OCR Text |
Show WASATCH COUNTY COURIER APRIL 4, 2001 Midway Should Reconsider Tesch Appointment county ‘ie cash to repave Lane, the worst road in the (but, the best place in the county: to shop-for hubcaps.) Surely there are more pressing needs in Midway City than a Park City lawyer to impress the local developers. Midway City can’t afford a Porsche, especially when a Chevy will suffice. We have lawyers teal: - county every bit as resilient competent to administer the day-to- day legal needs of the county. As we’ve always said at> the Courier, all things being equal, keep the money in the local economy. Now add on to the premium price, -the conflict he has as the attorney for the Wasatch County Fire Tesch’s skill or credentials, we have a lot of respect for his qualifications. But being a City Attorney, especially for a town the size of Midway, isn’t — WH THE HISPANIC ———. rocket science. It mostly involves resolving mundane issues of zoning 1s 4 Midway City so flush with cash that Mr. Tesch sit through each Midway City Council Meeting? These meetings typically go on for 5 or more hours, so for each meeting Mr. Tesch attends, Midway City has to pony up around $600. Where is this money going to come from? Which city programs are going to have to be cut as a result? This in a town where for decades they haven’t been able to and towns of Wasatch opinion. The imposition 3 Fire District and his obligation to Midway City. These conflicts of inter-. est will continue as long as Mr. Tesch continues to represent Wasatch County (via it’s sub-unit, the Wasatch County Fire District) and it seems impossible for Mr. Tesch to. realistically recluse himself on a case-by-case basis. In the opinion of the Courier, the selection .of Mr. Tesch is not in the best interests of the citizens of Midway. We urge Midway City to rethink its decision to hire him as City Attorney. WASESTCH COUNTY coveHer- LA WEL LEUMINILLL they can afford $120 an hour to have cities County.” Midway is obviously an incorporated town within Wasatch. County and thus directly effected by who was acting as Midway City Attorney at the time, clearly had a conflict between his obligation to the PATCHTUORK. OF DIVERSITY lawyer of all those who applied? Is ed the Midway City Council members. It seems clear to us that Mr. Tesch, THS COUNTY Bar is capable of doing. So why did District that the District had the right to impose inspection and approval fees “within the incorporat- Mr. Tesch’s ON THE RISE. Midway City hire the highest priced - opinion for the Wasatch County Fire of these fees adversely impacts Midway City financially and apparently is opposed by most, if not all, of POPULATION and development, interpretating existing codes ,and assist in writing new ones. Basic attorney stuff any journeyman lawyer licensed by the District and you have even more reason Midway should reconsider hir_ing Mr. Tesch. Mr. Tesch wrote an Ls o Money — ower and Money. This is the sole force which seemingly motivates our. County Commissioners. Remember back the County Contino were stuck with it. Unlike the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with Heber, Midway and — Charleston, the Interlocal Agreement was with Park City and in writing. There was no backing out of this one. to May 24, 1999 when the County The Legislative Audit interviews with | Commission dissolved the Fire Protection Board and took that make it clear that they did not support the the County and the cities had a “gen. tlemen’s “agreement” cities would have ‘that reserved the seats on the Fire Board, and thus a say in how the Fire Board was run. The county’s rebuttal to the city’s dismay at being s::amarily dissolved was basically, “you shouldn’t have been so dumb to think we’d keep our word.” Lesson one; there is no such _ thing as a gentlemen’s agreement with the county. Time was when a man’s his most valuable asset. Times have certainly changed. word was 7 _ Of course the real, but unstated reason that the county dissolved the Fire Board was that the County had obligated itself, Interlocal via the Agreement, Deer to build Crest the Jordanelle “Fire Palace.” Having _ signed what is arguably one of the worst inter‘ocal agreements in history, Fire Board members wonder they were ousted. our interlocal “deals.” What the Board Members didn’t know was that then County Attorney Dan Matthews had pushed this deal through without any input from the Fire Board. Even when, after the fact, the soon to be ousted funding to finance this fiasco the County Commissioners acting as the Fire Board, have decided to take the responsibility, and of course the income, away from the cities for ual fire inspections, plan checks and ann inspections. This is an important portion of the various cities income. _ Fire Board was informed of the deci-. Needless to say the cities don’t welthe Jordanelle Fire Station and would — sion to build a station at Jordanelle, come the county raiding their treasur- _ not have voted to authorize its con- _Mr. Matthews implied that the develies. The legal excuse given by Fire struction. According to the Audit one opers would donate the land and the District Attorney Joe Tesch for this past member said, “that building a fire _ _ Station: Later,-after the Board was dis- | seems pretty flimsy. He cites Utah station in such a remote area could > solved that all changed. The land was . Code 53-7-209, which says, “A fire power to.themselves? An obvious power grab. Since 1987 dissolved tion. No Can’t have any logic interfering with — | raise liability issues for the county. leased, not donated, and the Fire Because there are other areas in the - District borrowed the money to build county that are in need of fire protecthe station. In my opinion the real reation, itis very irresponsible to build a : _ son the Fire Board was dissolved was facility in such a remote area. It is not that the County Commissioners had, strategically placed, and is not based knowingly or unknowingly, obligated on solid fire protection and public safe- . themselves to build the. fire palace at ty criteria.” Another ousted Board — Jordanelle and the Fire Board stood in Member’s interview states, “He pointtheir way. I get the feeling the County ed out that there will be development Commissioners always resented the in the area, but as of now, there is noth- ing to protect. Even when the developments are in place he doesn’t. believe the ‘response time’ will be able to justify that large of a structure and fire fighting force. He said that the response time for other areas in the district that are much further away have been determined to be adequate...He added that the District is full of developments with very valuable and costly structures. He doesn’t see why the Jordanelle Basin should be put ahead of existing needs.” — Gee, these ousted Board Members seem to really understand the situa- _ Fire Board anyway and so when the Deer Crest Interlocal Agreement forced their hand they took opportunity to take the power from the Board. and bestow or premises not used as a private dwelling at any reasonable hour to inspect the building or premises and _ enforce the rules made under this part, including the ve Fire Code.” | The language ‘of the cited code seems to imply that a fire official may — inspect a building if he believes it — poses a potential danger. It seems a mighty long reach from that language to “we are taking over all fire inspec-_ tions and plan checks (and the associ- LaRen ated income.)” Nothing but a money Provost particularly had some run-ins with the Board, actually being forced to resign because of his conflict of grab folks. Oh, and did I mention that the Fire District is spending $3,100 for interest as it on themselves. chief or officer may enter any building - a Board member. and County Commissioner. So now. we have the County - Commissioners running the show. The cost of running the District has gone up from $881,702 in 2000 to new “Olympic Fire Badges.” As if the Olympic Officials are going to: stop a — bunch of guys on a big red truck from responding to a fire at the Olympic Site if they don’t have five round rings on their badges. Spending our money on the things that matter most. No won- $1,571,647 in 2001 and shows no sign : der they of slowing. In the search for ever more money. need the fire inspection | eas come. ‘up with Burgi iat i he hiring of Joe Tesch as Midway City Attorney never made much sense to us. Not only was he one of the higher priced attorneys to apply, he was the only one (applying as a general purpose attorney) who was not a resident of _ Wasatch County. - Now we don’t question Mr. |