Rep. John VanderWoude, R-Meridian, wants to change the Idaho Constitution to remove the Attorney General from the state Land Board and replace him with the state treasurer. VanderWoude brought his proposed constitutional amendment to the House State Affairs Committee this morning, which voted unanimously to introduce it, clearing the way for a hearing.

Changing the Idaho Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature, plus a majority vote of the people at the next general election.

“The state treasurer was not on the Land Board of Commissioners at the beginning, because the state treasurer was the one in charge of investing the money, and that way we kept him separate from the decisions of the Land Board,” VanderWoude told the committee. “Then in 1960, they passed a Senate bill which changed the investment strategy and took it away from the treasurer’s office, and created the endowment fund. ... But the Attorney General was still on the Land Board during that time. It really, it creates basically an unfortunate, a position for the Attorney General on the Land Board, because he’s the legal advice for the Land Board, he sits on the Land Board, and then he actually, a couple of years ago, he ended up suing the Land Board. … It’s almost a position where it’s a no-win position for the Attorney General at that point,” VanderWoude said. “Because he’s giving legal advice and then he’s suing himself.”

“So I think this is a good move,” he said. “The Attorney General should be in charge of guarding the trusts of the state. And that’s what he did when he sued. But you sit on the board, you give legal advice, you sit in on all the executive sessions, and then you turn around and you also appoint the attorney the board gets when you sue the board. It’s just a mismatch, lot of conflicts of interest.” He said holding a hearing on the proposal would allow “a proper discussion of what the proper roles and separations might be.”

Rep. Linden Bateman, R-Idaho Falls, asked VanderWoude, “I assume you’ve run this by the Attorney General’s office?” Amid laughter, VanderWoude said no. Rep. Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, told VanderWoude that when he returns for a hearing, she hopes he’ll bring along both the treasurer and Attorney General.