Police fee plan gets OK in Salt Lake County

SALT LAKE CITY — A new fee plan to subsidize law enforcement costs for unincorporated Salt Lake County found unanimous approval Monday, paving the way for the first bills to go out next month.

The original proposal, which assesses annual fees of about $180 for residents, was tweaked only slightly following a public hearing last week, in which several dozen residents mostly opposed the plan.

Before the three-member Unified Police District that administers the county's part of the new Unified Police Department cast their final votes, board member and Salt Lake County Councilman Michael Jensen promised to look for ways to reduce the rates in the coming year.

"I don't think there's a person in Salt Lake County that's happy with where we are at," he said. "I will take this year and look at every avenue … to reducing this fee."

The district board members, who include Councilman Jim Bradley and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, eliminated a scaled residential fee schedule that was part of the first version and charged more for apartment dwellers than residents of single-family homes. Now, all residents except those who live in mobile homes will pay $15.50 per month. Mobile-home dwellers will pay $14.50.

Under the new plan, those who rely on the county for police services pay according to use, with businesses on the hook for fees ranging from $16 a month for construction and manufacturing to almost $7,000 monthly for retail "super centers." Small business owners and landlords were among those who registered the strongest objection at last week's public hearing.

"This new tax, as I would call it, is going to cost our company $74,592 a year," said Gordon Palmer, owner of Stonehedge Apartments in Millcreek. "There's nothing we can do about this, and apparently, there goes $75,000 a year that we're going to have to pay to solve your problems."

Palmer's fee is small compared with the million-plus being charged to Kennecott Utah Copper and defense contractor ATK, two large regional employers hit hardest by the new fee.

"Kennecott has its own security, fire and EMS on site," said Gina Crezee, Kennecott's principle adviser on government and community relations. "According to your own fee schedule, the closest fee to our allocation of $1.3 million is $81,000 annually for super centers; these are areas that receive significantly more calls for law enforcement."

Mike Bell, an ATK attorney, said his company, facing about $100,000 in annual costs for UPD service, is also concerned about how the fees were assigned.

"All we're ready to say is that we have serious concerns, and we're trying to understand the fee assessment," he said.

Utah Taxpayer's Association vice president Royce Van Tassell said the county should have covered the law enforcement costs with further budget adjustments.

"The taxpayer's association is very disappointed with this decision," Van Tassell said. "This is nothing more than a new tax being assessed to solve a county budget problem."

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