Iron County Commissioner threatens lawsuit against Iron County over closed meeting

CEDAR CITY — Iron County Commissioner Paul Cozzens announced Monday that he plans to sue Iron County due to a closed session that was held on May 26 from which he and another elected official were excluded.

The threat earlier this week led to a motion and vote to remove Cozzens from several county liaison assignments.

Cozzens told KSL that the lawsuit is for "zero dollars," but he wants to get a judge to decide if it was a "legal closed session." The lawsuit against the county was announced during an Iron County Commission hearing on Monday, June 8.

Closed meeting

The details of the May 26 meeting have not been made public. Cozzens did, however, say that it "included matters that did not pertain to the subject at hand," but did not speak on the topic due to legal reasons prohibiting him from speaking about items discussed during closed meetings. He said that he learned about the closed meeting while flying home from Boston on an anniversary trip with his wife.

"I'm a liaison over the assessor and the treasurer in Iron County, and the assessor was also out of town," Cozzens said. "The day of the commission meeting, I was on an airplane, and I was listening to the commission meeting, and at end of the meeting, they made a motion to go into closed session. I thought, 'What's going on?' I didn't know anything about a closed session.'"

Cozzens explained that he was able to access a recording of the session and felt like it "veered off topic," and discussed people who were not there to defend themselves. He said that he voiced his concerns about the meeting, and upon returning home attempted to "resolve the issue privately" by requesting another private session to review the recording of the Mat 26 meeting, adding that his request was not honored by the commission as a whole. He said that he then went into the scheduled commission meeting on July 8 with a prepared statement.

"At a time when the county is already facing serious public concern about transparency, including concerns raised during the data center debate, we should air on the side of openness," Cozzens said during the Monday meeting.

"I will state publicly that I cannot help fix a problem if I am cut out of the process and not even made aware of a problem within a department, which I am a liaison," he added. "I heard allegations presented as fact that were later shown to be false. If released, that will become evident."

Cozzens asked for the May 26 meeting to be released to the public, questioning the legality of holding the meeting without him and the assessor being present. He made a motion for the closed session be released. That motion was not approved, citing reasons related to Cozzens' lawsuit.

"Unfortunately, Cozzens has made a living out of being mad — a predictable pattern the county staff have learned to deal with," Iron County Clerk Jon Whittaker said in response. "The effect is that we are always trying to prevent Paul from being mad, dealing with him being mad or trying to manage his latest blowup. In a word: eggshells."

Whittaker brought up an incident early last year when Cozzens brought distilled water to the Iron County Jail for his son Blake Cozzens, who Paul Cozzens said requested it to help with a medical device. Blake Cozzens is serving a 25-month sentence in federal prison for wire fraud and bank fraud. Paul Cozzens was accused last year of "allegedly request(ing) special treatment for his son's medical conditions, which raised concerns among jail staff," according to a summary of an internal investigation conducted by Iron County's human resource director on Jan. 31. This is something Paul Cozzens denies.

KSL reached out to Whittaker, who said that at this time, he will "let (his) statement stand."

Following Whittaker's statement, a heated exchange ensued, leading to administrative action that was taken by Iron County Commissioner Mike Bleak to remove Cozzens from his liaison positions in the assessor's and treasurer's office in the county.

"I said some words that I shouldn't have, and I apologize for that, but I was very emotional and upset that what was said was not true," Cozzens said. "It got kind of ugly, and I feel bad for that because that's not really the decorum of a public meeting, but we'll get through this, and we'll be able to work together and do the business of Iron County."

Cozzens, who is not running for reelection, said in the June 8 meeting that his wife pleaded with him not to run for office again, alluding to troubles during his campaign. He also said that this is the first time he has filed a lawsuit.

"Was it legal for two commissioners to call a closed session? Yes. Was it ethical the way it came down? Absolutely not," he said.

"A judge may look at this and say, 'Nah, I'm not going to release (the May 26 meeting),' but there were lies told in that meeting against me that were not true," he added. "It looks like I'm going to be leaving office with the same treatment coming in."

Correction: A previous version indicated Cozzens intended to file a lawsuit, but the lawsuit was filed last week.

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