The whole thing started when Workman hired an eastern European woman named Alina Iorga last June, ostensibly to help minority groups access county services. There were two potential problems with the hiring: Iorga, a temporary employee, also worked as an accountant at the Boys and Girls Club under Aisza Workman's supervision, raising the possibility that Iorga was being paid county money simply to do work for Workman's daughter.

Aisza, now on her honeymoon, acknowledged Thursday it was difficult to separate Iorga's club duties and county duties and that there was no strict accounting of hours.

Legally, a county can contribute money to nonprofit organizations (a county employee working for the organization would be one way of doing that), but a public hearing must be scheduled and other procedures must be followed, which were not in this case.

Another problem is that Iorga was being paid from Salt Lake Valley Health Department funds — but instead of reporting to anyone there she reported directly to the mayor, who signed her time cards herself.

County Human Services Director Kerry Steadman said Monday that Health Department executive director Patti Pavey and others approached him some months ago with concerns about the temporary employee on their payroll who did not report to them and over whom they had no supervision or control.

Sources at the county additionally say several people within the health department were concerned about the arrangement and raised red flags as long ago as a year, when Iorga was hired.

By his estimation, three or four months ago Steadman recommended to Workman's chief administrative officer, David Marshall, that the position be transferred directly into the mayor's office. That transfer was in the process of occurring when news of the investigation broke last week.

"It wasn't anything (having to do with) illegality," Steadman said, "just supervision. I didn't know what this person was doing. I just said if this person is working for the mayor, reporting to the mayor, it should be in the mayor's budget."

Iorga left the position last Augustand was replaced the next month by Jennifer Schroeder, who worked under the same arrangement until June 11, when she began being paid by the Boys and Girls Club as a full-time employee.

The hiring of a replacement has been suspended given the current investigation, said club director Bob Dunn, who has initiated his own investigation into the matter.

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com