The ranks of consultants have risen rapidly in Utah's most populous county, where officials are relying more and more on outside contractors to steer spending, restructure departments, design buildings, even care for the less fortunate.

The expansion has been explosive. In 1997, the county hired 10 consultants. Last year, that number jumped to 83.

The outsourcing has included architects for recreation centers, advertisers for Clark Planetarium and computer techs to install software at the county jail. Add to that dozens of independent consultants to study open space, animal control, west-bench development, water quality and a hodgepodge of other topics.

Democratic Mayor Peter Corroon embraces the trend.

"My philosophy is not to grow government; it is to plan for our future," he says. "Our county has seen massive growth over the last decade. Do we sit back and let it happen or do we try to manage it and plan for it?"

Yet the surge in outsourced employees has raised some Republican eyebrows. Several GOP County Council members fear consultants have become too commonplace.

Last month alone, for instance, the county signed up 18 contractors. That's almost twice as many nongovernment employees as hired during all of 1997.

"Gosh, has government gotten this complicated?" GOP Councilman Jeff Allen asks. "Or have we forced it to be this complicated? Or is it a symptom that government may be lacking some leadership?"

Whatever it is, critics say outside firms may be costing taxpayers too much money, introducing conflicts of interest into policy decisions and potentially providing nothing more than "political cover" for elected officials unwilling to push positions on their own.

But Richard Green, director of the University of Utah's public administration master's program, doesn't see mismanagement in the county's consulting services. He sees prudence and professionalism.

In fact, Green wonders why the county didn't catch the privatization wave earlier - perhaps in the 1980s when the Reagan administration decided to tap the private sector for services that the market might provide more effectively.

"In no way is it abnormal," Green says. "It simply reflects the changing priorities of our political culture."

The proliferation of county contractors has occurred primarily in three categories: construction, human services and research consultants.

The bounce in builders is understandable. Construction has swept the county as part of the widely popular Zoo, Arts and Parks program, accounting for 19 of the 31 construction-related projects in 2006 and 2007.

But the other two categories have much to do with political philosophy.

Since 2006, the county has employed 25 human-services contractors to conduct after-school programs, teach people about lead poisoning and provide legal services to indigent families. That's half the number of outside human-services workers hired since 2000.

The same trend appears in research-related consulting. County leaders have tapped 29 consulting firms during the past two years to examine everything from development along the Oquirrh Mountains ($600,000) to the feasibility of townships annexing into nearby cities or incorporating into their own communities ($270,000). That's a hefty increase from the previous five years, when the county hired an average of 4.3 consultants annually.

Democratic County Councilman Joe Hatch says the swell in consulting makes perfect fiscal sense.

"It is cheaper and better for the county to go hire expertise to advise than it is to have someone full time on the payroll," Hatch says. "It simply is too expensive."

Salt Lake County has incurred $140 million in consultant-related expenses since 2000 (including $20.7 million last year), according to county records. However, those numbers sometimes include construction costs, making it difficult to determine the actual consultant price tag.

What's clear is that private consultants are becoming more palatable to county leaders, who will pay outsiders to find out whether solar panels make sense atop government buildings, whether a Broadway-style theater belongs in the Salt Lake Valley and whether reforms are needed within the county's overcrowded criminal-justice system.

"They definitely aren't cheap in the short term," Corroon says. "But, in the long term, it is a big savings for the county and its citizens."

Particularly prominent for Corroon's administration was the hiring of Economics Research Associates, a Los Angeles-based sports-consulting firm picked to evaluate the viability of a Real Salt Lake soccer stadium.

The firm's findings - that Real Salt Lake's budget could be $1 million in the red after five years - resulted in a thumbs down from the county's Debt Review Committee and sealed Corroon's opposition to the stadium funding package.

The deal later was resurrected by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and top GOP legislative leaders.

Yet consulting contracts also have gone bad, as reflected in the recent firing of Webb Management Services. The County Council abruptly ended its $200,000 contract this month after discovering the New York-based firm had conducted a similar study for Sandy and failed to disclose it.

GOP Councilman David Wilde remains wary about the consultant craze - "I'm worried that they are getting used a little too much," he says - while Democratic colleague Randy Horiuchi called it the fruits of a working government.

"We have become a more active institution," Horiuchi says. "We are doing things the citizens have asked us to do."

jstettler@sltrib.com