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Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams wants to do away with the Day Reporting Center because it isn't functioning as envisioned in dealing with people convicted of minor misdemeanors.
That seems generally fine with the GOP-led County Council.
But there's less certainty among its nine members about whether to go ahead with a scheduled performance audit of the center before it disappears — and let County Auditor Scott Tingley assess the strengths and weaknesses of its operation — or to just cancel that audit and move on now so that taxpayer money isn't spent investigating something going away anyway.
After a lengthy discussion last week, the council referred the audit issue to its legislative audit committee as the proper forum for moving forward.
Council members took this deliberate step as a matter of getting things right. After having battled constantly with Tingley's predecessor, Greg Hawkins, they're thrilled the auditor's office is eager to do performance audits in search of greater efficiencies in government operations.
So they're reluctant to bypass the Day Reporting Center audit, one of three the council asked Tingley to perform in March. The others — a look at voting machines and other election technology in the county clerk's office, and a review of health services at the jail — are expected to be shorter than the nine months Tingley projected for the reporting center audit.
At the same time, they're hesitant not to support McAdams as he followed through on a mantra of his administration — "Wherever existing county government functions don't reflect the world we now live in, we will change."
This is one of those cases, the Democratic mayor said. County Human Services Department Director Lori Bays looked at the program, saw it wasn't working as intended, and decided to change course rather than waste money.
"I'm happy to see this move forward and want the rest of the administration to take note. We want to see a critical analysis of programs," McAdams said, because it gives him an "ability to relocate funding where there's a better return on investment."
But he and Bays don't believe an audit is needed because their internal analysis already showed the center should be replaced. "It's not cost effective," Bays said, "to keep it open another nine to 12 months to have the auditor confirm that."
She said the Day Reporting Center was supposed to provide an alternative to jail time for misdemeanor offenders who are responsible enough to serve part of their sentences in the community. It was to provide more intensive case management coupled with treatment, education and employment services.
"But it was never really implemented to its intended ability," she said, partly because it has about 370 clients instead of the 250 contemplated. In the past couple of years, Bays added, it became clear "we don't have an adequate way of identifying the right services for the right individuals in the criminal-justice system."
What's needed most, she said, is to do more risk assessments of individuals early after their entry into the criminal-justice system.
Her proposal had the support of Councilman Max Burdick, a Sandy Republican active in criminal-justice subcommittees.
"It's so important we move to evidence-based practices," he said. "In the past, individuals have sat in jail waiting for assessments. We need to find different avenues. This opens the door to that."
But Republican Council Chairman Richard Snelgrove had some reservations, even as he applauded McAdams and Bays for "looking outside of the box for a more prudent allocation of funds."
Snelgrove was concerned about the timing of the change. "Why shouldn't this wait until the full budget [deliberations] when it can compete against other pressing needs in the sheriff's office?" he asked.
Bays responded that it would be "irresponsible to have the information now and wait until the end of the year to present it [especially when] we feel solid about the recommendations."
Without the audit, Snelgrove said, he was concerned the shift in money, personnel and emphasis might not produce the desired increase in efficiency. Instead, he feared it would simply "create Day Reporting Center 2.0 and direct people to programs at capacity or that don't even exist yet."
McAdams said that would not be the case and that he expects the Day Reporting Center to serve as an example to all county departments of the need to be willing to change course and do what's best with taxpayer money.
"The conversation today will send loud signals outside the Day Reporting Center. Let me elaborate. I want our team, if something's not working, to bring it to our attention and not wait six months, with delays costing tens of thousands of dollars," he said.
"I want to coax people out of their shells, to show us what's not working, " McAdams added. "If the signal is, 'Don't let the council know or they'll take your program away,' that's a bad precedent."
As of late Friday, the county website did not have a scheduled date for the next legislative audit committee meeting. The council's next session is June 2.