SALT LAKE CITY — State lawmakers are looking at “clarifying the process” that some Utah counties have used to issue stricter stay-at-home orders than the state during the coronavirus pandemic, Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson said Thursday.
It’s a move seen as imposing new limits on the power of local governments.
Wilson praised how Gov. Gary Herbert has handled the COVID-19 outbreak by urging Utahns to stay at home during the outbreak, while Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Tooele, Summit, Wasatch and Morgan counties have all issued orders similar to what the majority of states around the country have done.
“We just want to make sure that this gets more clear and is more understandable for people because people are very confused about what’s going on in different cities and in different counties,” Wilson said. “That might work for a short period of time. But for something like this, that could last for a while, it’s not a very sustainable model.”
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall opposes limiting what local governments can do in situations like the current pandemic.
“The power of city and county elected officials to act in the interest of local residents during times of emergency is a power the state granted to us,” the mayor said. “That authority should remain with the local officials elected by their residents to make these decisions on their city’s or county’s behalf.”
Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson extended the county’s order Thursday through May 1 and said she’s “coordinating with other counties and the state and trying to get a little more aligned where possible.” She said the county is “hoping to continue the great partnerships that we have” with the state and other communities.
Garfield County Commission Chairman Leland Pollock agrees that counties should be able to decide for themselves how to handle the COVID-19 crisis. He said a letter he and other officials from rural Utah sent last month to the governor “urging a return to normalcy” underscored the need for local control.
“The Legislature doesn’t belong in county government business,” Pollock said. He said a stay-at-home order that would be “a little draconian” in Garfield County — which is the size of Connecticut and has just 4,900 residents — makes sense in Salt Lake County, “where you’ve got people on top of each other.”
The House speaker said there’s a difference between a local emergency order to deal with the aftermath of an earthquake, for example, and the ongoing effort to curb the spread of the deadly virus by restricting people’s movements over what could be months.
“It’s not overly complicated,” Brad Wilson said. “I think we all want the same thing, which is to keep people safe and manage also the other challenges that this presents in terms of having people be able to still live their lives to some degree and businesses to still function to some degree.”
While there needs to be a fix, Brad Wilson said that doesn’t necessarily mean limiting the authority of local governments.
“I’m not sure I can answer that question yet, are we going to be taking away anything from counties or not. It depends on where we end up,” he said, adding that a bill is still being drafted for a special session of the Utah Legislature and shouldn’t be seen as controversial.
The House leader also made it clear he sees no need for a statewide stay-at-home order. “I think that the decisions that have been made so far to contain the spread of this virus have been successful relative to a lot of other places,” he said. “I think the way the governor has done this has been great.”
The upcoming special legislative session to deal with the effects of COVID-19 on the state budget and other areas of government, the first called by lawmakers under a recent change to the Utah Constitution and the first that will be conducted online, is expected to begin as soon as next Wednesday.
Also on the agenda, Brad Wilson said, is a plan for Utahns to return to their workplaces “sometime in the relatively soon future,” with safety precautions such as social distancing and protective gear, as a start to the process of getting back to normal.
There likely won’t be a date set for beginning that process, he said.
“We ease into this. We don’t want to create an unhealthy environment for people. But there’s a real cost that people are having to pay right now by not going to school, by not being able to be with family, by not being able to go to work and pay their bills, that we need to balance at the same time,” the speaker said.
Lawmakers are also planning to deal with the coronavirus’ effect on the state’s primary election, but moving the June 30 date already set to August 4 is now off the table, said Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, the sponsor of the special session bill that’s still being put together.
“The bill is under discussion and has not been finalized, other than the primary will be on June 30,” Harper said. Moving the statewide election that includes a hotly contested race to be the Republican nominee for governor “was not supported,” he said.
Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen had called moving the primary critical, expressing concerns about the safety of workers conducting the largely by-mail election. Harper said the focus of his bill will be on making the June 30 election safer.
Also not changing in his bill is the signature gathering process for candidates seeking to guarantee a place on the ballot, Harper said. There had been a push by several candidates and their supporters to extend the process or even do away with it altogether and put all of the contenders on the ballot.
The House speaker is among the opponents to changing the date of the primary and the signature gathering process. Brad Wilson said he is “adamantly opposed” to lawmakers moving the state primary election and said he sees no need for changes in the signature gathering process since the deadline for turning in voter names is Monday.
“I think what we should be doing is ensuring when people vote in June is there is more flexibility,” he said, suggesting lawmakers could limit voting in person in the largely by-mail election as well as give county clerks more time to tabulate results.