Senior state officials and local Utah counties are seething in a Wednesday county commissioner vote to remove budgetary oversight from the county’s independently elected clerk / auditor and put them under the sole responsibility of the commission.
Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, who lives in Spanish Fork, called it “crazy”, “extremely worrying for everyone” and “completely inconsistent with principles of good governance” in a Facebook post the night before the vote. Auditor John Dougall also posted on Facebook that he was “very concerned” about the move of the commission and that there were “important reasons we split the county government”. Senator Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, and Senator Jake Anderegg, R-Lehi, both called it a “power grab” of their own.
The move confused and frustrated Amelia Powers Gardner, Utah County Administrator / Chartered Accountant, who is in the midst of her own offer to fill the commission position vacated by former Commissioner Tanner Ainge. Before the vote, she told Commissioners Bill Lee and Tom Sakievich not to continue and beat them for putting it on their agenda with just under 24 hours’ notice and without a single conversation with her.
“Good governance comes about when there is sunshine in the room. The best disinfectant is sunshine, and good government takes place in transparency, not in dark shadows. Neither of you spoke to any of the affected employees, and neither of you had the courtesy to speak to me, ”Gardner said to Lee and Sakievich.
“This went on (the agenda) minutes before the legal deadline, without a conversation, text message or phone call. Tom, my office is right across from you. You could have told me with a signal mirror, ”she said.
Sakievich, who led the proposal, admitted he hadn’t bothered to bring the matter up with Powers Gardner and said he was busy with other matters, including getting vaccines up and running. Even though he said he “couldn’t undo my failure to contact her” and “that was my fault,” Sakievich went on to vote anyway.
“I still came to the conclusion that there has to be a budgeting process that is actually physically in place and that this synergy exists within the district commission,” said Sakievich.
Lee agreed with Sakievich, saying that it is entirely the prerogative of the Commission to have budgetary oversight, and formalizing that oversight in their office “will allow us, instead of going through hoops or bureaucratic processes or whatever, to go straight into this Office and say, “This is what I need to do my job.”
Lee and Sakievich were vocal opponents of a 2019 property tax increase approved by previous commissioners. At the time, Lee was the minority vote against the tax increase, backed by then commissioners Nathan Ivie and Tanner Ainge. They saw in the tax hike a way to get Utah County on a more sustainable financial path and to address years of “irresponsible administration” by former county officials that lowered the tax rate year after year and reduced the county’s purchasing power.
Sakievich pledged to reverse the tax hike in his successful 2020 campaign against Ivie.
In a sizzling tweet released on Wednesday after the vote, Ivie Lee named “the most deceitful, lying hypocritical man elected to office in the state of Utah. Tom is not far behind him. “
Bill Lee is the most deceitful, lying sanctimonious man elected to office in the state of Utah. Tom is not far behind him. #utpol #powerhungry Every single public comment today was against their coming to power and they did it anyway. #utcounty
– Nathan Ivy (@IvieNathan) March 31, 2021
Lee, when asked about Ivie’s comments, said only that he wished Ivie “good luck in the future”.
“I always know that when it gets personal, it is never solution-oriented,” Lee said. “It’s just very critical, so I wish him the best.”
Ainge, who resigned earlier this month, also criticized his former commissioners and tweeted on Thursday: “Treating household staff like this is a new low for a commission that remains poorly competent and contains heavily misleading political stunts / empty rhetoric. Good governance, common sense, job confidence, and long-term financial health are constantly at risk with these two. ”
Powers Gardner, in an interview with Deseret News Thursday, said she still doesn’t understand why commissioners deemed the move necessary, noting that she and Utah County’s budget manager Rudy Livingston were keeping their doors and phone lines for the Commissioners have kept open.
“The justification they give doesn’t match the facts,” she said.
She shared an email thread with the Deseret News which revealed that Livingston included both Lee and Sakievich in a November 9 email asking the commissioners for information on changes to the final 2021 budget and, under pressure from legal requirements, asked for an “immediate” response Nine days later, on November 18, Lee moved for a budget that would reduce revenue by $ 3 million, $ 6 million, or $ 9 million.
Bill Lee is the most deceitful, lying sanctimonious man elected to office in the state of Utah. Tom is not far behind him. #utpol #powerhungry Every single public comment today was against their coming to power and they did it anyway. #utcounty
– Nathan Ivy (@IvieNathan) March 31, 2021
In response to Lee’s November 18 email, Livingston asked for further guidance on Lee’s request for budget cuts before he could proceed and before a meeting between him, Powers Gardner and Lee was scheduled that Friday. Livingston asked for clarification on what sources of income the tax cut would come from, whether one-off income, cuts for specific departments, or what services he would be open to cuts.
The thread does not show a response to Livingston’s email.
Lee said he met with household officials to discuss his request. He said he should go through a household exercise with the county ministry chiefs to see what these cuts would look like in each of their offices.
“He said there are department heads who don’t want to play that game,” Lee told Deseret News. I said, ‘Let’s go through this exercise. If you don’t want to play this game, I need another analysis. ‘”
Lee added that Livingston “came back to me at one point and said, ‘Look, $ 3 million is a no-brainer. ‘I said,’ OK, I still want to see what this looks like. What about the $ 6 million and $ 9 million? ‘And I didn’t see anything. ”
When asked why the vote is being taken to move budget oversight entirely under the Commission, rather than first speaking to Powers Gardner about their concerns, Lee said they were “personality issues” and that he “felt” that the clerk / auditor’s office has an “attitude” “From” We don’t want to share any information with you. ”
“I think it depends; We don’t feel that the level of cooperation is at what we think is normally there for us as commissioners, ”said Lee. “It doesn’t feel like a team at all. It feels like opponents. ”
Powers Gardner said she was “utterly confused” as to why commissioners feel they have not received the information they requested.
“I will tell you the comments that have been made that the commission is not getting the information that they want or that they are requesting, I do not think that is true,” Livingston said at the commission meeting on Wednesday. “And I’ll tell you why. Because this year neither Commissioner Lee nor Commissioner Sakievich contacted our office about budget issues. ”
Powers Gardner shared a memo on Deseret News sent to the Commission last week stating that the financial services division is “ready to assist you in your financial leadership role.” She described her efforts to develop a multiannual forecasting model and budgetary targets in addition to the Commission’s aim to lower the tax rate.
“Now I’m a professional,” Livingston told commissioners, noting his 20+ years of government financial management experience and the code of ethics he is committed to upholding. “And I have a feeling that these actions treat me as a farmer rather than a professional.”
Livingston added, “I will always do what I believe is in the best interests of the county and provide sound professional advice whether or not it will be accepted, that’s fine. But I am not going to follow – blindly follow – a political agenda or take steps that run counter to these ethics. And I’m not saying you do, but that’s who I am. I am an ethical person. ”
Livingston also said he was “offended” that the commissioners believe he will perform his duties under them differently than he does now under Gardner Powers.
“Right now we have great synergies between all the functions of the Clerk / Auditor Department and this will destroy those synergies,” he said. He also said that he has “enjoyed his work in the county more in the past year than it has been in 15 years, and this is because the leadership in our department offers a clear vision.”
Livingston said the move will “make the entire 2022 fiscal cycle less efficient” and delay the 2022 capital improvement program “if we have to fool around here”.
Lee questioned Livingston’s use of the words “monkey around”.
“When monkeys work with the commissioners, that’s a problem,” he said. “It’s not a monkey. We ask legitimate questions that we have. ”
Even so, Lee and Sakievich seem so far to stand alone in restructuring the budget and face the wrath of more powerful heads of state like Henderson.
Lee told Deseret News that he found Henderson’s comments “unhappy” and “ironic”, that she claimed to some extent that there was no communication, “and yet she” blows them herself on posts or tweets or whatever and didn’t call any of us. “He said that if there had been a call, he could have been alleviated instead of blindly throwing darts”.
Lee said he plans to reach out to other state officials to discuss the issue.
“If there is a way to have a conversation and alleviate some of the fires that are out there, but we can’t just do it by throwing arrows. We have to hold the talks. ”
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