IOC Relatives Not State Interns, Ex-Director Says
Salt Lake Tribune 31Dec98
By Mike Gorrell: Salt Lake Tribune

The current scandal in Salt Lake City over the 2002 Olympic Committee's bribes to get Salt Lake chosen as the site of the 2002 Olympic Games led a Salt Lake Tribune reporter to call an ex-Utah official on his LDS Mission.

Joseph Jenkins was a department director for the Utah State Department of Community and Economic Development from 1991 to 1995. The Tribune reached Jenkins in Kharkov, a city in the Ukraine where Jenkins is serving as a missionary for the LDS Church. Reportedly, Jenkins hadn't even heard of the scandal.

The Tribune asked about Gov. Mike Leavitt's suggestion that an International Olympic Committee member's relative may have held an internship in the department. Jenkins told the Tribune that this was absolutely not true.