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County Recorder's Documents Confiscated from Home and Office |
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Investigation Launched into
Record Storage Arrangement
Source of Title - reprinted with
permission
3/8/2006
Gary Ott, the Salt Lake County recorder, and his office
are being investigated following allegations that the county office and a
software developer entered into an illegal agreement to image the county's
various documents.
Sean Thomas, the county auditor, launched the investigation
on March 3, 2006. His team was directed to investigate all transactions over
the past decade between the recorder and software company Sire Technologies
Inc., formerly known as AlphaCorp, according to an article in The Salt
Lake Tribune.
County officials are questioning whether the arrangement between
AlphaCorp and the county is legitimate and are questioning the amount of
payments that have been made to the software company. The arrangement
between the two entities was apparently never legitimately bid out to
vendors, according to county officials.
"How and the heck did this get through?" said Jim Hatch, a
councilman, during a meeting in February. "There is no signature of
approval from the (District) Attorney's Office. I'm wondering if we, as a
council, really did budget for this."
To learn more, please read "Salt
Lake County, Utah to Electronically Record its Documents."
Ott has defended his actions and said that all of the arrangements that have
been made were legitimate.
"I've always followed rules as they are in place at the time," he added.
"I'm quite fiscally conservative. I'm frugal with (the county's) money."
However, county officials indicate that the arrangements with the AlphaCorp resemble
a "tree-trunk" contract - one with various limbs, but no actual rooted
contract. Additionally, the chief programmer for AlphaCorp is Dustin
Butler, the son of County Surveyor Vaughn Butler
and a former worker in the recorder's office. Yet, any kind of personal
relationship or favoritism has been denied by Ott.
"It's just ridiculous," said Ott. "I'm not related to him, and he was gone
before I got here. No way is this anything but good business. I don't think
I'm smart enough to be sneaky."
© 2006, Source of Title
Source of Title launched in September 2002 as a directory to help title industry professionals locate independent settlement service providers. Since then, Source of Title has added forums and full-service news content targeted at industry professionals.
For additional information on Source of Title, or to learn about advertising opportunities, visit www.sourceoftitle.com.
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