TREASURER TACKLES 'STRANGE' LAW

State Treasurer Ed Alter can juggle bank accounts and stock portfolios, but
he's not sure how to handle drug dealers' cars and poachers' rifles.

Alter says he is the wrong man for the job of holding and liquidating
property seized by police and prosecutors -- a job handed to him by a
November ballot proposition.

"All of this is really strange to the treasurer's office," Alter said.
"We're money people. We're not stuff people."

But Alter says he will give it "the college try."

Gov. Mike Leavitt has budgeted $500,000 to open an asset forfeiture office
and $1.7 million next year to staff and run it. Alter is in charge of the
operation, and he better get used to it, says Janet Jenson, a Salt Lake
lawyer and initiative supporter.

"He is just whining and moaning. Suck it up. It's the government," Jenson
said. "He's not being asked to do anything out of the ordinary. He just
doesn't want to do it."

Utah voters overwhelmingly approved the initiative that takes effect March
20 and curbs the power of police and prosecutors to seize property. It also
will divert the spoils of seized property to the state's public-education
fund. Police agencies won't be able to keep the goods or money.

Proponents say it will make police more accountable and protect innocent
people from property seizures.

The law requires Alter to collect and sell items such as cars, houses and
guns. He also oversees the state's unclaimed property division but says he
would rather unload that responsibility, too.

"I'm willing to acknowledge this is what the people want even though I
truly believe they didn't understand it," said Alter, who said the
"smashmouth piece of legislation" strikes a blow against law enforcement.