From Deseret News archives:
W. Jordan mayor study is decried
In a request to the high court filed this week, three sponsors of a petition to put the proposed change to a citywide vote asked the court to order the city to redo its fiscal impact study.
The court filing paints the city administration as being largely opposed to the proposed change from a strong city manager form to a strong mayor form, and accuses the City Council of approving an analysis that is biased against the change.
The analysis, performed by newly appointed city finance director David Hales, projects a cost to the city of about $2.6 million over the first five years after a change in government.
"In our estimation, that's just wildly off," petition sponsor Jay Sheen told the Deseret Morning News.
But city attorney Roger Cutler disagrees, and he doesn't believe the petition before the court holds much water.
"I'm a little surprised at how shallow it is," he said of the filing. "The city was very careful in doing its financial analysis and knows it to represent the true cost. If anything, it's on the conservative side."
A summary of the study is to be attached to petitions that sponsors will ask residents to sign, and they worry the cost estimate will discourage would-be signers.
The court filing says the study made inaccurate comparisons to the administrative costs of other cities operating under a strong mayor form of government. It says the cities selected have overall budgets up to twice as big as West Jordan's, so it stands to reason their administrative costs would be higher, too, regardless of the form of government.
They say the city should have included a look at Salt Lake County, which in 2001 changed to a strong mayor form of government. There are differences between the county and West Jordan, however, as West Jordan currently has a strong city manager form of government and the county's previous government was run by a three-member commission.
The petition sponsors say in their filing that the county saved about $1 million in general expenditures its first year after changing forms of government. Figures from the county show that the administrative costs — costs such as paying for the county council and mayor's staffs — went up, as it takes more staff to support a mayor and nine council members. In 2000, the county spent $1.3 million for the commission's administrative costs. In 2001, it spent $1.2 million on the council and $2.05 million on the mayor's office.
