SALT LAKE CITY, UT –- Salt Lake County's chief financial officer has resigned in the wake of last week's discovery that he used his county-owned vehicle for two personal trips to Lake Powell last year, according to the Salt Lake Desert Morning News. Randy Allen submitted his resignation to county Mayor Nancy Workman on Wednesday, effective at the end of the month. Workman indicated last week that Allen would be given an undisclosed punishment; Allen said he was not pressured to resign. Allen, a member of Workman's extended Cabinet, was one of 11 top county employees given the use of a county vehicle 24 hours a day. The policy governing personal use of the vehicles is vague, in one place saying no personal use is permitted while in another that it is according to "discretion." In one regard, however, the policy is clear: no recreational use is permitted. While other employees have traveled to Moab and other far-flung places on county business, Allen's trips to Lake Powell were purely recreational. He used the county-owned Ford Explorer to tow his boat, reported the Desert Morning News. While Allen readily accepts responsibility for his actions, he said he believed at the time the trips were within the purview of appropriate vehicle use. He declined to go into further detail, but Marshall said Allen told him that he (Allen) had sought guidance from county fleet manager Nick Morgan, who told him it would be fine to go ahead with the trips. Marshall and county attorneys have been working on a revamping of vehicle use policy, tightening up definitions of what personal use is and is not permissible. Specific definitions abound, but basically it comes down to "incidental" personal use being permissible, such as going out for a sandwich during a break in meetings or picking up the dry cleaning on the way home.
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