Summit County Council Chairman Doug Clyde says that the coronavirus outbreak is one of the most severe emergencies he’s had to face, in his public or private career.
Clyde talked to KPCW about the day-to-day work of the Council; their efforts to assess the impacts on the county budget; and whether the resort industry can bounce back from the crisis.
Clyde told KPCW that the Council is holding closed-door sessions virtually every weekday to monitor the COVID-19 situation.
“The purpose of them are simply to look at all the data that we have, and look at all the operational issues that we have, get feedback from —of course, most importantly, Health—but all the rest of the departments, the Sheriff’s office, etc, about how things are going, then look at our operation plan and see if we can tailor our operation plan in a manner that’s most efficacious.”
Meanwhile, as we’ve reported, the Council met Wednesday with their staff to get some idea of what kind of financial hit their 2020 budget will take from the COVID-19 outbreak and financial shutdown.
The Council has been told that their revenue loss could be in the range of $3-5 million for the year.
“That is not a worst-case scenario, but it’s certainly not a best-case scenario either. That’s assuming that we have major, if not complete revenue loss during the summer, maybe some minor recovery later in the year.”
Clyde said he’s not planning for the worst possible scenario. But he wants to be prepared for the range of unknowns in the future.
“I’ve been through a lot of economic disasters, and this will certainly rate right up there, among the top. You can normally plan the short term fairly easily, that is to say what’s going to happen in the next few months. But the other problem we have going forward is what happens in December if ski season does not return looking somewhat like normal.”
County Manager Tom Fisher has taken the Council’s feedback and will ask his departments what they can do with their budgets.
Clyde said one obvious first step is to freeze hiring. The county might also defer Merit pay increases for their employees from this spring to the end of the year, though some employees have already received those. The county might also drop its match for an employee 401-K program.
Clyde said nobody feels good about looking at those ideas.
“The last thing we want to do is make life more difficult for our employees. And at least to some limited degree, postponing a Merit raise is hopefully something that they can absorb. But we’re going to look at that very closely. It’s sort of last on our list, frankly.”
He said that of course the Health Department will still get funding, especially for COVID-19 services. But that department does depend a lot on outside grants.
“Health Department is an example of an area that gets substantial grants in the order of $4-5 million to their budget every year. There is always the possibility that some of those grants, most of which are federal in their origin, will ultimately get cut back. And if we do, there may in fact be some corresponding cutback in services. That is—you’re now wading into the really tricky part of the budget process right now.”
Clyde, a resort planner in his private life, said a major
question is when the economy can return for Park City and other resort towns.
He said if there’s any silver lining to the crisis, it’s that the economic shutdown arrived during the shoulder season.
And Clyde said that the tourism economy can bounce back a little bit better than other segments of the economy.
“At the end of the day, when the clouds blow away, if people still have a little bit of cash in their pocket, they’re going to look to recreation as one of the things that they’re going to spend it on, because that’s important for their emotional health and well-being.”
Summit County Council Chairman Doug Clyde.
