OCR Text |
Show PAGE 28 THE ZEPHYRMAY 89 1 The Special Service Roads District a conversation with Jimmie Walker by Jim Stiles created the Grand County Roads Special Commissioners Jimmie Walker and Dutch Zimmerman, who had in the recent campaign, and David Knutson, formed a three-ma- n Administrative Control Board, consisting of Dutch Zimmerman, Ollie Robert Knutson, and Shumway. The board subsequently hired Jimmie Walker as its administrator and hired County Attorney Elaine Coates to represent the Special Service District as counsel, in her capacity as a private attorney. Since then, the District has established an office and hired a part-tisecretary. The creation of the Special Service District came as a surprise to many, and a wealth of questions and concerns have arisen since then. It is a very complicated and complex issue, one which I have had difficulty understanding, as well as a lot of other Grand County residents. With the formation of the Board have come charges of political impropriety, misuse of government funding, nepotism, and an effort by the previous Commission to create a "shadow government But in Moab, Utah, separating fact from fiction, and truth from rumor and It only seemed fair to talk to innuendo, can present a significant challenge. someone who participated in the District's creation, and who plays a daily role in its operation. The logical choice was former Commissioner Jimmie Walker, who now In over two hours serves as the Districts Administrator. of taped conversations, Walker spoke candidly about the Special Service District and about much of the confusion and doubt that has arisen since its creation. Much of this story then, are the quoted words of Jimmie Walker. First of all, its important to understand why the Service District was created In the first place, and where Its funding comes from. According to Walker, these are the events and circumstances that led to the creation of the District: All of that "The federal government receives royalties on oil, gas and coal money goes to Washington, and then they send back half of it to the State of Utah. The State has the responsibility to see that the money goes to the counties where the impacts were created, due to energy and mineral development "Now the way this money was disbursed was like this: basically, 33 went to the Community Impact Board (CIB). All communities can go to CIB and request a grant or loan, whether they produced mineral revenues or not Then a percentage was given to various levels of education, geological surveys, water research, laboratories, over 40. To me, that and so forth. What wasnt spent went into the General Fund seemed unfair. When I was a commissioner, I and others felt something needed to be done to return some of that money directly to the counties affected. "So two years ago, legislation passed that stated that within three years, 25 of the mineral lease monies that the State receives would go back to the county. But there's a problem. The county also receives from the federal government something called payment In lieu of tax' money (PILT). It's based on permanent population and acreage. Grand County receives 18 cents per acre, which I feel Is not fair. This money is separate from mineral lease money. If a county receives mineral lease money, and that money resembles a grant, then they subtract that from the PILT money. Last year Grand County received $320,000 in PILT money. "The Association of Counties and Mark Walsh, the Associate Director, had been studying this for a long time, and tried to determine the best way to get the mineral lease money back to the counties without losing the PILT money. The idea of a special service district, independent from county government, was a way to protect the countys PILT funding on federal lands. Last November, the County Commission Service District No. been defeated for 1. me The Funds for Education Question When the Special Service District was created, it was believed that a portion of the funding received would go to education within the respective county. However, that offer was retracted, apparently on the advice of the Association of Energy Bldg. E. Center St. Moab, Utah (801) 259-884- if threatening to cut off PILT funding? According to Walker, "The way this funding mechanism Is set up between PILT and the Special Service District, It cannot look like it's strictly a county operation. They went to the people In Washington and said, heres where we see a possible problem arising. What is the best way to set this up and timetable It so as not to jeopardize our PILT? Mark Walsh got an opinion from the Solicitors Office in Washington. However, In reviewing the document, a memorandum from Associate Solicitor for and Resources, there does not appear to be any language that would prohibit the expenditure of mineral lease funds on education. What It does say Is, "the key Indicator of financial independence, however, would be that the county would not have the responsibility to undertake road repairs, education or other functions assigned to the Service District, If the Service District itself, were to fail to execute those functions. Since the county does not fund education, there Is no way the county would have a responsibility to "step in with funding for schools If the Service District did In fact, since Grand County Government bears a major responsibility In the not. maintenance of county roads, if any conflict regarding independence exists, it would seem to be that area of concern. However, Jimmie Walker still sees a problem: "If our argument has been that we need this money to improve our roads, and then right off the top, we take these monies and put them somewhere else, then the accounting procedures might make them Investigate it closer to see If everything is going right "You see the education theme came into the picture back during the campaign. One of the problems I had with the whole scenario was that I tried to get education interested In this whole program, and wed got to bat and both get monies from that And I couldn't get any interesL Im not saying why, or maybe they were busy on other projects, or they just didnt think we'd get the job done. Energy CO-O- P 111 No. 100 W. THATS VIDEO LIBRARY Open 7 Days a Week a problem arises in trying to determine Just who exactly feels a conflict some of the mineral lease money is allocated to the schools. The Association of Counties expressed this concern, but who at the federal level is But arises THE h 7 Counties. Jimmie Walker: "Ok, there's a program called payment in lieu on state lands' where four sections in each township are designated where revenues produced on them go for There But the counties have all the responsibility to maintain them. education. needed to be some kind of program to reimburse us. It couldn't come from the revenue thats for schools. "So in the mineral lease funding, there was a percentage of unallocated monies. The idea was, lets use those monies to take care of payment In lieu on state lands. The way it was worded in the legislation, it could go to special service districts or schools and that created a controversy. Because schools were mentioned, people felt it should go to schools, but it was always our intention to use the money with our road program. "Our schools have real problems, however, and the situation now Is, If we wanted to give some of that money to the schools, it's questionable if we could do it The District gets money for a particular purpose. The money is distributed from the state, with direction from the County Commission. "The reason we took that direction is that all counties used that same plan, because we didnt want to create a situation that looked like we were messing up our PiLT money. We felt that for at least two years, all the counties should follow the same direction, to assure the federal government that we werent breaking any of these trust agreements. This was a decision of the Association of Counties. MR. STOCK, OU life K'N0ffH&A&. y.. xM A LOtJG 259-571- 2 SCltrr Of --FICR' Nor a "DR. STOCK. PCDIAT WCMAj ! Books by Ed Abbey all a star trek special! star trek tv episodes: 2 for a dollar the movies: a dollar each during the month of may and Freedom and Wilderness (Abbey reads Abbey) Backpacking Foods, Spices Bulk Foods |