At a Wasatch County Council meeting Wednesday, Dec. 17, Sheriff Jared Rigby shared updates from his office, including new service contracts and efforts to improve transparency.
The Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office has had a rocky year, including two outside investigations into allegations of retaliation and mismanagement.
Rigby said he’d like to have more regular updates with county councilmembers.
“We’d like to invite at least three members of the council to our office on a quarterly basis,” he said. “We’d like to answer questions. We’d like to talk about any projects that we’re working on and those kinds of things.”
He also introduced retired Washington City Police Chief Jim Keith, who Rigby said is providing an outside perspective on the sheriff’s office.
“I’ve asked Jim to help us in our office when it comes to making enhancements and the work that really needs to be done, inside the office and outside the office,” he said. “Really, organizations over time can develop groupthink, or they could use someone from the outside to come in and to give them suggestions.”
Also Wednesday, the council passed a $129 million budget for Wasatch County for 2026. That includes about $19 million for the sheriff’s office, an increase of over $2 million from 2025.
Part of Rigby’s funding request is to hire a new professional standards director.
Councilmember Spencer Park expressed some concern that the new hire should be outside the sheriff's office.
“I think it’s a resolution that we would do maybe in January, or at least look into, that that person would report to somebody outside of the sheriff's office, so that anything in there could be reviewed without fear of retribution,” he said.
Leaders agreed to add that suggestion to a future agenda.
