Conabee was appointed by Gov. Spencer Cox and confirmed by the Utah Senate unanimously Aug. 20.
He likens the balance of access versus safety he says DABS must strike to that of the National Parks Service.
“This is no different, I think, than the national parks, right? You have to preserve the asset, which, in this case, is our culture and our history and our safety, and then you have to take that and put it in the limelight of people being able to go to the park and experience it,” Conabee told the Senate Business and Labor Confirmation Committee Aug. 18. “I do think we've done a great job as a state of balancing that.”
He told KPCW afterward the analogy came to him while cutting his lawn.
“And when I was done cutting the lawn, I had a Coors Light because I felt like it was a great analogy,” Conabee said, his answer to the question “Do you drink?” traditionally posed to new DABS officials.
A Silver Springs resident, Conabee is a principal at real estate firm Utah Development & Construction, which has spearheaded improvements at Utah Olympic Park. He served on the Snyderville Basin Planning Commission from December 2020 until November 2024.
Conabee’s resume also includes short stints as interim director of the Utah Inland Port Authority and chair of the Point of the Mountain Development Commission, originally created to redevelop the former Utah State Prison site in Draper.
Before that, he ran corporate recruitment for the state of Utah’s economic development office under former Gov. Gary Herbert.
Former DABS Executive Director Tiffany Clason vouched for Conabee’s “diversity of experience.”
“Not only of government, of economic development, but also of tourism, hospitality and experience from the commercial or business end,” she said before Conabee was unanimously endorsed by a Senate committee Aug. 18. “That perspective will come in handy as he works with his colleagues on the commission to make really difficult decisions in who receives a license or not, and also when the commission is working — as it’s duty-bound to — evaluating folks that receive violations, what those penalties should be as a result of violations.”
Clason has since been replaced by Ericka Evans, also confirmed Aug. 20, after Clason departed for the private sector June 27.
Evans is a social drinker who previously served in Utah’s Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel, where she drafted alcohol bills.
