The latest Eagle Mountain tiff doesn't involve padded resumés or faked kidnappings.

Instead, it's all about sex, hard drives and politics.

At a recent City Council meeting, Mayor Brian Olsen asked council members to hand over their city-issued laptop computers for a pornography audit. Olsen said that all city computers were being checked after pornography was found on a city employee's computer.

Council members Vincent Liddiard and David Blackburn refused the request, while the other council members who had computers complied. Liddiard said he did not hand his machine over to Olsen because he did not think the mayor had the authority to make that demand. Liddiard and Blackburn have since had private firms inspect their computers and certify that the hard drives do not contain pornography.

Olsen's demand for the computers came more than a week after the council rejected the mayor's request to create city jobs, and immediately after Olsen said the council's special meetings on the city budget were illegally scheduled. Based on the timing, it might appear that Olsen's request for the computers was politically motivated.

This is one of those rare instances where neither side is completely in the right or entirely wrong.

Eagle Mountain, like any employer, has the right to inspect its employees' computers for inappropriate content or illegal use. Not only do these audits protect the city legally, they ensure that city computers are not infected by viruses picked up at illicit Web sites. The taxpayers have a right to know if city employees are using their work computers only for legitimate purposes. Pornography is not the only issue. They shouldn't be running personal businesses on city equipment, either.

Council members are no different than other city employees. If they use a city-owned computer, they should have no expectation of privacy when it comes to Internet activity. Objections only fuel suspicion that someone is trying to hide something.

Olsen handled it miserably in any case. No matter how innocent the request, the mayor's timing made the action appear to be driven by revenge. Nor did it help to ask for the computers in a public meeting, raising suspicion in the minds of people that someone on the council was viewing porn on a city-owned laptop.

It would have been better for all parties if Olsen had made a discreet request outside the meeting, or have had the technicians doing the audit ask for the computers. That would have defused the situation.

It's too late to change what happened, but everyone involved ought to learn from this. Lesson 1: Never, never, never abuse your city-owned computer.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.

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