On Jan. 11, 2022, the Orem City Council voted 4-3 on a resolution to establish an Office of Legislative Counsel and named Jesse L. Riddle, a Lehi attorney and former mayoral candidate, as the director.

On Tuesday, Riddle was made the legal counsel to the city council in another 4-3 vote. The move frees up city attorney Steven Earl from the responsibility.

Mayor David Young and council members Terry Peterson, LaNae Millett and Dave Spencer voted to appoint Riddle while Jeff Lambson, Debby Lauret and Tom Macdonald voted against.

When Riddle was first appointed, Young said the goal of a legal counsel was to have an attorney working directly with the city council who was not connected to the city’s legal office.

The legislative counsel position was also designed to have public relations components as well as several other assignments, some of which were under the direction of the city manager at the time.

Riddle’s appointment was considered time-limited for an initial period, not to exceed six months. During that period, he was to be considered a full-time employee of the city. After six months the job was to be up for review and could be renewed. That happened once, but never again.

While the position should have been up for renewal in January, Riddle instead maintained his full-time status as director of legislative counsel until Tuesday when he became legal counsel to the Mayor and City Council.

He will carry some of the legislative counsel’s job responsibilities with him to his new role.

Lambson said he felt the position  was unnecessary, calling it a “redundancy of legal resources and extra taxpayer money” while Lauret did not believe there was enough business for a legal counsel and a second opinion could be brought in on a case-by-case basis.

“I’m not sure we need a full-time counsel,” she said.

Those same sentiments were expressed during the council’s retreat on Jan. 8, 2022, when Jamie Davidson, then-city manager, said he felt the newly elected officials — Young and three council members — did not have trust in him. Riddle took on some of Davidson’s job description.

“This dramatically impacts me. The message being sent is that you don’t trust me,” Davidson said on the official recording of the retreat meeting. “The biggest concern is, the attorney’s office thought they had trust with you.”

Some of the council and Davidson were concerned the position was not vetted with a number of applicants and that Riddle was not qualified.

“Let’s take time. Let’s research it. I don’t think he’s qualified. Give the staff the opportunity to build trust,” Davidson had said. “It feels like a different form of government inside this form of government.”

Besides giving legal counsel and under the direction of the city council, Riddle will perform legislative and budgetary analysis, attend city council meetings and perform various special projects as directed by the mayor and council. Riddle was not in attendance at Tuesday’s city council meeting.