The proposed fiscal year 2025 budget reflects increased law and code enforcement needs across Summit County.
The sheriff’s office is asking for four new deputies and five school resource officers, the latter to comply with a state mandate. The planning department wants one or two new code enforcers, and the attorney’s office says it needs a paralegal and a prosecutor.
“We're focusing a lot on having some of the departments come and present ways in which they have gone through what we were calling the PPI process—the peak performance initiative process—to make sure they're being as efficient as possible, that they have evaluated the personnel,” County Manager Shayne Scott said ahead of the Oct. 30 county council meeting.
The sheriff’s office tells the council it receives more than five times more calls now than it did two decades ago. But it still has the same number of sworn deputies responding to those calls.
Sheriff Frank Smith has said that’s a big deal because Summit County has seen big cases, particularly in the past year.
“It's changed quite a bit,” Smith told the council Oct. 30. “And I never thought we'd have a shooting in Browns Canyon like we had. I never thought we would see the homicides that we see.”
The Summit County Attorney’s Office is prosecuting a particularly high-profile alleged murder case. A Kamas mother of three, Kouri Richins, is accused of fatally poisoning her husband two years ago.
That case in particular has strained prosecutors’ resources, County Attorney Margaret Olson has previously told the council.
“Pre-COVID, we had 6,155 cases [yearly],” she said Oct. 23. “We're on track this year to have almost 9,000—and that takes a lot of work.”
Both of those offices are bigger than code enforcement. There are just two officers to enforce planning and zoning rules in a county of nearly 43,000.
Community Development Director Peter Barnes has said they’re effective, but busy. They’ve been called upon in the Snyderville Basin this year for everything from unlicensed businesses to illegal short-term rentals.
The planning department wants an officer dedicated to building inspections and another expressly for short-term rentals. Park City and Summit County have gained more STRs than anywhere else in Utah since 2021.
County staff say they can fund all these positions if a sales tax, Proposition 18, passes, so the council is awaiting the results of Tuesday’s election before contemplating cuts.
Click here for more information on the sales tax ballot initiative.
Otherwise, councilmembers will need to decide between new employees and a property tax hike.
They deferred a tax increase last year with cuts and haven’t raised taxes in the county’s main fund in seven years. Summit County has the second lowest tax rate in Utah, but some of the highest property values.
The county manager says the proposed budget does not include the 20 new employees other offices requested.
