MURRAY — After concluding its investigation into former Salt Lake County Recorder Gary Ott’s chief deputy, Julie Dole, the Salt Lake County GOP booted Dole from her position within the party.
After an hourlong closed meeting, Dole’s fellow Republicans unanimously voted late Thursday night to remove her from the county party’s executive committee as Senate district chairwoman. They also disqualified her from holding any leadership, volunteer or paid positions — and banned her from running for any elected offices as a Salt Lake County GOP member — for the next five years.
The vote came after the party’s executive committee reviewed a report detailing the findings of an investigation the party launched into Dole in July to examine allegations that she covered up Ott’s health issues to keep her job as his deputy.
Dole has repeatedly denied those allegations, insisting that she never hid Ott’s condition, but rather she had no place or right, as his employee, to speak out about her boss’s private life. She has also dismissed the party’s investigation as purely political and unfounded.
But the party’s investigation concluded Dole “used her position (within the party) to conceal (Ott’s) deteriorating condition throughout the last election cycle and during her time as the appointed chief deputy within the recorder’s office,” according to the report, written by three party committee members: Helen Redd, Randy O’Hara and Jay Brummett.
In a text message Thursday night, Dole said the county's actions were "extremely troubling and disingenuous," accusing party leadership of "violating and dishonoring" the Constitution "by moving forward with this, especially since there are no proven facts or charges."
"As I have said all along there are no findings, just baseless unfounded allegations. I am innocent," Dole said. "From the start, this has been a kangaroo court. I was censured based on unsubstantiated allegations reported by the media. Since there have never been any charges or substantiated findings against me, only rumors and suppositions, I find it preposterous that based on questionable news stories, the committee has even moved forward with this."
Page 1 of Former Salt Lake County Deputy Recorder Julie Dole's Statement to GOP
Contributed to DocumentCloud by Virginia Romney of Deseret News • View document or read textThe allegations against Dole surfaced more than a year and a half ago, when questions first arose about whether Ott was suffering from health issues that were preventing him from doing his taxpayer-paid job.
Until August, Ott continued collecting about $190,000 in salary and benefits while county leaders had no legal options to remove him — until a judge granted his family guardianship and they negotiated a resignation on his behalf.
After Ott resigned, Dole served as interim recorder for two weeks until the county Republican Party selected Adam Gardiner to fill the position through 2018, when an election will be held to finish Ott's term. Dole no longer works in the recorder's office.
Last year, the county party censured Dole for violating the party’s ethics and standards by making “blatantly false public statements” that “appear to be a deliberate attempt to hide from the public the health and mental state” of Ott.
“It is unfortunate that following Ms. Dole’s censure, she continued to act dishonestly, making false and misleading representations to the public, the media, and the party,” concluded the party’s investigative report.
The report cited several findings, including that Dole has “continued a pattern of behavior that included acts of deception, misdirection, misrepresentation and obstruction."
Among several examples listed, the party’s report referenced emails between Dole and Karmen Sanone — Ott’s former employee and girlfriend/caregiver who has also been accused of having a nepotistic relationship with Ott — that showed the women discussing ways to make emails “look as if” they were coming from Ott.
Dole told the Deseret News that Ott has always had her or Sanone write emails on his behalf, but only with his approval.
But the party’s investigative committee said Dole’s behavior, “in sending emails which appear to be written by the elected official ... feeds a public perception of wariness toward the overall integrity and behavior of public officials.”
The report, however, does not list any specific evidence that backs up the claim that Dole concealed Ott’s condition through his last election in 2014. But the report does state the investigative committee “relied upon audit reports, direct testimony, direct quotes, media reports and other documents,” to arrive at its conclusions.
Salt Lake County Party Chairman Jake Parkinson declined to discuss the closed-door conversation before the vote because it was done in a closed session, but he did say the committee acted to “protect the integrity of the county Republican Party.”