Kennecott balking at paying $1.2 million being assessed for new S.L. County agency

SALT LAKE CITY — Just as a new cooperative law enforcement entity springs to life with the New Year, the agency's No. 1 customer is poised to come out swinging at a Wednesday public hearing.

Kennecott Utah Copper is unhappy with a new user-based fee schedule that accompanies the restructured police services and assesses a $1.2 million annual bill for the mining company that operates multiple facilities and employs 1,800 on the county's west side. In a statement released Tuesday, Kennecott spokeswoman Jana Kettering said the company hasn't been provided with substantive answers to inquiries about the math behind its seven-figure liability.

"We question the validity of the county's process and continue to be concerned about the process that took place to establish this fee," Kettering said.

Company officials met with Salt Lake County representatives last week but disagreed on various topics and "were not provided information that led to clarity," she said.

Kettering said a more detailed statement will be issued by the company at a public hearing Wednesday.

Salt Lake County Deputy Mayor Nicole Dunn, who attended the Kennecott meeting, said the county put great effort into establishing an equitable fee structure and that it was more fair and less costly than the other option — collecting the costs through a property tax hike.

"It's a matter of fairness," Dunn said. "Property tax increases would have meant higher cost for Kennecott, homeowners and businesses."

The Unified Police Department, serving 250,000 residents of the Salt Lake Valley, officially opened for business Jan. 1. It is the fruition of years of planning and debate focused on consolidating the police services formerly provided by the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office to residents of townships and unincorporated areas of the county, along with Herriman, Bluffdale, Holladay and Riverton.

The new cooperative, administered by a board that includes representatives from each of the stakeholders, oversees almost 340 officers and comes with a $45 million operating budget — a cost divided among the members on a scaled basis.

Salt Lake County, now functioning as a partner in the enterprise, though Sheriff Jim Winder heads the effort as its chief executive officer, faced a $12 million shortfall in covering its $21.5 million obligation for the coming year, thanks to tanking sales tax revenues. The solution, in lieu of passing the costs on as a property tax levy, was to assess usage-based fees to residents and businesses in those unincorporated areas.