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.
Kennecott is alone at the top of that pyramid, with the next biggest bill going to aerospace manufacturer Alliant Techsystems, which is on the hook for $100,000 in the coming year.
The average yearly fee for residents comes in around $180, with charges for other businesses scaled according to typical number of annual calls to law enforcement. For instance, a "supercenter" retailer will pay more than $80,000 a year, while a restaurant pays just under $800. The first bills, covering a quarterly cycle, are due to be sent out by the end of the month.
County officials maintain — and outline in a statement posted at www.slco.org — that the fee system, compared with a property tax assessment, results in lower costs to residents by spreading the amount over a broader base. The statement also notes that the overall cost of law enforcement services for the unincorporated county is down more than 6 percent from last year.
The Utah Taxpayers Association isn't buying the county's evaluation and has weighed in against the fees, calling the system "a way to avoid answering to voters."
"This is an attempt by Salt Lake County to avoid the transparency of the truth-in-taxation process," said Royce Van Tassell, the association's vice president. "This fee increase is a tax."
Salt Lake County's administrative board for UPD, which includes Mayor Peter Corroon and Salt Lake County Councilmen Michael Jensen and Jim Bradley, will preside over a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Sheriff's Administration Building, 3565 S. 900 West, South Salt Lake.
e-mail: araymond@desnews.com