Conflicts of interest
Activists want SLOC trustees to step down
Posted: Monday January 18, 1999 12:23 PM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Community activists are demanding that
state officials and Olympic organizers take further responsibility
for the bribery scandal surrounding the 2002 Winter Games.
One group has called for the resignations of Salt Lake
Organizing Committee trustees who stand to make money from the
games.
Another is seeking approval today of a petition drive that would
give voters a chance to ensure the state is not saddled with any
Olympic debt.
"The proposed measure is intended to insulate the people of
Utah from the financial folly that will result from the tainted
Utah Games," said Stephen Pace of Utahns for Responsible Public
Spending.
His group wants to put the issue of Olympic debt on the Nov. 7,
2000, general election ballot, and planned to ask Lt. Gov. Olene
Walker today to approve the project.
Pace said he will ask Walker to allow his group to gather
petitions on the Internet.
Impact 2002 & Beyond, a coalition representing low-income,
disabled and minority groups, wrote again to Gov. Mike Leavitt last
week, demanding that committee trustees doing business with SLOC --
Earl Holding and Alan Layton -- resign.
"It doesn't pass the smell test," said Glenn Bailey, a leader
of the coalition. "It's drilled into everyone in nonprofit
management: you don't do anything that smacks of self-dealing."
Holding is the owner of Snowbasin Ski Area, which will get $13.8
million from SLOC as the downhill and Super G venue, and Little
America Grand, a massive hotel being built downtown. It is expected
to be IOC's base during the Games.
Layton's construction company last fall won a $29 million
contract to enclose the Olympic speedskating oval.
Leavitt said Saturday he had not seen the letter, but rejected
the notion that SLOC trustees, appointed by him and the mayor,
should resign.
"There will always be conflicts of interest," Leavitt said.
"There just needs to be a way to disclose them and handle them in
the appropriate way."
Layton said he will not resign.
"What we've done is scrupulously correct," he said. "Their
whole contention that it's a gray area is offensive because it's
not."
The SLOC requires trustee members to disclose possible conflicts
and not vote when their businesses are involved. Any deals between
SLOC and its board members must be approved by an independent
ethics panel that includes a former Utah Supreme Court justice and
a former U.S. attorney. The SLOC also has a policy requiring
contracts of any size be put out to bid.
"There's no inside information. My competitors are not missing
out on any of this," said Layton, who recused himself before the
board in October when it approved Layton Construction Company's
contract for the speedskating oval in Kearns.
Layton contends that managing an Olympics requires the "best
business minds in this community."
He said it would be extremely difficult to line up such leaders
who have nothing to gain from the Olympics. For instance, two
trustees are top executives at the state's largest electric and
natural gas utilities. Another is chief executive of the largest
bank.
Holding will not comment about his role on the board while four
investigations into accusations that Salt Lake's bid executives
bribed IOC members to secure the games are under way, said Clint
Ensign, a vice president at Holding's company, Sinclair Oil Corp.
The ethics panel already has rejected a complaint by Impact 2002
& Beyond. In a 1998 letter, the panel said Holding has complied
with the ethics code because he disclosed his conflicts and
disqualified himself from voting on the Snowbasin Ski Area
contract.
In a related development, two IOC members -- South Korea's Kim
Un-yong and Russia's Vitaly Smirnov -- are under investigation in
the Salt Lake scandal but deny any wrongdoing.
Kim, the former IOC vice president and current executive board
member, was cited for a "minor offense" and is not expected to
face expulsion or other punishment from the IOC.
On Sunday, the German newsletter Sports Intern identified Kim
Un-yong as one of 13 IOC members who received a letter from the IOC
asking for an explanation of their conduct.
"I did not do anything that I should be ashamed of," he said.
"I don't even feel it necessary to comment on it because I have
absolutely nothing to do with the scandal."
Smirnov has been asked to explain his request for free medical
treatment of a Russian hockey player and a hunting rifle he
received as a gift during a trip to Salt Lake.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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