Mayor Given $201,000 to Pay Legal Debts

Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, who’s in line to become president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is under fire for accepting $201,000 in personal gifts to help pay off a six-figure legal debt. Already the target of a district attorney’s investigation over the gifts, Corradini also will be targeted by an outside ethics investigator whose hiring was approved by the City Council last week. Corradini defended the gifts, arguing her benefactors were “friends” who expected nothing in return. But a tide of public outrage since she disclosed the gifts last month prompted the City Council decision to hire its own investigator to determine possible conflict of interest violations.