes reached with KSL last year, he released his calendar spanning 2019-2023, but withheld appointments his office deemed were not a part of his job as attorney general.

Reyes, who took office in 2013, announced just over a year ago that he would not seek reelection.

Incoming Attorney General Derek Brown starts the job Monday. And while Utah passed a new law this year allowing state officials to conceal their calendars, Brown said he’ll voluntarily release his.

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