SALT LAKE CITY — The federal monitor overseeing the Utah Transit Authority as required by a nonprosecution agreement signed more than two years ago with the U.S. Attorney's Office provided a largely positive first report Wednesday.
"It became clear that UTA has evolved signficantly since it first described its 2016 reforms" to the investigation by federal authorities into what the San Francisco-based law firm hired as a monitor called "problematic activities."
The status of the investigation remains unclear.
Although an indictment against a former UTA board member, Terry Diehl, was filed after the nonprosecution agreement was announced in April 2017, those charges, related to money from a transit development deal, were dropped within months.
Carlton Christensen, chairman of the new, smaller UTA board created as part of sweeping changes made by the 2018 Utah Legislature, told the Deseret News his understanding is that "any criminal investigations are concluded."
Melodie Rydalch, spokeswoman for Utah's U.S. Attorney's Office, had no comment about whether the investigation is ongoing. In a statement, the office called the federal monitor's report a "critical first step" in executing the nonprosecution agreement.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office appreciates and supports the candidate and forthright nature of the initial report, along with its public release promoting both transparency and responsibility throughout the monitorship," the statement said.
Under the terms of the agreement, UTA agreed to cooperate with the investigation and submit to up to three years of federal monitoring to assess progress on concerns identified by federal authorities.
Those issues are inadequate controls over federal funds, improper handling and disclosure of property acquisitions and dispositions, and missteps related to ethical standards and executive bonuses.
There was no discussion about the findings by the UTA board after a presentation on the federal monitor's 53-page report that detailed past problems as well as how the agency and the Utah Legislature have responded.
"We believe progress has been made," attorney Rees Morgan told the board, based on interviews with 28 people from UTA, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Transportation, and a review of 14,000 pages of documentation.
Morgan said that doesn't mean there isn't more to do.
Future reports over what is expected to be a three-year period of federal monitoring will deal first with the decision by state lawmakers to replace UTA's in-house lawyers with members of the Utah attorney general's staff.
Also on the list for further study are transit oriented development projects around FrontRunner stops, executive turnover, travel documentation, and the powers of a new advisory board also established as part of legislative overhaul of UTA.
The U.S. attorney for Utah started looking at UTA's operations, federal funding, and negotiations for and acquisitions of property, equipment and capital improvements after a critical 2014 legislative audit, according to the report.
Utah's legislative auditor raised concerns in 2014 about transit-oriented development projects as well as large bonuses and unusual benefits provided to UTA executives, including a boost in retirement credit for one valued at about $50,000 a year.
Employments deals that were canceled in 2015 for a pair of now-former UTA executives were valued at more than $1.1 million each annually, according to information obtained by the Deseret News in 2017.
Then-Legislative Auditor General John Schaff called the government's oversight of a state agency "unprecedented" at the time, describing the deal made by UTA to avoid prosecution as "quite unusual."
A $600,000 contract with the San Francisco law firm of Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass to serve as federal monitors was approved by UTA a year ago. The monitor's next report is expected by the end of the year.
UTA officials had hoped the federal monitoring would not last through 2021, but Christensen said Wednesday he's anticipating at this point that it will continue for the full three years.
He said he hopes the public is assured "we have made some substantial changes that put us in the right direction. While we have some additional changes that are going to be made, they just go to make us a better organization."
No one should be worried, Christensen, a former Salt Lake City councilman, said, "about any current activity that would substantially tarnish us. I feel very positive about where we're going."
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly said UTA Board Chairman Carlton Christensen is a former Salt Lake County councilman. It should have said he is a former Salt Lake City councilman.