Mayor uses city newsletter to be 'truth referee'

Outgoing Mayor Bob Gray has used South Salt Lake's monthly newsletter to attack claims made by his former rival, Wes Losser, who is trying to regain the mayor's seat against Gray's handpicked successor.

Losser calls the tactic -- staking out space in a city-funded newsletter to lob political attacks -- a "worrisome" misuse of public funds.

City Attorney David Carlson says Gray exercised an "abundance of caution" and paid for a portion of the two-page ad in the August and October issues from "his own pocket." The city pays $1,600 a month for the space in the privately owned South Salt Lake Journal.

But the "Mayor's Message" still appears as part of the official city newsletter. Readers are not notified who paid for all or parts of the two-page ad. The city did not respond to an open-records request in time for this story regarding the amounts Gray paid.

Losser was ousted by Gray in the 2005 election. This year, Losser aims for a comeback, running against Gray's assistant mayor, Cherie Wood. Losser and Gray have sparred over their records on public safety, taxes and park improvements.

"Ask a current employee how they feel, and how they view the leader prior to me, and ask them if they want to see that administration again," Gray writes in the October newsletter. "Please vote for honesty and integrity to keep our city great."

In the newsletter, Gray does not explicitly endorse Wood, but he has done so in a private

letter mailed to residents. He also does not name Losser, referring to him as a "certain candidate" who makes "claims" about the shortcomings of Gray's administration. Gray, the self-appointed "election truth referee," deems all of that candidate's contentions to be "fiction" in his October edition of "Election Fact or Fiction."

Mark Thomas of the Lieutenant Governor's Office, which oversees elections, said Thursday it would require an investigation to determine whether the newsletter violates the law. In an earlier interview about the statute, he said, generally, a city-paid newsletter in which a mayor is "endorsing candidates," would be an example of a breach.

Carlson said Gray's intent was "not to endorse one candidate or the other."

The mayor, the city attorney said, "feels that he not only has a right, but probably a duty, to correct false statements that are being made about how the city government is being operated."

Journal accountant Darren McCabe said the newspaper received one check from South Salt Lake for the August newsletter and that payment for October has not been received.

rwinters@sltrib.com