Salt Lake pays most of the tab for monument

With nearly all of the money in the bank for an organ donation monument on Library Square, Salt Lake officials can relax — at least until the City Council releases an audit next week of the process used to pay for the monument.

Friday was the latest and last deadline for Salt Lake City to pay back Big D Construction for its work on a monument that honors donors, and the city was able to pay the majority of the money with one outstanding check expected Monday, said Jack Livingood, the company's CEO.

"They did everything they said they would do, so we're happy to have it all wrapped up," Livingood said.

The city still owes VCBO architects $28,000 and another construction company $2,500, said D.J. Baxter, the mayor's adviser who has been coordinating the fund raising, but Baxter said that money also should be coming shortly. The city wasn't contractually obligated to pay back VCBO and the construction company — that task fell to a now-defunct charitable foundation — but "(the builders) made these contributions in good faith," Baxter said, and the city wanted to repay them.

Meanwhile, the City Council has a draft audit of the path that led to Big D building a monument for which the city did not have money, but council members aren't releasing it until Mayor Rocky Anderson has a chance to respond to it.

Anderson pushed for the monument in 2003 and Big D built the fountain, statues and memorial wall of donor names without having in hand the roughly $650,000 needed. The money was pledged through various individuals and foundations, but the city was unable to collect all the pledges. Then, the Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation disbanded, leaving Anderson's office holding a bill for half the costs and facing an unhappy council that was worried the city would have to pay for what was supposed to be funded by private donations.

"I hope they've learned, don't authorize construction before the money's in the bank," said Dave Buhler, council chairman. "It's a very worthy cause, but no matter how worthy, you just shouldn't be authorizing a project to go forward without the money secured. That seemed like a no-brainer."

The council commissioned the audit to see whether Anderson's office had followed city rules while raising money and arranging for the monument. Anderson has said that he knew they had made a mistake in the timing and that an audit was an unnecessary step that would not reveal anything new.

Anderson was traveling Friday and did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The audit may prompt some policy changes from the council, said Eric Jergensen, who sits on the council's audit subcommittee.

"It could be big. It could be small," he said. "We'll have to discuss what options we have."

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