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Show OoinioES LCttCrS less than 400 words, signed Should be typed double-space- d, with full name, and include address and phone number (number won't be to Flint Stephens, editorial page editor, published). Direct questions Jan. Sunday 21, 1990 Pi Warner firing hot potato in county attorney's lap Utah County government's Sid Warner problem is rife with the kind of things that move some government officials to lie, evade and i ne coverup. In fairness, no coverup is apparent. The word coverup suggests after-the-fa-ct efforts to keep something hidden. Nothing serious of that sort appears to have happened. The county's elected officials deserve credit for that much. What can earn them no credit, however, is their rush to conceal the problem in the first place. It they been above board about Mrs. Warner's firing and subsequent legal claim, most of what followed was avoidable. Instead, what should have been a simple termination has grown into a contest to see whether county commissioners or County Attorney Steve Kill-pac-k will end up with responsibility. Last Dec. 7 Sandberg told this newspaper the situation was handled the way Killpack wanted it. A few days later Killpack told us, no, it was a commission decision. Herald comment EASTERN EUROPE? damages and $250,000 in punitive dam- ages. In Utah County, on Nov. 21, the soap opera-lik- e legal problem confronted by Killpack boiled down to this: If Sid had said what Greg told Steve that JaLayne claimed Sid said, the county had a problem. From that day on it was hurry up, behind the scenes and make it look legal. Now it's up to Killpack to demonstrate that the county was on solid legal ground at each step. Or to admit that laws were bent or broken. Here, in outline, is the ground he must cover: Morris and Beck say Mrs. Warner told them individually (Morris on Nov. 17) that she was being fired because Then Commissioner Malcolm Beck Sandberg was attracted to her. told us Killpack failed to do his job. He Sandberg, Morris and Killpack said he now thinks the executive session signed a Nov. 27 voucher authorizing at which commissioners allegedly dealt $4,233 "severance" for Mrs. Warner with the matter was improper, killpack (eight weeks pay plus benefits). d The voucher spawned a responded that he had informed the commission of four legal options and check, produced in a hurry for Sandberg on Nov. 27 and 28. they decided what to do. Last Wednesday Commissioner Brent Killpack delivered that check to the Morris put the ball back in Killpack's Warners at home on Nov. 28. He carried court. Morris called publicly for a writ- back to the county three legal docuten report on the legality of the whole ments signed by the Warners. One is a and told this newspaper that he release, drawn up by Sandberg, absolvthing never heard of Killpack's four options, ing the county of responsibility and certainly not in the executive session. A binding Mrs. Warner to keep the whole day later Killpack told us he had in- thing secret. The second is a statement formed the commission through Sand- that Mrs. Warner had hired no attorney. Third is a notice of termination for "no" berg. k With the report due Wednesday, reason effective Nov. 26. can do a lot to put this mess to On the public record are minimal rest. Or he can string it out. The longer but legally required minutes of a Dec. 4 it runs, the more things turn up. executive session at which all commisMeanwhile the rumor mill works oversioners and Killpack deputy Jeril Wilson time to establish who said or did what to discussed the Warner matter. This meetwhom. ing, a week after the money was gone, Evidence of that is a recent request by appears to be the only time that commi-sionea south county legislator that the attorand legal counsel discussed the matter in a group. ney general look into the rumors. told the AG's man that the matter Actions agreed upon in executive was handled within the regular course of session are required by law to be put into effect with a public motion and county business. We suspect that quite literally is true. vote. Without that a closed-doo- r agreeThat's what bothers us. If this was ment is without force or illegal. In normal the county is in more than this meeting commissioners say, they financial trouble. agreed not to oppose the $4,233 check The whole affair falls into two parts when it came up for a vote days later. divided by Nov. 21. That's when Mrs. But they say they took no action. k Warner's husband, Greg, visited The warrant for Mrs. Warner's check did not come up as expected for and threatened to sue the county. Incredibly, but conveniently, the legal board approval. Instead, it turned up problem underlying Warner's threat was filed away with warrants that already dramatized last week on T.V. In Thurshad approval. On Dec. 20, three weeks after the day's episode of the popular show "L.A. Law," a judge fired his law clerk on money was spent, commissioners voted grounds that he was attracted to her. to approve the warrant. She sued and collected $15,000 in actual This is normal? m NOT ONE cautro ty& hand-type- WE" COMING TO a The Jfe w Kill-pac- rs Kill-pa- r - K'SC: It w ck SAJTV - M&i - -- VM KKffc Ull X SV Xs Wis? 6M TWT OVER Kill-pac- 25 OF S8Nl0fcS HAS SMOKED Letters Support appreciated Editor: The members of the 1992 Utahns on would like to thank the large number of people who showed so much interest and concern for our team while we manned our camp at the top of Mt. Timpan-ogo- s. The number of phone calls, people stopping in at our headquarters and the letters were overwhelming. We felt a real Everest community support, involvement, and spirit We also would like to comment on the members of the media who went the extra mile (literally) to cover the event for the people of Utah. A high amount of praise should go to your own staff writer Pat Christian who climbed the mountain with us and spent time in high camp. He is an excellent reporter, superior mountaineer and was a pleasing addition to life on the Tips on TODAY'S CONSUMER TOPIC IS: How car-buyi- Hill-ma- d H16U" School We have now finished our training exercise. All of our group is off of the mountain and home safely. We hope that as we follow our path to Everest in 1992 that the community will continue to be as excited as they were this past three weeks. Thanks to all of you. Team members Utahns on Everest team leader Douglas S. Hansen 1992 buoDimg) to Buy a Car. is one that I The first rule of learned long ago from my father, namely: Never buy any car that my father would buy. He had an unerring Instinct for picking out absurd cars, cars that were clearly intended as industrial pranks, cars built by workers who had to be blindfolded to prevent them from laughing so hard at the product that they accidentally shot rivets into each other. For example, my father was one of the n very few Americans who bought the British car with Minx, a the same rakish, sporty appeal as a municipal parking garage but not as much pickup. Our Minx also had a Surprise Option Feature whereby the steering mechanism would disconnect itself at random momenta, so you'd suddenly discover that you could spin th wheel all the way around in a playful circle without having any effect whatsoever on the front wheels. Ma hat Vnti ran tmafflne how I felt. IS an ! with skin capable of insecure . going from All Clear status to r uuy Mature Zit in seconds, arriving at the big wart-shape- mountain. His daily calls of concern to the high camp and reporting of progress was commendable. Thanks should also go out to the county sheriff, his search and rescue group and the local police who took so many calls and reassured people we were doing fine and that the lights and flares on the mountain were our way of greeting and recognizing the people below. a ear, or. 'vm here to Inhmtf high school pep rally dance, where all the cool guys had their Thunderbirds and their GTOs with their giant engines and 23 carburetors, and there I was, at the wheel of: The Hillman Minx. A car so technologically backward that the radio was still receiving Winston Churchill speeches. You don't see many Minxes around anymore, probably because the factory was bombed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. You also don't see many Nash Metropolitans, another car my father bought. The Metropolitan was designed by professional cartoonists to look like the main character in a children's book with a name like "Buster the Car Goes to Town." It was so small that it was routinely stolen by squirrels. It was not the Ideal car for dating, because there was room for only one person, so the other one had to sprint along the side of the highway, trying to make casual conversation and some times dropping from exhaustion. Being a gentleman, I always made sure my dates carried flares so I could go back and locate them at night. Of course, today's cars are much more sophisticated, by which I mean "expen- Dave Darry TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES sive." This is because modern cars employ all kinds of technologically advanced concepts such as measuring the engine in "liters." Let's say you buy a car with a "5.7 liter engine": This mean? that when it breaks, you should not ask your mechanic how much it's going to cost until you've consumed 5.7 liters of a manufacturer-approve- d wine. Of course, the most important considera- tion In buying a new car is the rebate. This is one area of automotive technology where America still reigns supreme. A lot of Japanese cars don't even have rebates, whereas some American car dealerships have become so sophisticated that they no longer even sell cars. You just go in there and sign legal papers for a "couple of hours and get your rebate and your financing with no payments due until next Halloween, and you drive home in your same old car. Ask your automotive sales professional for details. He's clinging to your leg right now.' NO! JUST KIDDING! The last time I jokingly suggested that there was anything even slightly unpleasant about buying a car, several million automotive sales professionals wrote me letters threatening to take all their advertising out of the newspaper and jam it up my nasal passages. So let me state In all sincerity that as far as I am concerned these people are gods, and Is the most legal fun that a person can have while still wearing underwear. zero-perce- nt car-buyi- But it can also be confusing. There are so many brands of cars today, with new ones constantly being Introduced, not only from domestic manufacturers but also from foreign countries such as Mars. I refer here to the "Inflnitl," a car that was Introduced by a bizarre advertising camperhaps you noticed this paign in which you never actually saw the'.car. Really. All you saw in the magazine ads i was ocean waves, leading you to wonder:' Is this a submersible car? Or was there some kind of accident during the photo session? ("Dammit, Bruce, I TOLD you the tide was coming in'.") But no, the Infiniti ads were done, that way on purpose. They wanted you to spend $40,000 on this car, plus whatever it costs to get the barnacles off it, but they refused to show it to you. Why? Because the infiniti is actuaUy: The Hillman Minx.- - - No, fust kidding again. The truth is that the Infiniti ads are part of an exciting new trend called "Advertising Whose Sole. Purpose Is To Irritate You." The ultimate example of this is the magazine ads for Denaka vodka, where a haughtily beautiful woman is staring at you as though you're the world's largest ball of underarm hair, and she's saying, "When I said vodka, I meant Denaka.'7 What a fun gal! I bet she's a big hit at parties. ("Pssst! Come Into the kitchen! We're all gonna spit In the Denaka woman's drink!") r., . My point is that there's more to buying a car than Just kicking the tires. h' |