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John Daley ReportingEllis Ivory will NOT be on the Salt Lake County ballot as the republican candidate for county mayor. Late Monday afternoon the county clerk said he will remain a write-in.
County Clerk Sherrie Swensen got an official letter from county attorneys advising her on Ivory's request. She then denied the request to replace Ivory's name on the ballot as a Republican. And if that wasn't enough activity for the day, two county officials were in court today in cases regarding misuse of public funds--one for a sentencing, another to be arraigned.
It all started with the SUVs. A series of news reports about a variety of abuses of taxpayer money by top Salt Lake county officials, using county gas credit cards and driving county-owned cars. The so-called Guzzler Gate scandal resulted in three county officials losing their jobs...including the longtime auditor Craig Sorensen...who admitted he was filling up his own tank--and someone else's--using a county gas credit card to steal roughly ten thousand dollars in gas.
In exchange for a guilty plea Sorenson was sentenced to ten days of jail time, probation for a year, community service and a five thousand dollar fine.
Craig Sorensen, Former Salt Lake County Auditor: "What I did was terribly wrong, it's not right for the county, or the citizens, and what I did was terrible and I regret it and I apologize."
In the wake of Guzzler Gate the Boys and Girls Club affair erupted. A whistleblower reported to the DA that Mayor Nancy Workman was using health department funds to pay a pair of bookkeepers--working at the non-profit directly under her daughter, the financial manager.
Today Workman was formerly charged--pleading NOT guilty to two felonies. She resigned her reelection race last week and filed a doctor's note saying the stress of her prosecution disabled her from continuing the race. When asked if she was disabled as the doctors note implied--the Mayor laughed.
Nancy Workman: " Ha ha I'm dis-something or other... Dis-combobulated, ha ha."
So here's the bottom line. Republicans will almost surely sue to overturn this decision. Legal experts KSL has spoken with say they believe this case could make its way through the courts quickly and ultimately be decided by the Utah Supreme Court. But time is of the essence--Election Day is two weeks from tomorrow.
