Salt Lake County restarting job process

With Salt Lake County government the hothouse of controversy that it is nowadays, it's becoming difficult to tell what constitutes yet another scandal and what doesn't.

The County Council tackled one such issue Tuesday — the attempted change of a high-level employee's classification from political appointee to merit employee.

Based on the allegation of at least one applicant that the new merit position had been slotted from the beginning for fiscal analyst Marcus Anjeweirden, the council voted to restart the process to make sure it was fair.

"Given the events of the past month or so, we all need to increase our sensitivity to what might or might not appear appropriate," Councilman Jim Bradley said. "(The county) can't take any more hits."

The council also voted to oversee any change in salary classification, any exempt employees applying to fill merit positions and the elimination of any exempt employee positions.

Several people in the county have said the change was an attempt to make sure Anjeweirden, a political appointee, survived any change in administration as a result of the election. But chief administrative officer David Marshall, Anjeweirden's boss, strongly denied that.

"This has been in the works for a long time," Marshall said. "It has nothing to do with the election. . . . This whole thing (the situation in the county) is getting a little bizarre, a little strange."

"That's the order of the day around here," Councilman Russell Skousen said.

Interim Auditor Sean Thomas noticed the new merit position some weeks ago and looked into the matter. It caught his eye primarily because it was class 36 — one of the highest-paying jobs in the county — and because the position was mistakenly being advertised as being in the treasurer's office, rather than the mayor's, raising the specter of a ghost employee.

Thomas eventually brought the matter to the council's attention. The council, while conceding things may have been done properly, nonetheless tightened up the process to avoid the appearance of evil.

"There is understandable concern on everybody's minds," Council Chairman Steve Harmsen said.

With scandal seemingly running amok in county headquarters nowadays, and with many high-level employees keeping their heads down to avoid being noticed (since notice nowadays is tantamount to accusation), Marshall took umbrage at the implication that he had not done things by the book.

"I totally resent any innuendo that (the mistaken treasurer designation) was intentional . . . ," he said. "There's nothing going on here. It's just a straightforward personnel action."

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