A former Salt Lake Tribune reporter who resigned in a widely publicized dispute with his editors over a prison wiretapping incident has been hired by Salt Lake County.
Christopher Smart, 42, was hired March 1 by the Recycling Information Office of the Solid Waste Disposal division at the recommendation of unnamed county officials. Before leaving the Tribune, Smart covered Salt Lake County for the newspaper.Smart quit the Tribune after his editor, James E. Shelledy, quietly accepted transcripts of telephone conversations between Smart and a Utah State Prison inmate. Department of Corrections Director O. Lane McCotter said during the ensuing controversy that the intent was to demonstrate that Smart was biased against him.
A seven-year veteran at the Tribune, Smart publicly disclosed the McCotter-Shelledy communications and accused his newspaper of complacency in the face of questionable tactics.