SL Co. Corruption: worse than thought

Those of you who have been following the story are hardly surprised, but for the rest of you here is a quick snap shot. A few years ago, SL county government switched over to a mayoral system, the idea being that would be more effecient method of governance. Under the first county Mayor (Nancy Workman-R), there were a series of scandals: "Guzzlegate" where co. employees used the gas cards to fill up their family's SUVs, drove the co. cars far and wide for personal use. Then there was the scandal that Workman defeated in court but lost in the election--deverting money to SL Boys and Girls Club where her daughter worked. Before that, there accounts of overpaid assistants and ghost employees.

Now the SL Trib has gotten its hands on an audit revealing another scandal-- at least $100,000 in tax dollars wasted on de facto loans to co. employees who may or may not have actually been taking classes. The idea was to give employees an incentive to get that post-secondary or graduate degree by giving them 75% off tuition if they maintianed a C average. The trouble was, they gave the money upfront, and did no checking to make sure people enrolled or stayed enrolled (or maintained their grades). Worse still, those in charge were lax in enforcing deadbeats.

*Three appointed officials had more than $3,500 in tuition debt forgiven by former Mayor Nancy Workman. "The waivers were all provided verbally, without even a memo to the file as backup," the audit says.
*Post-Its were found in employee tuition files with scrawled notes such as "needs more time," "will bring in check," and "dropped math; owes $355.34."

The auditors and new Mayor Peter Corroon promise to change things. "...the auditor's office recommended that the county shift to a reimbursement program, which was in place before 1992...A study of 33 other [Utah]counties showed 24 offer tuition reimbursements. None Caroon would require "employees to earn at least a B grade to qualify for reimbursement. ...workers who quit within two years of taking a class - up from one year - [will have] to repay the county for the reimbursement."

Carroon came in on the mantle of reform, or at the very least, the stench of Nancy Workman's reign. I am glad to see he is following up with his pledges by saving taxpayers money by consolidating co. cellular plans (which was costing the country about $20K a month) and being tougher than the auditor on this latest financial scandal. All of this stuff is obvious, but this is the kind of things Democrats should be talking up: that GOPers are bad steward's of your tax dollars. Peter's cousin Howard Dean had a good talking point.