The Summit County Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to make a contribution for 2020 to the regional planning body, the Central Wasatch Commission.
However, the contribution was half the amount the county has given before. And at least two Council Members said they aren’t fans of the Central Wasatch.
The Central Wasatch Commission, previously known as the Mountain Accord, received $50,000 a year from Summit County from 2016 to 2018.
Last year, the county didn’t make a contribution.
This year, the county’s contribution will be $25,000.
The Chairman of the Central Wasatch is County Council Member Chris Robinson, who told his colleagues he would appreciate their support.
“I think it difficult for me to continue to lead the Central Wasatch Commission without our participating in any way.”
Council Chairman Doug Clyde said he supports the contribution, despite the fact he has criticized the Central Wasatch.
“No question about it, I’ve been an ardent detractor of CWC. But I acknowledge Chris’ work, which I think has been vital to our overall perception as a participant in this work which affects the entire state, and affects an industry which we’re intimately involved in.”
Council Member Roger Armstrong said he’s been a long-time critic of the CWC because the county isn’t getting much value. He said after contributing a total of $150,000 all they got was an “Alternative Analysis” on transit to the Park City area. And recently, the county has been unsuccessful in pursuing a grant from the CWC.
“So $150,000 so far. This’ll take it up to $175,000. Does anybody else not miss the irony that we applied and try to get a grant from the organization that we’re about to give $25,000 to, and we’re not gonna get the 25,000 that we applied to get a grant for.”
But Council Member Kim Carson disagreed with Armstrong, noting that they’re dealing with a regional organization.
“It’s not like if you pay into it, you should expect a specific grant. There’s a lot going on, and maybe we need more regular updates from Chris. I support being at the table and involved. This money, we didn’t pay anything into it last year, and the money they’re expending is part of their last year’s budget. So we paid zero into that. So in that case, it would make sense that we would get zero on these grants. (Armstrong) We’ve not gotten zero on these—we put in $150,000. We got one study at the very beginning. Not exactly the most remarkable in-depth study. I think the information we got out of it was of limited utility.”
She said the Alternative Analysis cost some $400,00, and without the Central Wasatch, Summit County might have had to pay for it entirely.
Council Member Glenn Wright also said it’s worth it to have Robinson at the table of the CWC.
While there was some discussion about whether Robinson’s efforts were better spent on some other county issues, Robinson said that his time and the modest amount of money given to Central Wasatch is worth it.
“I value my time, and there’s an old adage that my now-deceased friend Bob Garff used to say—‘If you want to get something done, you give it to somebody who’s busy”. Regardless, I wouldn’t spend my time on the CWC if I didn’t think that it was an important regional collaboration.”
Summit County Council Member Chris Robinson.
