Salt Lake City Council members tonight plan to ask the mayor's office why it did not follow city procedures when approving a $1 million organ-donation monument on Library Square.
Their questions follow an audit they requested last fall to find out what happened after the monument's inception in 2003. The audit was the final inquiry into the process that led to the city being obligated to pay for a monument for which it did not have the money.
The monument was intended to encourage and honor organ donations, and the final bill for the project was paid March 31. The results of the audit were released this week.
Since its inception, the monument on the south end of the square has been the subject of contention. The mayor's office at first thought that the Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation was in charge of raising the money required for the project. But when the foundation folded, the city was stuck with the bill for the remaining $340,000 owed to the contractors and architect.
The mayor's office raised the remaining money needed last month. The audit by Hansen Barnett and Maxwell accountants found that the city did not set up a separate fund for the private donations coming in for the monument. If the city had established such an account, then the city's budget office would have overseen the fund-raising process as it does for any other city project.
In addition, the city's procurement officer should have signed the contract that authorized the project rather than D.J. Baxter, advisor to the mayor, according to the audit report.
"The mayor's office also signed the Library change order, and indirectly, it could be argued, obligated the city," the report said. "Per city procurement policies, the Mayor's office does not have the authority to obligate the city for construction projects."
Baxter said he signed the contract because it was a natural extension of the years-long role he had in planning the park space on Library Square.
"I understood that the funds were forthcoming and that the bill would be paid within a couple of months," Baxter said. "Everything pointed to the funds becoming available very quickly. I did not ever envision that it would come to this."
City Council members have said that they are eager for answers to why city procedures were not followed.
"How did this happen?" said Dave Buhler, council chairman. "Why did this happen? Why weren't these procedures followed and what will be done in the future to give us confidence that they will be?"
Eric Jergensen, a member of the council's audit subcommittee, said that the council may consider changes suggested in the audit report, including whether to have the city's budget office look at the library's accounting books.
E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com