Documents pertaining to a recent audit of the Mountainland Applied Technology College reveal that officials "felt pressured" by the Utah County Republican Party to help build a parade float and find ways to cover the charges.
Campus President Clay Christensen is also believed to have been aware that the expenses, charged to the school for labor and supplies, were illegal before he found a private donor and offered to personally cover some of the remaining costs himself, the documents show.
"Our most significant concern is the college president's disregard for the law and use of his position to override internal controls to detect and prevent improper disbursements," states one document obtained by the Deseret Morning News.
Also included is a time sheet outlining 29 hours of work that a welding instructor spent on the party's float totaling $580.09, which included parts for the project as well. Another time sheet logged six hours during which Utah College of Applied Technology President Robert O. Brems' son, Chris, a full-time employee at the college, transported the float between Lehi and Spanish Fork. Additional supplies for the float were billed at $416.14.
Christensen, who could not be reached for comment, told auditors "he was under tremendous pressure to get the project done ... " and that "he was trying to repair some damaged relationships with the Legislature that had occurred before he became president of MATC."
When asked, Senate Majority Leader Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, said Thursday he was "unaware of any damaged relationships with the Legislature."
He said his only involvement was asking Christensen whether the welding class needed a project to do. He recalls no further correspondence with Christensen prior to the audit of the college.
The audit's background documents say Christensen told the auditor he was approached by Bramble, who pitched the float as a welding class project.
Bramble's wife, Susan, secretary of the Utah County Republican Party, and Bramble's son "followed up with the completion of the project," the audit says Christensen reported when asked about being pressured to do the float.
In May, the state auditor's office was contacted by an MATC employee, Bryce Adams, who was concerned about an invoice he was asked to pay regarding work done on the float. Adams was told by auditor Van Christensen and by an attorney in the auditor's office that the expenses were not allowable, according to state law, which says "a public entity may not make expenditures from public funds for political purposes."
William Evans, education division chief for the Utah Attorney General's Office, also confirmed to Adams that the expenses were not allowed under state law.
Adams questioned Clay Christensen in an e-mail, also obtained in the package of audit background documents, on accepting the invoice, which was from one of the college's instructors for work done on the float.
Adams' e-mail states, "Boy Clay, you are putting me in an awkward spot here. We've had several conversations about this. I have told you that the Utah AG's told us this was clear cut, black and white. MATC should not pay any costs associated with this float. It is illegal to do so."
Adams went on to say that the hours logged would have to be paid some other way because they were designated to a political cause.
"It seems that we have made a mountain out of a mole hill," Clay Christensen replied in a message from his BlackBerry.
Documents state that no expenses for the float were paid by the MATC after Christensen was advised that payment was improper, only that he instructed them to be paid.
The initial bill for materials was paid by Don L. Ipson, owner of DATS Trucking and chairman of the Utah College of Applied Technology's Board of Trustees. According to the documents, Christensen had told the vice president of finance that he would pay the remaining expenses himself.
Christensen later told the auditor that "this started out innocently and he acknowledged that he has handled it poorly and he takes responsibility for that," as stated in the documents. He was placed on paid administrative leave Aug. 10 when the results of the audit were issued to the MATC board of trustees.
The audit report recommends that the college's management establish a control environment where management's attitude and actions demonstrate a commitment to established laws and policies, as well as require the college president to comply with applicable laws.
The UCAT board of trustees is looking into the matter regarding Christensen, and the campus board is looking to implement the auditor's specific recommendations on the campus level. A separate investigation into other issues of the audit, involving Brems, is being conducted by the Board of Regents, the governor-appointed board that oversees the state's colleges and universities. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. told reporters Thursday after taping his monthly news conference broadcast on KUED Channel 7 that his office will be looking at the issue from an ethical standpoint.
"We have our people in education and higher (education) looking to do it who will make recommendations, and we will act upon what we get," the governor said. He said officials "are looking very closely at this" for any ethical lapses on the part of administrators.
Asked about the ethical questions raised by the lawmakers involved, Huntsman said, "What can I say? I'm not sure building floats for partisan purposes is something Republicans ought to be in the practice of doing."
Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, who was also named in the audit background materials as being one of the legislators who knew about the request to build the float, said after the audit was released Thursday that nothing merited a legislative ethical investigation.
"We haven't seen anything yet," Valentine said. "It doesn't look like there's anything there at this point."
Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche
E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com