Salt Lake County aims to plug leak

Salt Lake County leaders are looking to plug a leak by taking an anonymous tipster to court.

County Clerk Sherrie Swensen and several County Council members are pushing an investigation to find and prosecute the person who leaked a personnel report to the Deseret Morning News.

But Jeff Hunt, Salt Lake City attorney and First Amendment expert, said the hunt for the leak may put a damper on the county's efforts to investigate allegations of misconduct in the county's human resource division.

"It's going to have a chilling effect on those who provide information to the public that they believe should see the light of day," Hunt said. "The time spent trying to hunt down leakers could be better spent trying to fix the underlying problems."

According to the leaked investigation conducted by an outside attorney at the request of the County Council, Swensen and her former chief deputy engaged in suspect hiring practices, allegedly taking on unqualified employees because of personal connections.

County Mayor Peter Corroon said leaking the confidential report is a crime and is not subject to state whistle-blower protection laws. District Attorney David Yocom is now spearheading the investigation, which could lead to a class B misdemeanor charge, Corroon said.

"We just don't want people leaking confidential documents. It's dangerous. People's reputations and lives can be at stake," he said.

Hunt, however, said the bigger problem is that the report wasn't made public from the beginning. If the county is dedicated to cleaning up its image, the investigations should have been brought to light by the government, Hunt said.

Corroon declared last week that he was committed to thorough housecleaning and promised "an open, honest, ethical government." But Corroon said there was a proper way to report problems instead of leaking confidential documents.

Corroon added he did not believe seeking out the tipster would water down the county's efforts to investigate legitimate allegations.

"I hope he follows through on that. The greatest disinfectant is sunlight," Hunt said. "The more sunlight he shines on these problems, the more they will be exposed, the better he will be able to fix them and the more confidence the public will have in the process."

Punishing the tipster, Hunt said, may hang a cloud over future investigations. Splitting hairs between what is a legitimate allegation and what is protected as confidential may discourage employees from coming forward, he said.