While dealing with COVID-19, the Summit County Council this week also dealt with items relating to their budget, spending and work plans.
At their meeting of April 29th, the County Council approved a second round of spending cuts to their 2020 budget, given the revenue losses they expect due to the coronavirus shutdown.
According to the county’s Chief Financial Officer Matt Leavitt, the Council reduced the budget of some $61.4 million down to $54.2 million—that’s a decrease of 11.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the Council debated one specific spending item. In the end, they voted to make a contribution for 2020 to the Central Wasatch Commission.
Council Member Roger Armstrong has long been critical of the Central Wasatch and its previous incarnation, Mountain Accord.
But he said he voted for a $25,000 payment, since it is half of what the county has paid before. However, Armstrong said he could support giving the program nothing.
“A lot of this is driven by, our Council Member Chris Robinson was asked by the Commission to chair the Commission this year. And he agreed to do that. And I think fellow Council members are looking to support him in that regard. And I understand that and I respect it. I just think if we’re shaking our savings and trying to squeeze every coin out of the bank that we can, that $25,000 expense right now is probably not where we want to be. And I thought it was ironic that we actually applied to the CWC for a grant, and apparently are not on the short list to receive that grant, which would have had money coming back from the CWC. But we’re instead going to put money into the CWC.”
He said that from what he’s seen, the focus of the CWC is more on issues around the Wasatch Front.
Also on the agenda, the Council looked at revising their 2020 Work Plan. Given the changes created by the pandemic, they pinpointed the projects they will still finish for this year, and listed others that might be delayed or given a lesser priority.
Council Member Glenn Wright reported that a company has put forward a proposal for a waste energy plant for Summit County. In response, Armstrong said he needs to have more information on the concept.
“I’ve heard that can be the size of a small warehouse. It can be a large facility, a small facility. I don’t what it will cost to actually bring that about. Again, is this going to be, would this be energy coming off of this plant primarily to use to run the plant and the operations of the landfill, or is this something more broader than that, where we can actually put energy back in the grid.”
He said some other topics, like affordable housing and a plan for Senior Services, are important. But he doesn’t see them as immediate priorities.
“Should we look at it today? No. I think we’ve got staff running in a dozen different directions constantly still, and that’s likely to be the status of our staffing at the county for at least another month or two—at least—as we head into the stabilization phase. And I anticipate that as we’re going into the stabilization phase, just based on what we saw from the Stay At Home phase, there are going to be constant questions, there are going to be fires that need to be put out, there are going to be complaints, there are gonna be a lot of things that have to be dealt with in the short run.”
Summit County Council Member Roger Armstrong.
