Friday Facts for March 13, 2020

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Utah League of Cities and Towns

Friday Facts for March 13, 2020

Greetings everyone,

It is fitting that today is Friday the 13th in light of the 2020 legislative session. We started with the repeal of tax reform and ended with the COVID-19 response. Utah State's Sam Merrill owned the short-lived March Madness and your correspondent is disappointed for the seniors at BYU, USU, and elsewhere. Today's email will provide additional information, including our Cities Work podcast, about the reaction to COVID-19. The email will also provide an update about upcoming ULCT programming and a brief recap of the 2020 legislative session and upcoming interim.

COVID-19
#CitiesWork podcast

Cities Work Podcast

This week's Cities Work podcast with more details about city declarations of emergency and coordination with local health departments, provide the resolution that the Utah Retirement Systems board passed about temporary benefits, and inform you of legislation that the Utah State Legislature enacted tonight about coronavirus.

As mentioned yesterday, ULCT recorded a Cities Work podcast with Governor Gary Herbert’s general counsel Ron Gordon, Utah Division of Emergency Management Public Information Officer Joe Dougherty, and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. We discussed city declarations of emergency, the relationship between cities and the State of Utah and local health departments, and other items that city leaders need to know. You can listen to that podcast HERE. Many cities are debating the decision of whether and when to declare a state of emergency for their community. Here are some guidelines from the Utah Department of Public Safety to help make that choice.   

Utah Retirement Systems

Additionally, the Utah Retirement System board met yesterday afternoon and adopted a resolution to allow for employers in the URS system to extend additional benefits without impacting the URS system. If a public employer, due to coronavirus prevention or mitigation, extends additional temporary sick leave or similar benefit to an employee, then that additional temporary sick leave or benefit would not count toward the employer’s URS contribution. The resolution is effective immediately and you can read it on our website HERE.

The podcast and the URS letter, as well as our other resources that we emailed out yesterday, are available on ULCT’s landing page about coronavirus HERE.

Coronavirus Legislation and Funding

Late last night, the legislature passed HJR 24 which authorizes Governor Herbert to continue Utah’s state of emergency due to COVID-19 until June 30. Current law only allowed the state of emergency to exist for 30 days. The legislature also enacted HB 494, which finalized the flexibility of the $16 million for coronavirus response. The money was appropriated in the state budget earlier this week but HB 494 provides flexibility to transfer funds between agencies, departments, divisions, or institutions for purposes of coordinating and providing a state response to the coronavirus. Both HJR 24 and HB 494 are effective immediately.

We know there are still unanswered questions about how to respond to the coronavirus challenge. Our landing page includes links to how cities or similar organizations are responding to the virus, FAQs, news articles about closures, and other relevant resources. If you want to share how your city is responding, then we’ll add it to our landing page. Let us know what other questions you have and we will seek answers. Thank you for your leadership in a difficult time.


Legislative Advocacy

Legislative Advocacy

Morning-After Thoughts on the Session

ULCT worked on 218 bills and resolutions this session which is the smallest quantity of bills that we've faced in several years. By comparison, we worked on 361 bills and resolutions in 2019. In the weeks to come, we will provide you with information about how the passed bills will impact your communities and what your cities and towns need to do. Regardless of the status of conferences, we'll make sure you receive that important information.

Additionally, there are more than 20 policy issues ranging from gravel pits to water conservation and metro townships to emergency medical services that we already expect the legislature to revisit in 2021. We will solicit your input about priorities and request your participation in work groups soon

In closing, I want to thank all of you who participated in our legislative advocacy. The strength of the league is you--our membership. We rely on you--mayors, council members, city attorneys, city managers--to provide expertise, input, and advocacy. This session, legislators listened to local leaders and you collectively made a difference at the capitol. Thank you very much!

I also applaud our Director of Government Relations Victoria Ashby in her first year leading our legislative advocacy efforts as well as our other dedicated and talented team members Wayne Bradshaw, Karson Eilers, Roger Tew, and John Hiskey. We have a tremendous team!


Upcoming Events

ULCT Upcoming Events

ULCT Programming Advisory

Due to the coronavirus threat, ULCT programming in March--OPMA training on March 18 in Cedar City, Land Use Academy of Utah on March 21, and the USU Research Landscaping event on March 17--are all canceled. We will be in touch soon about the programming in April, including the Midyear Conference on April 22-24.

Spotlight

Spotlight-  Meet the Candidates

As you maintain your social distance and spend more time at your computer, get ready to learn more about Utah's candidates for governor.  ULCT is about to launch a special series of interviews with the candidates and hear how their priorities align with the issues of local government leaders.  Stay tuned for more on ULCT's Facebook page and YouTube channel! 


Newstand

The Newstand