I’ll be honest, when I first thought about running for the Salt Lake County Council in 2014, I really didn’t know what the county did. I remember sitting in a council meeting and being pretty overwhelmed as I tried to grasp the breadth of the county’s portfolio - criminal justice, behavioral health, prosecution, tourism, tax collection, property surveying/assessing/recording, elections, arts and culture, parks and rec, libraries, health department, aging and adult services, and… who knew that we co-owned a landfill?
As I meet with constituents, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is, “What does the county do?” So here is a primer on county government. Salt Lake County is funded through property, sales taxes, and transient room taxes generated from lodging, recreation, and other tourism services. We have a $2.16 billion budget, but in 2014, the state auditor included Utah Transit Authority’s (UTA) state funds, currently $416 million, in our overall budget. We don’t have any decision-making authority for UTA, but their budget is counted on ours. Our actual general fund is roughly $600 million. Tourism sales tax dollars go into separate funds for our convention centers and many of our recreation and arts facilities and operations. The county serves all of its incorporated and unincorporated areas. Incorporated areas have cities and towns that make municipal decisions. In contrast, unincorporated areas do not have a municipal or city government, so Salt Lake County still provides municipal services. By law, the county has to separate budgets–revenues and expenditures–for unincorporated areas. We can’t use countywide-collected taxes to pay for municipal services in the unincorporated areas. We only have about 10,000 people left in unincorporated areas, most of whom are in the Sandy islands, Hi-Country Estates (west of Herriman), and the canyons. The Salt Lake County Council is the legislative governing body with nine elected officials, including three “At-Large” members elected to represent the entire county for six-year terms and six “District” members representing geographical districts for four-year terms. The county council meets most Tuesdays to discuss issues, make and approve all budgetary changes, enact ordinances and regulations, distribute funds, and authorize intergovernmental agreements. The county mayor has executive responsibilities like proposing the budget and running the county's day-to-day operations. The mayor can veto legislation and provide suggestions regarding public policy. The county also has eight independently elected offices – treasurer, assessor, district attorney, surveyor, auditor, recorder, clerk, and sheriff. Each of these officials is elected to a four-year term. Now that you know more about your county, I would encourage you to try to identify county facilities as you drive around. You’ll see libraries, rec centers, regional parks, health centers, performing arts theaters, and convention centers. We love serving you and appreciate hearing your feedback. You can email me at [email protected].
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Changes to the Unified Police Department are coming. Some of the information out there has not been entirely accurate, so I thought it might be helpful to share some insight. This past legislative session, state legislators decided to remove language about the Unified Police Department (UPD) from state statute. This meant UPD would need to operate by interlocal only, and without the state giving specific guidelines.
This legislation originally removed the county sheriff as the CEO of UPD, as many cities questioned whether it was a conflict of interest with the sheriff wearing two hats. But when the sheriff’s association and Sheriff Rivera met with the legislative sponsor, they supported just removing the UPD language altogether from state code. Unified Police Department is a governmental agency created by interlocal agreement. It serves areas such as Millcreek, Holladay, Midvale, unincorporated Salt Lake County, and the townships. The board can choose their CEO, but for years they have just kept the county sheriff as the CEO. This has created some heartburn for cities not in UPD who wonder if there is appropriate financial separation between UPD and the countywide sheriff services. I have also been asked about this and have been participating on a committee to gather more information. All of our county residents receive great countywide public safety services from the sheriff’s office. Some of these countywide services include the statutory duties of the sheriff, such as operations of the jail, warrants and extraditions, and search and rescue. There are additional countywide services that provide a countywide benefit such as drug court, metro gangs, major investigations and drug enforcement, and canyon patrol. For those who are UPD officers or live in UPD service areas, rest assured that leaders from Millcreek, Midvale, Holladay and other areas are working hard to ensure UPD remains a stable and top-notch police agency to take care of your needs. There will just be one difference and that is a cleaner separation between your policing agency and the county sheriff who represents all areas of the valley. I believe this will give UPD a better chance to grow and thrive. It will also help other police agencies rest assured that there are no conflicts of interest, and all agencies will be represented well by the sheriff’s office. As a Salt Lake County Councilmember, I believe funding transparency is vitally important for all county services. This is especially true as it relates to law enforcement services that are provided on a countywide basis. The tax dollars used for these services come from residents and all taxpayers throughout the county. When deciding which programs to fund on a countywide basis I provide careful consideration to determine the usefulness of these services to your community, if the current resource allocations and service levels are appropriate, and the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the programs. |
Aimee Winder NewtonAimee Winder Newton has served since 2014 and represents Taylorsville, Murray, West Jordan, and West Valley City on the Salt Lake County Council. She was a former 2020 Republican candidate for Utah Governor and was the first woman elected as chair of the Council. Aimee works tirelessly to defend the quality of life in Salt Lake County while protecting tax dollars... [read more]
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Aimee Winder Newton | aimee winder newton: County Council district 3 |