Documents sample Vineyard letter supporting Utah Lake Restoration Project | News, Sports, Jobs

Isaac Hale, Daily Herald file photo

Julie Fullmer poses for a portrait Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, at the Vineyard City Offices.

A pair of records requests initially filed to ease the minds of two Utah County residents have only created more confusion, they say, regarding a letter of support from Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer for the Utah Lake Restoration Project’s application for funding through an Environmental Protection Agency program .

These records requests were made through the Government Records Access and Management Act, or GRAMA, a Utah state law meant to enable public access to government records.

GRAMA requests were filed in January and February by Shawn Herring, a resident of Vineyard, and Kaye Nelson, a resident of Provo. The scope of these requests required Vineyard city employees to provide all records of communications between themselves and employees of Lake Restoration Solutions between March 2015 and the present.

A link to the public documents identified in response to these requests was sent to Herring and Nelson on April 4. Herring is now sharing this link with the public in the hope of promoting more citywide transparency.

The Utah Lake Restoration Project is a proposal to dredge Utah Lake and create islands that would be used for estuary, recreation and housing purposes. While initially receiving support from the Utah state government and legislators, the project has also received criticism from local municipalities and environmental groups.

The project is currently undergoing a federal process to determine the environmental impacts of proposed actions. This process will likely take at least two more years to complete.

According to Herring, his primary reason for filing the GRAMA request was to find a record of a public discussion surrounding Vineyard’s letter of support for the Utah Lake Restoration Project’s application to the EPA’s WIFIA program, established through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014 .

“The main purpose of the GRAMA request was just to see how that letter of support … came to be, who was involved in the decisions, and how seemingly nobody knew about it until the public really found out about it at the first of the year ,” Herring said. “The main reason of that is really just to find out how it got to this point without (anybody) knowing. … There had to have been discussion leading up to the writing of that letter.”

In a September 2020 letter addressed to the EPA, Fullmer expressed strong support for the Utah Lake Restoration Project and appropriated $5 million cash for Lake Restoration Solutions to be used for eligible, approved project-related costs.

This letter was included with the Lake Restoration Solutions application for WIFIA assistance, as well as in the project’s proposal, which was developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The documents provided by the GRAMA request show that the letter of support was not publicly discussed in meetings of the city council or Vineyard Redevelopment Agency, leading Herring and those he had shared the results of his GRAMA request with to become concerned.

“There was absolutely nothing in that GRAMA request that justified the need for that letter,” Herring said. “Who reached out to who in order to get that support? Who approved the $5 million? Why did they feel it was not necessary to involve the public?”

According to Fullmer, the letter of support didn’t need to be discussed in public meetings as it was not intended as a final commitment of Vineyard funds to the Utah Lake Restoration Project, but rather a letter in support of the project gaining WIFIA assistance and pursuing discovery.

“They were looking to see what programs were being implemented that could be used as a match to be considered for funds to start going through an application and permitting process,” Fullmer said. “The funds had been granted to a landowner through the Redevelopment Agency board approval process that was working with the group. That group determined that the $5 million project could be used as a match and wanted support for the pre-approved project to be shown as an improvement to the lakeshore.”

“We already had projects that would benefit the lake and could be included as part of the overall scope of the lake restoration project,” Jacob McHargue, former Vineyard city manager, said in an email to the Daily Herald. “We agreed that these projects were already approved capital projects for the Vineyard redevelopment agency (RDA) and could be included as matching funds for the project. As far as cash donations from the city or RDA going towards the lake restoration project, that was never the case.”

These pre-approved projects consist of projects like Lake Promenade and Geneva Park that have been previously discussed in public meetings.

The letter states that the city’s commitment of funds to the Utah Lake Restoration Project would be subject to the approval of the final project finance plan, approval of the documentation and evidence of Vineyard’s commitment, as well as the approval of the final proposed WIFIA/RDA funded projects. According to Fullmer, any of this future approval or recommendation would go through the RDA board before a final decision would be reached.

Fullmer maintains that this letter is merely in support of the project’s discovery and that Vineyard has not taken an official stance on the Utah Lake Restoration Project and will not until the project has finished the environmental impact review process as stipulated by the National Environmental Policy Act.

“The funds have already been allocated by the redevelopment agency and they continue to go forward on our lakeshore, promenade and clean up,” she said. “The city supported the discovery which the project is undergoing and the council and RDA has determined to wait and see the results of the study before taking a stand on the project itself.”

According to Fullmer, the city of Vineyard is not committed in any way to Lake Restoration Solutions or the Utah Lake Restoration Project at this time, but it is still committed to its own lakeshore improvement projects.

“I believe that lake restoration group is going through their discovery with the Army Corps and other environmental agencies,” she said. “Vineyard is at a wait-and-see position and is moving forward with our own lakeshore projects.”

Fullmer hopes that the results of the GRAMA requests can help to put the minds of concerned residents at ease regarding the public process within Vineyard.

“Hopefully, what comes from this is people recognize that mass support for Walkara Way, the clean and clear process and public outreach we always provide as a community, and our love for the community,” she said. “I believe confusion has been in the media and the people can be rest assured we are following processes and involving them in our decisions.”

Herring intends to appeal the GRAMA request as he did not feel that the documents provided through the self-auditing process by Vineyard City employees were complete. He must file this request within 30 days of April 4 for it to be accepted by the city.

Herring believes that what he considers to be a lack of transparency regarding Vineyard’s letter of support for the Utah Lake Restoration Project’s WIFIA application is indicative of a larger communication issue within the city.

“If we have a question about something, we have to search really hard for information, or we have to take action like a GRAMA request or a referendum or something,” Herring said. “A lot of cities will put the information out there, easy to find. If you have questions, they’ll answer questions. You kind of have to hunt down and work for some answers in the city of Vineyard.”

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