Some Salt Lake City emergency dispatchers filled the gaps between 911 calls recently by stuffing thousands of envelopes in support of Proposition 1's public-safety bond.

In doing so, they broke state laws that prohibit city employees from electioneering on the taxpayers' dime.

City Attorney Ed Rutan said Wednesday the activity was "improper" and ordered that the Police Department not disperse the mailers - which have yet to be sent - to voters.

"That is an activity [the dispatchers] should not have been doing," he said. "City employees are allowed to engage in political activities on their own time" but not during work.

Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank - who has led the charge in support of the $192 million bond, which would pay for a new public-safety headquarters and other police and fire facilities - said he was unaware of the envelope effort.

Even so, he added, "nobody was forced to do it. It was completely voluntary."

Burbank noted that dispatchers often spend their "downtime" doing such work for charities, but he agreed the Proposition 1 undertaking was ill advised.

"The actual activity wasn't authorized by the Police Department," said police spokesman Det. Jared Wihongi. "We had, essentially, an overzealous employee that asked . . . if [co-workers] wanted to help" during their downtime.

Wihongi said the dispatchers were asked to stop filling envelopes after the department's administration learned about it. He did not know how many employees were involved.

Burbank estimated the dispatchers stuffed about 40,000 envelopes.

Salt Lake County Councilman Joe Hatch, a critic of the ballot initiative, said he wasn't surprised by the misstep.

"I [have] accused the city chief of police and the fire chief [Dennis McKone] of behaving like Chicago politicians," who used to order city staff to set out campaign signs, Hatch said.

"They are behaving like Chicago politicians and shame on them."

rwinters@sltrib.com

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