Heber City Manager Matt Brower’s contract was renewed April 14 after a tense meeting that ended with a 4-2 vote.
Mayor Heidi Franco and Councilmember Yvonne Barney cast the “no” votes on Brower’s retention and spoke with KPCW about their concerns after the meeting.
“We all know that there’s an investigation pending, and while it may come back with nothing, it may come back with something,” Barney said. “I believe strongly that there needed to be some time to allow that to follow through.”
She’s referring to a complaint submitted to the Utah Office of the State Auditor about the city’s contract with the Community Alliance for Main Street.
CAMS is a nonprofit dedicated to making downtown Heber a vibrant place to shop, dine and gather. In January, the council unanimously voted to give CAMS a contract to provide downtown events.
But a complaint alleges that Brower didn’t disclose his role as a volunteer board member of CAMS and that Heber City didn’t go through the proper bid process before hiring CAMS.
Brower was named as a board member in meeting materials from January.
Former city councilmember Rachel Kahler has led CAMS for nearly two years.
“It’s curious to me that people are upset that CAMS really is the only organization that was considered in this, because it made such sense that the downtown organization would help foster events and bringing people downtown,” she said.
Heber City is not required to go through a full public bidding process if only one person or organization can provide the services. Staff think CAMS meets that standard.
To be safe, the city asked the Park Silly Sunday Market and the Historic Park City Alliance what they would charge; both quoted prices “significantly more than” what Heber will pay CAMS.
The Heber City Council will vote on whether to ratify the CAMS contract at its meeting Tuesday, April 21.
If approved, CAMS will receive about $40,000 in each of the next three years to lead downtown programming.
Kahler said Heber City locals have a lot to look forward to this summer.
“I’ve had the opportunity now to reach out to the car show, the art festival; we’ve got Children’s Day in the park,” she said. “We’ve added a couple of new events, with a Cinco de Mayo party and the dogs’ day in the park.”
Other events include free weekend yoga and music in the park and the popular Thursday night Heber Market on Main.
To read more about the city’s contract with CAMS, see the meeting agenda packet.
Heber City is a financial supporter of KPCW.
