Friday Facts for April 3, 2020

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Utah League of Cities and Towns

Friday Facts for April 3, 2020

Normally Team ULCT spends April preparing for Midyear in sunny St. George and doing our spring training about the legislative session. However, this is no normal spring. In fact, our own Karson Eilers quipped that ULCT seemingly stands for the Utah League of Coronavirus Training! 

Today’s email will update you on this week’s COVID-19 happenings and some non-COVID-19 happenings. On COVID-19, we will request that you fill out our fiscal impact survey, link to last week’s call and remind you about next week’s call with Lt. Governor Spencer Cox, and summarize where we are and where we are going.

We’ll also share our long awaited video series of ULCT President Mike Mendenhall interviewing gubernatorial candidates. These interviews were done in February prior to social distancing. We will also highlight resources like a land use legislation training via zoom on Tuesday, April 14, share April’s Director’s Message, explain the data tracking to comply with HB 374, and spotlight retiring Spanish Fork and Salem City Attorney Junior Baker. 

COVID-19: Where we are going and what ULCT needs from you

The Governor’s directive from last Friday runs through Monday, April 13. The Governor announced that he will call a special legislative session this month to address state budget issues and other legal and policy matters because of COVID-19. Team ULCT is actively engaged in preparation around the special session and we need your input via the below survey.

A key component of the special session will be the implementation of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) which Congress passed last week. The $2 trillion package includes $1.25 billion for the State of Utah, of which $562 million could be used for local governments. The money is to reimburse the state and local governments for “necessary expenditures” that were not accounted for in the budget from mitigating the impacts of COVID-19. 

The CARES Act has other smaller financial resources for cities that you can read more about HERE.

As mentioned in our Wednesday email, there is ambiguity in the bill around the definition of “local government,””necessary expenditures,” and timing of budgeted costs. As a result, the League joined with the Utah Association of Counties to submit a letter to the U.S. Department of the Treasury seeking flexibility in the definitions. You can read that letter HERE. We also have been in daily dialogue with the National League of Cities about the CARES Act (your correspondent is on the NLC Board of Directors). The Treasury Department will issue guidance about the CARES Act in the next week or so and must distribute the money to the State of Utah by April 24.

Regardless of the Treasury Department’s guidance, ULCT needs your help!

Our ULCT COVID-19 fiscal task force created a three part survey to understand the impacts of COVID-19, budgetary assumptions for next fiscal year, and an overall needs assessment (in partnership with Utah State University).  This information and data will help justify ULCT’s request for the State to share the $562 million, and create useful information for the larger membership. 

For questions about what your municipality should be tracking, ULCT worked with a number of municipal administrators, finance directors, and attorneys to create a list of direct and indirect costs to COVID-19.  If you have not already, we recommend you begin tracking these items, especially the direct costs that could qualify for CARES Act reimbursements. The list can be found HERE.

 Please have your city or town complete the survey by the close of business on April 10, 2020.  A link to the survey can be found HERE. Please take the time to submit the survey!!!

In closing, the Governor’s Directive expires on April 13, the special session will be sometime in April, the President’s social distancing recommendations go through April 30, and the Governor’s order around schooling at home goes through May 1. Stay tuned.

COVID-19: Last week and resources

Since last Friday, the health departments of Salt Lake County, Davis County, Weber/Morgan, Tooele, and Southeast Utah have enacted orders that build on the Governor’s directive. You can see a Deseret News article explaining Utah’s unique approach with commentary from your correspondent HERE. The Governor and the Department of Health also issued new orders this week on housing evictions, signature gathering for campaigns and local referendums, post-retirement reemployment, and restaurants.

Your correspondent also did an interview on KSL Radio about concerns we’ve heard from our members in rural Utah about the potential impact of large groups of tourists descending on their communities.

COVID-19 resources:

Check out the league website for links to our Tuesday call with Lt. Governor Spencer Cox and remember to submit your questions for next week’s call by Monday at noon HERE. We will have an FAQ ready early next week that summarizes all of the questions that we’ve received to date and answers from the federal delegation, state leaders, or other stakeholders. You can also find a myriad of resources on coronavirus.utah.gov

Two new websites debuted this week focused on COVID-19 testing and CARES Act dollars for small businesses. Test Utah is a new initiative sponsored by Silicon Slopes to dramatically increase the rate of COVID-19 testing.

Meanwhile, the Small Business Administration and the Department of the Treasury finalized their guidance late last night for small businesses to access loans through the CARES Act. Utah banks are working as quickly as possible to get Utah’s share of the $350 billion program rolled out. You can get more information, including the list of participating banks, on www.utah.bank.

The State of Utah also announced the creation of the Utah Leads Together bridge fund for small businesses and many cities including Ogden, Salt Lake, Washington, Santa Clara, and St. George are creating their own bridge funds for their local businesses. If you want more details about those city programs, let us know.


Legislative Advocacy

Legislative Advocacy

HB 374

This past session--which now seems forever ago--the legislature adopted HB 374, Building Regulation Amendments. The bill requires cities, as of April 1, to track the time for completion of each plan review and building inspection, and requests that the League report the information to the Business and Labor Interim Committee in October. For cities over 5,000 in population in urban areas, the League is working on a uniform method to collect the information and will follow up on Monday with more information. For smaller cities and towns who are not contacted Monday, those municipalities should track the information on their own, and the League will send out a survey at a future date asking about average plan review and inspection times. Please contact Victoria Ashby if you have questions.


April Director's Message

Director's Message

WATCH HERE


Mike and Aimee Winder Newton

ULCT's "Questions for the Candidates" hosted by President Mike Mendenhall

This week we speak in-depth with Aimee Winder-Newton and Greg Hughes.  Follow our Facebook page to see all interviews as they post.

Well before COVID, the race for governor began in the state of Utah with a group of highly respected candidates. ULCT wanted to know how well their priorities align with the priorities of local government leaders in Utah's 249 cities and towns. ULCT President Mike Mendenhall spoke with the candidates ranking above 3% in the polls.

Mike and Greg Hughes

He asked how their administration would handle issues related to growth, tax reform, economic development in rural Utah, and more. Each interview runs about 15 minutes with information important to the leaders of our cities and towns.

As you prepare to go to the polls, and perhaps even endorse a candidate, we invite you to watch these interviews, and four more slated to post next week, and see how the candidates' views match your own and align with the needs of your commuity.


Jr. Baker

Spotlight- Junior Baker

Today is the final day on the job for one of Utah’s most venerated city attorneys. Junior Baker, who has been the city attorney for Spanish Fork and Salem for most of your correspondent’s life, is retiring. During his career, Spanish Fork has quadrupled in population and, to quote Spanish Fork City Manager Seth Perrins, “Junior’s fingerprints are 

Jr. Baker Utes

all over the blueprints of our city’s success. Junior has a special and large place in our history.” 

Junior has been an active participant in the League and a leader in the Utah Municipal Attorneys Association. Your correspondent appreciates his kindness, his legal skills, his support, and, despite being in the heart of Utah County, his fandom of our University of Utah Utes! On behalf of the league, thanks to Junior for making a positive difference for Spanish Fork, Salem, and the League.


Newstand

The Newstand