CACHE COUNTY – The clock is ticking on a pair of Government Records Access and Management Act (GRAMA) requests now sitting in the Cache County Clerk’s Office.
Those requests were filed after Cache County Councilmember Gina Worthen attempted to skirt the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act at the regular meeting of the Cache County Council on Sept. 13 and was called on it by two media outlets.
Both The Herald Journal and Cache Valley Daily filed for access to a mysterious e-mail that allegedly reveals the scope of a forensic audit requested by council member Paul Borup.
During the council’s regular meeting on July 26, the council voted to retain the services of Sage Forensic Accounting to provide technical assistance and analysis of all financial matters of the county.
At that time, Borup promised that the council would get the opportunity to vote on scope and goals of the audit at a later date.
“In the interest of time,” Worthen said when the matter came up – briefly – during the council meeting on Sept. 13, “I will make a motion that we go ahead and approve the scope of the forensic audit as was presented in the e-mail.”
The e-mail in question was presumably sent from Sage Forensic Accounting to members of the county council describing details of the proposed audit.
That motion was quickly seconded by council member David Erickson.
There was no discussion or debate of the scope of the audit, which Worthen explained away by saying that details of the audit need to remain “confidential” at this point.
Council members Worthen, Erickson, Nolan Gunnell and chair Barbara Tidwell voted to uphold the motion. Council members Gordon Zilles and Karl Ward opposed it. Borup was not in attendance at the meeting.
Under the GRAMA law, the county has five days to give the media access to the e-mail.
Otherwise, an appeal of the GRAMA requests will go to County Executive David Zook, whose office is very likely to be a target of the proposed audit.
The website of Sage Forensic Accounting states that its services involve the “ … integration of accounting, auditing and investigative skills to provide an accounting analysis.”
The county’s offices passed a routine independent audit in June, but Borup has accused county officials of so-called “budget shenanigans” on several occasions.
Good work Charlie. Hold them accountable.
Gina Worthen has served this county faithfully and selflessly for years. She is not dumb. What she did was legal, and according to state statute. This article, like all the others Charlie Schill has written about the Council/Executive conflict seem biased and one-sided. Did Charlie even ask Gina for her side of the story? Why didn’t she get to respond to these accusations? Did Charlie research the law?
Fact check: FALSE
Skirting the law is defined as avoiding the rules without breaking them. The term is used appropriately and Worthen is quoted in context.
Exactly which rules were avoided?