Platform Pillar 2: Accountable Services

My second platform is related to the services we have as a city. Cities provide services to accomplish their primary objective - provide safe communities for their citizens to thrive in. Some services are pretty clear, like police and fire services, but others can be more obscure, such as mosquito abatement, snow removal, and Engineering. While we interface with police and fire, what do these other services do, and how are they prepared to serve us, the community?

When a city traditionally provides these services, the do so via departments of the city. When they contract them out to a service provider these entities are generally known as service districts. Magna, being a small city with only one direct employee (soon to be two with an assistant city manager) utilizes these service districts. And we pay for them via taxes.

Let’s Talk About What a Mayor Is

Let’s talk about some boring stuff since this is an area where the details matter. The mayor role after all in a 6 member council city government is a non voting member of the council, and at first glance, it is easy to think the role is ceremonial. We can details of what the role is in Utah Code Title 10 which contains the description and laws surrounding what governs the mayor role.

According to 10-3b-104, the mayor role must do the following:

(1)Except as provided in Subsection (2), the mayor in a municipality operating under a six-member council form of government or a five-member council form of government:
(a)is the chief executive officer of the municipality to whom all employees of the municipality report;
(b)shall:
(i)keep the peace and enforce the laws of the municipality;
(ii)ensure that all applicable statutes and municipal ordinances and resolutions are faithfully executed and observed;
(iii)if the mayor remits a fine or forfeiture under Subsection (1)(c)(ii), report the remittance to the council at the council's next meeting after the remittance;
(iv)perform all duties prescribed by statute or municipal ordinance or resolution;
(v)report to the council the condition and needs of the municipality; and
(vi)report to the council any release granted under Subsection (1)(c)(iv); and

This is a list of the “shall” of the role, which means they must do this as part of their obligations, and the council is limited on the ability to restrict these responsibilities - as they can with the other ordinances outline in 10-3b-S104 under the “may” section.

As part of the role, the Mayor is in essence, the CEO of the city and all city employees report to them, including the service districts. This is also important because to continue our translation to business role thinking, the council is like the board of directors, and the citizens are the shareholders.

Direction of these workers and service districts is managed by the City Mayor and City Manager (think of the City Manager as the COO of the city) at the behest of the city council. So what does that mean? Well, that the council decides, the mayor executes these decisions with oversight on the City Manager and workers of the city as the executive officer. As part of this, existing decisions by the council must be reviewed and directed to ensure they fit the needs of the citizens. And to do this, my plan is simple.

To hold these services accountable and transparent and present that information to the public at large and the council, holding these services accountable to the people. And to suggest changes if there are discrepancies to the council, and report ethical concerns and questions to the ethics board of the state and the council as needed.

All of the plans that I have suggest fit within the preview of the mayor. Making sure projects get completed, and that there is accountability, organizing people, and engaging in a meaningful way with the council to help them make informed decisions based on current statuses. The mayor cannot do anything more the act on what has been passed by the council, and propose to the council for consideration.

Accountable Services

So how would this be done? Well, as the Mayor, records must be provided if requested by all service districts and employees. No one in the city can hide anything from the mayor without risking their job, and potentially facing criminal consequences. And my objective would be to make these reports transparent and accessible to the people of Magna. I don’t believe in sealed records unless legally obligated to do so (like in the case of court or criminal cases) - and a sealed record would need to be heavily defended as to why they exist. Budgets and reports also need a guide for understanding for shareholders. For example, street surface reports need to be easily digestable by the “shareholders” of the city, the population.

Every audit would be done in the following method:

1. Perform a citizen focused performance review of all reporting, ensuring that the actions being taken are done in accordance to the greater people of Magna City.
2. Bring said reports and findings to public discussion, especially if discrepancies are found. To make informed decisions about the value of services being provided to the city, and if we should bring those in house, will require public input. All services districts can ran by the city, and we should discuss if that is what we want to do. Think replacing UPD with a “Magna Police” or Salt Lake County Public Works with a Magna City Department of Public Works. Transitions will be difficult and painful, but if beneficial I want to ensure the public has the the information to make an informed decision.
3. Create Recommendation reports for the council to make informed decisions on, and empower them to make those citizen focused changes with the backing of the citizens themselves.

The goal is methodical research and audits, followed by prudent recommendations after public input.

City Services

So what are the Services that Magna currently uses? Magna City contracts for city services with the following entities.

Fire Service - Unified Fire Service Area (UFSA)

Police Services - Unified Police Department (UPD)

Water & Sewer - Magna Water District

Waste Management - Wasatch Front Waste & Recycling District (WFWRD)

Mosquito Abatement - Magna Mosquito Abatement Disrict

Municipal Services District - Planning & Development, Code Enforcement, Business Licensing, Building Permits & Inspections, Economic Development, Engineering, Land Use & Zoning, Long Range Planning, Stormwater.

Animal Services - Salt Lake County Animal Services

Streets & Snow Remove - Salt Lake County Public Works Operations.

These services would each be audited and carefully reviewed along side standard administration If elected as mayor. My goal is to ensure they are performing their function currently with direction of the mayor, and investigating their value. If a service is doing their job and the feasibility and benefit makes sense, and the public agrees, my recommendation would be to retain the service. If not, we will seek other partners to move forward with, likely by bringing the service in house if the public agrees.

The city council would then vote on the decision, and as mayor, I would act and defer to that decision. This is also a plug to keep track of your council member and their actions, and to hold them accountable. There are certain limitations the council could impose on the mayors ability to manage these services.

Thanks for joining me in this deep dive. This is a really stuffy message of bureaucratic jargon and speech. It is also the mayors primary role. dry reports and data analysis to make informed decisions. In the next post, I want to be more human, and talk about how Mike Romero want’s to represent you. :)

Referneces:

City Services according to Magna City (These links break a lot, so you might need to navigate)
https://magna.utah.gov/198/City-Services

Mayor Role Code - Title 10
https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title10/Chapter3B/10-3b-S104.html?v=C10-3b-S104_1800010118000101

*Another note. I have been plugging many of my posts and website elements into AI for grammar correction, fact checking, and legal analysis. But I have moved away from copy and pasting the corrected info into these post. I want there to be errors in spelling, grammar, and usage so that you know that 100%, these are my words.