Rocky's Torino trip scrutinized

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.

In April, the message was taken by bicycle from Salt Lake City to New York, by sailboat from New York to Belgium, and then by bicycle across Europe to Torino. Anderson and Lyon joined the group in France on July 19. The crew spent the next 12 days biking though the French Alps and northern Italy en route to Torino.

Fluhart, who participated in the entire European leg of the journey, volunteered for the trek on the condition that his wife would be allowed to come. Anderson made the decision to include Gretchen Fluhart.

"In the end, he decided who could go," Rocky Fluhart said.

Anderson defended his decisions. There's nothing wrong with "people who have given so much for our city getting a few meals bought for them," he said, noting that the non-city employees paid their way to Europe.

Still, some meals were pricey. At least two totaled more than $240.

Copies of Anderson's reimbursement expenses, obtained through a Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) request, detailed several of the team's expenses as they traveled.

"During the trip, the mayor frequently picked up expenses of other team members who did not have a credit card or other means of payment readily available," City Attorney Ed Rutan wrote in a letter accompanying the expenses.

The city already has spent the $35,000 allocated from city coffers but has not spent the entire $136,000 that was raised privately to pay for the trip's $171,000 total budget, city controller Gordon Hoskins said.

It's conceivable there could be money left over from the private sponsors to reimburse the city. Fluhart said Monday he's not counting on it.

"I don't think it will get paid back," he said.

The $35,000 was originally allocated by the City Council to pay for the city's WinterFest celebration. WinterFest was supposed to become an annual February event coinciding with the city's hosting of the 2002 Winter Games. The city decided to cancel this year's event because of poor attendance in the first two years.

Because the money was already allocated, the administration simply used the WinterFest money to help pay for the Torino trip. It was not necessary to run the change by the council because the money was already allocated, Fluhart said.

Hoskins said a lot of the taxpayer dollars were used upfront to pay for initial trip expenses.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com