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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- An independent audit has found the Salt Lake City mayor's office and city library violated their own policies in approving a monument honoring organ donors.
The $994,000 monument was supposed to be a gift to the city from the nonprofit Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation. The foundation subsequently folded before raising all the money, but the monument was built on Library Square in 2004.
Because Mayor Rocky Anderson's senior adviser, D.J. Baxter, signed the construction order, the city was responsible for paying the remaining funds. The mayor and organ-donation supporters raised some $300,000 to pay Big D Construction.
The audit, paid for by the City Council, was released Tuesday and outlined six areas where the monument deal strayed from city procedure. Among the areas: The mayor's office should have had donations in place before allowing the monument to be built; it or the library should have created a fund in the city system for the project; and the mayor's office "does not have the authority to obligate the city for construction projects," the audit said.
"Whenever you're dealing with money, it's serious," said City Council Chairman Dave Buhler. "I know this was done with all of the best intentions. It could have been done and procedures followed."
Anderson said he read the audit as "innocuous," though he conceded there were "some technical, procedural errors that I wish had not occurred. I would never have knowingly committed the city financially without going through appropriate budget procedures."
Anderson said if he had known the city was going to be obligated, he would have first sought City Council approval. But he also said that he believes council members would have delayed progress and the monument would not have been built.
Anderson said he's "thrilled" that it was constructed, saying it will "save lives."
Library Director Nancy Tessman says the library simply facilitated the city's project, but she wishes it had been done differently. "Between the city and the library, we didn't do this as we should have, and a mistake was made."
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
