Salt Lake County owes the money fairly because County Mayor Nancy Workman spent that amount in health department funds to help pay the salaries of a succession of bookkeepers for the South Valley Boys and Girls Club who had nothing to do with the health department.

It's not a matter of rubbing salt in the mayor's wounds, although she is facing felony charges resulting from that expenditure, is on a paid leave of absence and has been dumped by her own party in the upcoming election.

It has not been determined whether Workman is guilty of a felony or even whether she or her daughter, who worked for the Boys and Girls Club, benefited from the misspent money. The point is she spent health department money that should have gone to county programs that benefit the health of residents, such as breast-cancer screenings and an anti-lead educational campaign.

No official has the right to ignore approved county budget appropriations and spend taxpayers' money any way she pleases. No one in the health department was consulted or approved the expenditure as is required by the Utah Local Health Department Act. The County Council apparently was out of the loop, too.

So the health department lost money that should have been spent on health programs, and it is right to demand to be reimbursed.

The mayor's shenanigans may have had another victim. Patti Pavey, who worked in the health department for 27 years and served as its executive director for three years, has resigned to take a job in the private sector. Her complaints about a "ghost" employee exposed Workman's unauthorized expenditure.

Pavey says the scandal is not to blame for her resignation, but we suspect it had an effect. When she announced her resignation, Pavey rightly criticized Workman's directive that health department and other county officials not talk to each other. She said better communication would benefit both groups, and we agree.

It is a shame that the scandal may have been a factor in the department's loss of a director who obviously had earned the respect of health department employees and members of the health board, who called her "a legend."

As Pavey departs, her work developing the department's first bioterrorism-response plan, her oversight of the beginning of water fluoridation in Salt Lake County and her direction of the department during the 2002 Olympics and post-9-11 public-health scares will be remembered.

If Workman leaves her post as mayor, she may well be remembered most for her arrogant misuse of power.