Political ruin familiar sight

Salt Lake County government is having a bad year. So what else is new?

The county has a long-standing history of scandals and foul-ups resulting in embarrassment and sometimes even political ruin.

Salt Lake County is also a well-known political graveyard. Various politicians have tried to use county government as a springboard to higher office with decidedly mixed results:

Former county commissioner Mary Callaghan, who at one time told the Deseret Morning News that she wanted eventually to run for the U.S. Senate, left county government when the new form of government took effect. Other than a ripple of negative publicity when she accepted two years of payment that she previously said she wouldn't accept, she has not been heard from since.

Former commissioner Brent Overson didn't even make it through the Republican County Convention this year in his bid for a seat on the county council and lost a bid for a seat on Granite's school board in 2003. Former commissioner Jim Bradley, now a councilman, was slaughtered in his 1996 challenge to Gov. Mike Leavitt and has also lost a race for Salt Lake City mayor.

"There is no system of government that would restrain a single individual from acting the way they do and doing something that is wrong," said Ted Wilson, former mayor of Salt Lake City and former director of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. He said there seems to be a "diffusion of authority" at the county level of government.

"We need to streamline government there and hold one person responsible and have one person everybody reports to," he said. Such a plan, Wilson said, would limit the numbers of people sneaking through the system.

Councilman Steve Harmsen said that a lot of the recent scandals could, very easily, have gone unnoticed under the old, commission form of government. With seven council members and a separate mayor, there are too many people watching everybody else for the old backroom dealings of county government to go unnoticed for long, he said.

Deseret Morning News graphic Scandals Requires Adobe Acrobat.

"The only reason these issues are at play is because of the council form of government," Harmsen said.

As early as 1976, there were reported breaks in the system.

Salt Lake County Commissioner William L. Hutchinson was involved in behavior called "improper for an official" when he failed to fully report campaign contributions and reportedly exhibited conflicts of interest. He also took flak and faced charges for allegedly harboring a runaway juvenile, which were later dismissed. On top of that, in 1978 Hutchinson endured charges of homosexual activity with a minor, a trial that ended in a hung jury. He ran for re-election but lost and reportedly left office with ambivalence.