Curtis defends mileage 'error'

A Salt Lake County controversy over a government official's travel became political hay Wednesday.

Democrats in one news conference demanded a Republican state representative take responsibility for an unpaid mileage reimbursement. In his own news conference, Greg Curtis, a Salt Lake County employee and state House majority leader, said the reimbursement had been paid and that missing it was merely an oversight on his part.

Over the course of almost a year, Curtis took mileage reimbursement from the state while driving a county-owned car to and from the Capitol, thus receiving taxpayer money for expenses he never actually incurred.

Curtis paid the money back earlier this month, four days after Salt Lake media first reported irregularities in county vehicle usage.

He told the Deseret Morning News Tuesday that legislators are reimbursed for mileage "automatically" and that he returned the money as a matter of course.

In fact, however, Curtis filled out mileage reimbursement forms every two weeks during the winter legislative session — three times total — in order to get much of the money (the rest was given out after interim meetings). He kept it until May 11.

Curtis, senior counsel to County Mayor Nancy Workman, characterizes the situation as an "oversight." As a Republican state representative from Sandy since 1994, he says he was in the habit, without thinking about it, of filling out the mileage forms that House pages would leave on his desk.

"I am sorry that this occurred," he said Wednesday. "I am taking responsibility."

State Democratic Chairman Donald Dunn urged Curtis to take personal responsibility because Curtis earlier had blamed political foes for accusing him of double-dipping.

"He's the one who either signed (the form) or didn't," Dunn said in a Wednesday press conference. "The Democrats didn't sign it for him."

Curtis is running for speaker of the House in the place of Marty Stephens, who is retiring, and acknowledged that the controversy could hurt his chances of winning.

He does not intend to resign either his legislative or county position. Nevertheless, the situation "has a good possibility of costing me my job, a good possibility of costing me my legislative seat, a good possibility of costing me the speakership. I did make mistakes. I used to enjoy public service — I'm not sure I can say that any more."