Dear Editor:

Brian Nelson, former Sanpete Sheriff and current candidate for State Representative in the 66th District, SHOULD NEVER HOLD ELECTIVE OFFICE IN UTAH. I say that after serving twice as Sanpete County Republican Chair and as a newspaper reporter.

Nielson, was appointed by Gov. Cox as Executive Director of the Department of Corrections (DOC) thanks to Nielson’s position as Sanpete County Sheriff.

KSL news reported that during Nielson’s short 2-year stint, the Corrections Department was investigated for “a new inmate prescription management program that caused a backlog of thousands of prescriptions, a staffing crisis, several corrections officers being attacked by inmates, and two state audits that concluded there is a “CULTURE ON NONCOMPLIANCE” (emphasis added) at the prison.

Nielson’s Parole Board was under heavy criticism for violent crimes being committed by inadequately supervised parolees. Things got so bad that in May of ’23, victims filed suit against Nielson personally and against the State of Utah.

Rather than standing up and defending his policies, Nielson cut and run by resigning the very next day, leaving everyone else with the mess. Today you and I, Utah Taxpayers, will be paying for the defense of that lawsuit. Do you smell a rat here? I certainly do.

As a newspaperman I ran squarely into Nielson’s policies, and his attitudes toward the public’s right-to-know. His was the least transparent administration of government I have ever dealt with. Time after time our newspaper would seek information about incidents at the prison we would be ignored or rebuffed.

Nelson’s public information office was the only access portal for reporter information. It was trained and directed under Nielson to isolate and deny access to upper-echelon officials and to give out very little useful information. It was a slap in the face to the very concept of government transparency and openness.

Expect little transparency and openness from Brian Nielson. His record, going all the way back to his days as Sheriff, shows that he believes in secrecy and closed government rather than being open as government should be.

Experiences during my tenure as Party Chair showed that Nielson believes that policies and rules don’t apply to him. When his resignation as Sheriff took away his status as an automatic state delegate he was appointed as a one-time alternate delegate. He took that appointment as being permanent and tried to bend party bylaws to preserve it despite the bylaws being totally opposite of his position.

Nielson became very confrontational, and In that instance I glimpsed what I interpreted as his arrogance and utter disregard for any rule he doesn’t happen to agree with. I also witnessed his knee-jerk response to anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him. Compromise and reason don’t seem to exist in Brian Nelson’s lexicon.

Based on his dismal performance as an administrator and my personal experiences with him as a public official, Brian Nielson is exactly the type of person we do not want as our elected state representative.

Steven J. Clark

Newsletter