From Deseret News archives:
Rocky's Torino trip scrutinized
Tax dollars used to partially finance tour that included 'friends'
City Council members say they want more information about the European portion of that trip, on which Anderson delivered Salt Lake City's Olympic message to the city that will host the 2006 Winter Games.
The official Torino team included Anderson's girlfriend, Tracy Lyon; Deputy Mayor Rocky Fluhart's wife, Gretchen; a couple from Park City whom Anderson calls "friends," and others. All room and meal expenses were paid by a fund that was a mix of private donations and tax dollars.
Anderson maintained Monday that tax dollars were not used for the food portion of those expenses.
When asked how he was certain — since tax dollars and sponsor contributions were commingled in one account — the mayor said, "We had a budget, and I knew what the gap was and went out and raised the money."
Some council members believe that if the mayor's friends had not been included in the trip, the level of tax dollars needed might have been less.
"It concerns me that you can just organize a team that is paid, at least in part, by taxpayer monies," City Council Chairman Dale Lambert said. "At least some of these people are not employees of the city."
Lambert said he will ask his staff to investigate the administration's accounting of the trip.
Meanwhile, other council members wonder why the administration didn't inform the council how it was spending the tax money.
"The way that it was portrayed at first was that this was all being privately funded," councilman Dave Buhler said. "Once you get tax dollars involved, it starts to raise some questions."
Because some tax dollars were included, there should have been a more open process to determine who might be qualified to go rather than the mayor selecting friends, Buhler said.
He also criticized the administration for not seeking council approval to use the $35,000 in city funds to help fund the trip.
"I'm not saying they had to do it legally, but certainly it would have been a better procedure to talk to us about it," Buhler said. "If there was a good reason for doing it, they would have been able to explain it to us and have gotten our support."
City Council members are still waiting for a final accounting of the trip.
It is tradition for the previous Olympic Winter Games host to deliver a message on peace, youth and environment to the next host of the Winter Games. According to that tradition, the message has to be delivered by environmentally friendly transportation that doesn't burn greenhouse gases.
