Workman decision is due today

A panel of county attorneys is set to announce its decision today on whether to criminally charge Salt Lake County Mayor Nancy Workman for her hiring of two employees at the South Valley Boys and Girls Clubs.

The panel of county attorneys (or their representatives) from Utah, Summit, Davis and Weber counties met Tuesday and reached a conclusion on what to charge Workman with — if anything — but did not immediately release its decision.

If Workman is charged with felony misappropriation of public funds (one of several possible charges), she would by law be required to take a leave of absence from her job as mayor until "final disposition" of the charges, which would certainly last until after the November election. That would be a crippling and probably fatal blow to her chances for re-election.

But if the panel recommends no charges, her political fortunes would almost certainly rise.

Polls conducted by the Deseret Morning News and others have showed that the "guzzlegate" scandal and the specter of criminal charges in the Boys and Girls Clubs case so far have hurt Workman's chances for re-election.

Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson, the panel's spokesman, declined comment on the substance of the recommendations until their official release today.

Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom convened the panel late last June to remove the conflict of interest inherent in a district attorney charging the chief executive of his own county with a crime. The panel has met from time to time since then, discussing the case and requesting additional evidence.

The case arose when an unknown whistleblower in the county informed Yocom of a so-called "phantom employee" in the county health department. It turned out that Workman had hired a woman (then another woman, after the first resigned) to do accounting work for the Murray-based Boys and Girls Club of South Valley, paying them from health department funds.

The arrangement was discontinued last May.

The employees worked under the supervision of Workman's daughter, club financial director Aisza Wilde, which has led Workman opponents to contend she was trying to indirectly enrich her daughter.

Workman has conceded she failed to "dot some i's and cross some t's" but contends her fault goes no further than procedural errors and failure to attend to detail.

Yocom's own county investigators have gathered the evidence used by the panel and have worked with panel members while they've been considering the matter. That, Workman supporters say, may have tainted the process.

"We hope that they are absolutely not partisan and that they haven't been unduly influenced," mayoral spokesman Ted Phillips said. "If that's the case, we're sure the mayor will be exonerated."

Yocom has responded to allegations of influencing panel members by noting they are the ones making the final decision.

County investigators have interviewed the two employees involved and others who worked at the Boys & Girls Clubs of South Valley and who were supervised by Workman's daughter. They also have talked to employees of the county health department as well as Workman herself.

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E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com