This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Stop us if you've heard this one: A special government entity cobbled together to provide a particular service for multiple municipalities along the Wasatch Front is in trouble for overspending and undermanaging.
The office of Utah State Auditor John Dougall is looking into yet another example of how one of these hybrid entities seems to have trouble watching its money.
Which, depending on where you live, might be your money, if you can figure out the boundaries of Salt Lake County's Unified Fire Authority and its partner, the United Fire Service Area.
Controversy over large bonuses paid to some of the top managers of the two agencies has led UFA Chief Michael Jensen to step down and, again, raised questions about whether the boards of these special creations are up to the task of managing themselves — or whether it is the nature of such bodies to fly under the radar until they crash.
The UFA provides firefighting and emergency medical services to the unincorporated areas of Salt Lake County as well as the cities of Alta, Cottonwood Heights, Draper and Holladay and, through an agreement with the separate taxing district of the UFSA, to the cities of Eagle Mountain, Herriman, Midvale, Riverton and Taylorsville.
The problem isn't necessarily the money — though bonuses of $34,000 each to Jensen and three other current and former district executives were many times larger than such rewards found elsewhere in local government — but the apparent lack of transparency.
Jensen, who also serves on the Salt Lake County Council, said the practice was approved by the UFA board as a reward for managers also overseeing UFSA construction projects without added pay. In Jensen's case, the bonus came on top of UFA wages and benefits that added up to $225,287.
But even some board members — elected officials from member cities — are worried about the size of the extra pay, that it has grown over the years and the fact that it isn't apparent in the agency's budget.
Auditors have requested not only payroll records but also credit card receipts and other financials. Jensen and board members say they welcome the audit and nobody, so far, has suggested that anything illegal is going on.
But, on top of years of questionable compensation packages at the Utah Transit Authority and an embezzlement scandal at Utah Communications Authority, it is past time that such better-known authorities as the Salt Lake County Council and Utah Legislature come up with better models of governance and oversight.