What part of "no" don't you understand?
At least that seemed to be the message reiterated by Gov. Mike Leavitt Tuesday when he again denied that he knew specifics about questionable financial practices of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee in the months leading up to the bribery scandal that tarnished the image of the 2002 Winter Games.
"It is real easy and perhaps legitimate for people to question or second guess why I didn't connect the dots," Leavitt said during a news conference on Capitol Hill. "All I know is what I knew and how I responded."
The flurry of Olympic-related questions came in the wake of media reports that suggested Leavitt and legislative leaders were aware prior to the scandal that SLOC officials were lavishing money, gifts and other perks on International Olympic Committee members and their families.
As reported this past weekend, sources told the Deseret News that SLOC's chief financial officer, Gordon Crabtree, was leaking inside budget information to the governor's office, which was working behind the scenes to bring SLOC spending habits under control. That information reportedly included details about scholarships to IOC family members. Legislative leaders also said this week that Leavitt and some lawmakers knew a year before the scandal broke about gifts, scholarships and other inducements funneled toward the IOC.
Leavitt said Tuesday that three issues dominated Olympic discussions during the summer and fall of 1997: replacing the embattled Tom Welch as SLOC president, ultimately with Frank Joklik; finding a new chairman of the board of trustees to succeed Joklik; and development of an ongoing budget.
In fact, there were constant discussions about SLOC's pattern of spending, he said. It was at this time that rumors surfaced that SLOC provided IOC members with prostitutes. These rumors, which became public about a year ago, were investigated and dismissed as unfounded.
"There were lots of rumors, and in every case we did everything to check them out," he said.
In the fall of 1997, Leavitt met with Joklik at the Governor's Mansion to discuss SLOC's spending habits, and Joklik committed to Leavitt that he would operate "in an atmosphere of frugality," the governor said. Leavitt also said at the time he would not approve the SLOC budget until a $100 million contingency fund was incorporated into Games plans.
"Those conversations were a direct result of the atmosphere" of state concern over SLOC spending, Leavitt said.
But Leavitt also insisted that Crabtree and SLOC executive board member Nolan Karras, Leavitt's point man on the board, knew nothing of illegal inducements, including scholarships to family members of IOC delegates. It would not be inconceivable, he said, that someone used the word "scholarship" in these meetings but never in the context of the scholarships going to IOC family members.
Legislative leaders are now saying that Joklik told them in the fall of 1997 — a full year before the scandal broke — about expenditures intended to sway influence IOC members. Joklik reportedly promised to discontinue the programs, although they continued for months afterwards.
When Joklik himself resigned in the wake of the scandal, Leavitt at that time praised his integrity. On Tuesday, he stopped short of reiterating that endorsement, but also refused to call on Joklik to resign from the board of trustees.
Leavitt insisted that the lavish spending habits of SLOC have been greatly curtailed since the appointment of state Olympic officer John Fowler, who offers day-to-day oversight of SLOC budget matters. But Leavitt also said it is not the state's role to be an auditor, but to look only after the interests of the state.