County paid bulk of 'split' salaries

Two employees hired to work for Salt Lake County and the Boys and Girls Club of South Valley, the subject of a county investigation that has involved county Mayor Nancy Workman, appear to have been paid almost completely with county money.

Time sheets for Alina Iorga and Jennifer Schroder obtained by KSL-TV show that the county paid them for a full 40 hours the majority of weeks that they were employed, with most of the other weekly time sheets comprising at least 30 hours.

The discovery is at odds with what club executive director Bob Dunn understood to be the arrangement, which was that the employees were to be paid 20 hours by the club and 20 hours by the county.

"I didn't find out until I talked to the district attorney" that the employees were being paid 40 hours by the county most weeks, he said.

The Boys and Girls Club board has initiated its own investigation into the matter — using an independent investigator — to find out what, exactly, was happening.

The discovery may contradict statements of Aisza Workman, Nancy Workman's daughter, who works as the club's chief financial officer. She said last week that the employees were paid "on two separate payrolls," one from the club and one from the county.

Aisza Workman said the position was a collaborative effort between the county and the club, with the employees doing community liaison work for the county, for which they were paid by the county, and accounting work for the club, for which they were paid by the club.

Aisza Workman was on her honeymoon Thursday and unavailable for comment, but mayoral spokesman Ted Phillips said the full-time county pay — county money funding the employees both for the accounting and the liaison work — was the arrangement from the beginning.

Dunn said it was his understanding that the club did indeed pay the employees for at least a few hours of work, and maybe more, but declined to speculate further until the club's investigation is complete, probably by the end of this week.

District Attorney David Yocom said the county investigation will likely wind up next week, at which time a panel of district attorneys from Weber, Davis, Summit and Utah counties will decide whether to press criminal charges.

The employees reported to Aisza Workman at the Boys and Girls Club and had their time sheets signed by Nancy Workman herself at the mayor's office but were paid from county health department funds — a curious arrangement that prompted several protests from health department executive director Patti Pavey.

Based at least in part on those protests, the position was in the process of being switched to the mayor's operations budget when the investigation began and put the matter on hold.

The county investigation began at the behest of an anonymous health department employee

---

E-mail: aedwards@desnews.com