A Utah State University employee was paid for 2 years while he didn’t work (2024)

No one ever saw him in his office. He rarely responded to emails and never answered calls. He was so unreachable, in fact, that some people questioned if he was still on staff.

But Warren Tyler Agner continued to collect paychecks from Utah State University Eastern for more than two years without showing up and with little evidence he completed any work - even as other staff repeatedly reported frustration about his absence. They submitted complaints to the school’s HR office and several administrators, to officials at the Utah System of Higher Education and to federal investigators.

Even local businesses in rural east-central Utah, which Agner was hired in July 2021 to support, called the school to say they hadn’t heard from him and could really use the help that USU had promised.

At least one of those alerts came to administrators as early as March 2022 - seven months into Agner’s time there - according to a trove of emails shared with The Salt Lake Tribune by multiple USU employees, former employees and affiliates.

But it wasn’t until July 2023, more than a year after that, that the school started an internal audit, prompted by the Utah Attorney General’s Office, which received a tip about the situation that alleged “fraud is being committed.”

In the end, investigators found Agner received $157,470 for the time he was employed but didn’t do his job.

And more broadly, the dense 24-page internal audit details favoritism and inappropriate working and hiring practices at USU Eastern, a small satellite campus 200 miles from the university’s primary location in Logan. It also documents shoddy accounting and policies that hadn’t been updated since 1999.

The Tribune requested and received both the tip to the attorney general and the USU audit — completed in April 2024 — through public records requests. Both were heavily redacted to remove names, position titles and identifying details.

The Tribune also requested the findings of a separate HR investigation done by USU; that document included names and can be matched up with the audit to create a picture of what happened. Several current and former employees also shared a printed copy of the unredacted review with the newspaper, along with other communications about what they refer to as “the shadow employee” situation.

The findings show that USU Eastern administrators worked to cover for Agner, who had close personal relationships with several of them - including living with one - so that he could continue being paid despite not working.

At least three administrators within the school, according to the audit, knew about and did nothing to address the complaints; all are described as friends of Agner.

At one point, Agner’s direct supervisor got an email from HR asking about concerns that Agner wasn’t working. The supervisor forwarded the message, saying the “situation just moved to Defcon 3. I am not sure what I can or cannot do at this time.”

A department head at USU Eastern responded: “I am happy to do whatever is necessary” to keep Agner employed - even if that meant moving Agner to another department so he would stay on the payroll without drawing more attention.

That direct supervisor has remained on staff and in charge of one of the same programs. And the administrator above him, who lived with Agner, was allowed to quietly resign - despite recommendations that he be fired.

Still, the university spokesperson said: “USU is confident in the action it has taken to hold employees accountable for failing to perform their required duties and failing to comply with USU policies.”

When reached by phone, Agner declined to comment for this story; he was let go by the school in January and has since left the state.

At this point, USU says “there is not a clear path” to reclaim the misappropriated salary and benefits paid out to him. The school’s spokesperson said the university has moved money around to cover the lost funds.

That ultimately means, though, that the taxpayers who fund the public school will eat the cost — with no return for the spending in a region of the state that is often left behind.

Agner’s position, which paid $90,000 annually in wages and benefits, was bankrolled by state funding and grants, including one from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity.

There does not appear to be any pending criminal charges in the case - despite claims filed against two other USU employees, previously, for siphoning smaller sums. Terry Messmer, a professor, was charged and pleaded guilty to a felony in 2023 for filing and taking fraudulent reimbursem*nts from the school, totaling $11,000; David Olsen, a former department head, was charged and pleaded guilty in 2022 to stealing $76,000 from the school.

No evidence of work

Agner was hired to oversee two programs run by USU Eastern to bolster small, local businesses.

At the campus centered in rural Price, the dual programs are aimed at a region once dominated by mining but where, without it, many towns’ economies have rusted over like the old railway tracks that still run through the area. Employees who have previously worked with or seen the work of the business programs say they have been crucial to bringing new life to the region.

Affiliates of USU and the programs told The Tribune that businesses were being held up for months and not receiving payments they depended on because of Agner’s absence. The Tribune agreed not to name the individuals who spoke about the audit and situation at USU Eastern as they all fear retribution in the small community and by their employers, with some still working at the school; their identities were all verified.

The first program under Agner’s purview was Custom Fit, which is funded by the state with money allocated by the Legislature each year; there are offices at schools across the state. Under it, businesses that are trying to get established can get reimbursed for up to half of the costs for any type of employee training. The way the audit frames it, Custom Fit is meant to “promote economic development” by creating skilled workforces.

The second program, the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), is a federal effort (which can also be bolstered by additional state grants) focused on providing start-up assistance, marketing or budgeting help, consulting and training. There are 13 regional locations across Utah — which all operate in partnership with a traditional or technical college. The program as a whole is managed by Mike Finnerty, the state director who works with the specialists at each school.

Finnerty did not respond to a request for comment from The Tribune on this story, nor did Doug Miller, who is the chief campus administrator for all of USU Eastern.

Finnerty is quoted in the audit as saying Agner was “not my first choice” for the position at the school. The report does not elaborate on why Finnerty felt that way from the start.

But it does provide a look at how Agner’s absence stymied potential business growth and development in the area — an impact that’s hard to quantify but that was reported by several proprietors.

During the reviews, the HR office at USU had asked Agner to give examples or evidence that showed what he’d done in the role. They gave him a deadline of Dec. 11. By Dec. 19, the auditors wrote, Agner had not provided anything.

In an attempt to fill in the blanks, the auditors reviewed Agner’s email account, talked to other employees and looked at the databases Agner was supposed to fill out to track which businesses he was working with.

From the SBDC side, “there was nothing entered into the database the entire time he was employed,” Finnerty told auditors. During that timeframe, Finnerty added, there should have been a buzz of activity because businesses were requesting more help following the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In contrast, Finnerty provided numbers to auditors that compared Agner’s lack of action with his counterpart in SBDC who was based out of the USU Blanding campus. From August 2021 to August 2022, that specialist logged 575 hours of counseling businesses and recorded contracting with 49 clients.

When Roger Koyle was hired as the new SBDC and Custom Fit specialist for USU Eastern in April 2023 — to do the work Agner wasn’t — he logged 48 new business starts in his first year, records provided to The Tribune show. Koyle declined to comment for this story.

Finnerty said at one point he tried to tell administrators at USU Eastern that he would pull the funding for SBDC if there continued to be no work done. It’s unclear if that was ever carried out or when the ultimatum was made. It shows Finnerty knew about the situation with Agner, but Finnerty told auditors he “felt like I was being held hostage.”

Additionally, each year that Agner was in charge of the Custom Fit program, there were significant funds — more than 25% of the total budget each year — left over. Custom Fit dollars are, ideally, all to be given out annually without any carry over, according to the guidance from the Utah System of Higher Education.

Not using all of the funds, the audit said, indicates insufficient efforts to reach out to businesses.

A ‘risk and gamble’ in hiring

From the start, the decision to put Agner in the role was fraught.

Agner had previously worked for USU Eastern as a coordinator for a temp program and as a data analyst, according to Transparent Utah. The audit said that there was pressure to hire him for the business specialist spot, despite Agner not having directly relevant experience.

That’s because Jamie Cano, who was then the associate department head at USU Eastern over professional and technical education, had pushed for a position to be opened for Agner and for it to pay well, according to the audit.

Cano and Agner lived together at the time, according to the audit, with Cano telling auditors they were “like family.” Though neither ever reported that to USU, the audit noted, both current and former employees described it as a “good old boys club” culture.

“An employee believed the SBDC specialist was getting paid without working because of his relationship with the associate department head and department head” of technical education, the audit reported.

The department head is Bryan Warnick, who was Cano’s supervisor and still works in the position. And another friend was Ethan Migliori, who reported to Cano and became Agner’s direct supervisor. That means the reporting chain went down from Warnick to Cano to Migliori to Agner — leaving Migliori the only person in the administration separating Cano and Agner.

Migliori — who is also a former Emery County commissioner — acknowledged to auditors that the “thought crossed my mind how it would play out” if he had to make any difficult decisions with Agner because of the relationship web.

Instead, the auditors concluded that Migliori helped cover up for Agner, often doing Agner’s work so no one would notice his absence.

Auditors found that of a randomly selected 306 Custom Fit training agreements made from the time Agner started, in July 2021, to Nov. 30, 2023, Agner signed 56 of them — which the audit calls “intermittent work” and the only thing it could verify that he had done (so some of his salary was allowable, but most was not).

Migliori, meanwhile, signed 189 of them. And a former employee, who said she also felt like she had to take on the work, took care of four. (Koyle, the new specialist, signed the remaining 57, after starting in April 2023).

When auditors talked to Migliori, he said it was a “risk and gamble” and that he “can’t defend it” now.

Email records also show that Migliori immediately reduced Koyle’s authority when Koyle came on as the new specialist and started asking questions about his budget and why Agner’s salary was part of it. Migliori removed Koyle from overseeing Custom Fit — leaving him only SBDC — and kept Agner on the payroll.

“To make your life easier, effective immediately, I am removing you from all Custom Fit obligations you may have or perceive to have,” Migliori responded in an email to Koyle in January, when Koyle asked for a better look at the programs’ finances.

The separate HR investigation done by the school blames Migliori for hiding what was going on, but it also said he “felt pressure” to make sure Agner kept getting paid. “Members of leadership in this group had long-standing close relationships with [Agner] and all had authority and professional power over [Migliori],” the report states.

At one point, Migliori was contacted by HR after there were several complaints that other employees couldn’t reach Agner. That’s when Migliori forwarded the message to Warnick, calling it “Defcon 3″ and asking how he should respond. Warnick said he wanted Agner, his friend, to continue to be able to get health insurance and would do whatever was needed to ensure that.

The audit said that Agner had some health issues and had applied for leave. It doesn’t note if that was granted or delayed in some way; a USU spokesperson declined to elaborate, saying it is “private personnel information.”

When reached for comment by The Tribune, Migliori said in an email: “Sorry, I have been asked by the university to refer you to the university’s PR office for comments.”

He currently remains in his position, overseeing Custom Fit and the Short Term Intensive Training (STIT) program, which is also state-funded. His salary and benefits sit at $133,200 annually.

Outdated policy on relationships

The HR investigation was much more forceful when it came to Cano, saying his actions to influence employment decisions in favor of his friend and to manipulate budgets should be considered a “severe failure” of his job duties as a high-ranking administrator at USU Eastern.

“It appears he prioritized personal relationships over merit,” the report said. “The perceptions of this preferential treatment have eroded trust among team members and the USU community.”

The report concluded that Cano’s actions “may justify terminating his administrative role and potential dismissal.”

USU spokesperson Amanda DeRito confirmed that the school stripped Cano of his administrative duties after the findings. But she said he “resigned before any additional employment action was taken.”

Cano told The Tribune only that he is “no longer working at USU Eastern” and had no other comment. Warnick was not mentioned in the HR findings, despite his involvement.

One thing that’s happened since is an update to a 25-year-old policy on nepotism and cronyism at the school, which had previously only banned relatives directly working under relatives.

Agner was fired the day the HR report is dated, on Jan. 9 of this year — after being on administrative leave since October. It’s unclear why the university waited to put him on leave until then, when its internal investigations started in July and August. A spokesperson also declined to say whether he was paid during that leave.

The date he was put on leave does correspond with the first time that auditors sat down with him in person, according to the report. On Oct. 20, 2023, they said, they talked to Agner about his work.

When they asked Agner what his job was, he said it was “difficult to describe right now … it’s transitional.”

What’s next?

While it may seem like a manipulation involving one employee’s pay, the audit suggests that the implications for the matter are larger.

Businesses were likely harmed. Morale within the program took a hit. The unsubstantiated payroll expenses have the potential to jeopardize future state appropriations. And taxpayers funds were wasted.

Going forward, the auditors gave the university and Migliori, who remains on staff, a laundry list of changes to make. Among them, Migliori will need to report monthly on any staff absences. And USU Eastern will need to better advertise the Custom Fit program to eligible companies.

The final audit was sent to 28 administrators, including USU President Elizabeth Cantwell. And the auditing office said it intends to follow up to ensure the recommendations are followed.

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