S.L. County Council seeks tighter control of budget

Members of the Salt Lake County Council want to take control of their government through the only real tool at their disposal: the budget.

During the past several months of county scandal and controversy, there was much hand-wringing among council members and candidates that they should be doing more to assert control. The general consensus is that county government has fallen into a pattern wherein the mayor — who runs the day-to-day workings of county government — has 90 percent of the power and the council is left with the dregs.

"The council needs to exercise its oversight function," incoming councilwoman Jenny Wilson said several times during the campaign.

So far, however, aside from the adoption of a package of ethics and related ordinances that Councilman Randy Horiuchi calls "cosmetic," nothing much has happened.

That may now be changing.

Councilman Cortlund Ashton and incoming councilman Mark Crockett are pushing for the council to assert control over the budget, more than conducting a few hearings every November to tinker with the mayor's proposed budget.

"I don't know if we want to be like the state, where they just throw the governor's budget in the garbage can and start from scratch, (but) we need to be more involved," Ashton said. "We need to insert ourselves in the process."

The usual process is for the auditor's office to create a tentative budget, give it to the mayor who creates a proposed budget, and thence to the council.

Crockett wants to reverse that process, involving the council at the beginning by telling departments how much money is available and telling them what priorities the council wants them to address. And if departments don't follow those priorities, or don't stay within the budgeted amount without fully justifying their position — well, the council decides how much money they get.

"There is no program analysis" on the council level currently, Crockett said. Council members barraged with numbers and figures in the November budget sessions can't possibly understand what's really going on and "the only thing you can be brave enough to do is add money."

In theory, nothing is more powerful than controlling the purse strings. In reality, several county officials say, the council has let its power lapse because, well, budgeting is hard, tedious, non-headline-grabbing work. Doing what Crockett has in mind would require beginning the budgeting process six months ahead of time.