Workman seeking legal fees from county

Salt Lake County has reimbursed several employees and officials who have incurred legal costs defending themselves in court, even when it was the county itself going after them.

The latest to seek reimbursement is former mayor Nancy Workman, who laid out almost $200,000 in legal fees defending herself from felony misuse of public money charges. She was acquitted two months ago after a week-long trial.

Former county attorney Doug Short, who famously fought the county commission in court, was reimbursed. Assessor Lee Gardner, who hired his own attorney to challenge a commission-authorized assessment settlement, was reimbursed. Former fleet manager William Finney, who was charged with violating spending practices, was also reimbursed, as well as another county employee who was charged with a misdemeanor.

"You go through a reasonable analysis and make the decision on whether to pay them," county litigation division director John Soltis said.

Soltis said that, in accordance with state law, the county will not pay in any case where the employee or official acted with "fraud or willful misconduct." He is now determining whether that and other factors impact the decision on whether to reimburse Workman.

It is rare, however, that the county denies a claim when the defendant is acquitted.

The mayor's office has the final call on whether to reimburse, and former chief administrative officer David Marshall, who handled several such cases, said reimbursement "basically almost always happens."

"I can't really think of a time when an officer or an employee has been denied representation (by county attorneys, requiring them to pay their own lawyers) that the county hasn't paid their legal fees," Marshall said.

Finney's case is instructive. The former county fleet director (he was fired in 1997) was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanors for illegally accepting money and gifts from vendors — including a $4,000 trip to the Indianapolis 500. Three of the charges were dismissed, and in 2000 Finney settled the last one by paying a $100 court fee. That claim was later dismissed.

A judge in a preliminary hearing determined that the Indianapolis trip influenced Finney to write a letter to his superiors requesting that the diesel-engine company Cummins receive virtually all the county's heavy-equipment purchase and repair business.

Finney requested that the county reimburse him $64,600 in attorneys' fees. After legal analysis and negotiation, however, he agreed to settle for $26,500.

The mayor's office approved the payment, and Finney got the money in August 2003.

(Workman, by the way, says she has no recollection of approving the payment. The approval letter was signed by Marshall.)

In Workman's case, the county has more than a purely legal decision to make. If Soltis decides the county is not legally required to pay her, Workman attorney Greg Skordas has said he will sue the county for the money. If he wins that suit, the county will be on the hook for Skordas' fees both for the criminal case and the civil recovery suit.

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