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Show The Newspaper Thursday, July 3, 1980 Page 3 July (DAILIERiBDAIE Monday Summer Arts Institute Woodshop begins, through the 18th ; Kimball Art Center Summer Arts Institue Dan ce Workshop begins, through the 19th; Kimball Art Center cm Letter t Citizens' Council Requests Response To Investigation The following is a letter submitted to Park City Mayor Jack Green by the Park City Citizen's Council. Dear Mayor Green: "You and other elected officials of your former administration attended public meetings of July and August, 1979, which led to the formation of the Park City Citizen's Council seeking better bet-ter government. These meetings forcefully force-fully demonstrated, among other things, that the Building Inspection Department (inadequately staffed with only one building inspector) was woefully derelict in the discharge of its duties. Citizen complaints and Bruce Decker's report of a quick, short-term audit generated by inadequate sewer connection fees collected by the City and remitted to the sewer district over several years of heavy building activity, ac-tivity, revealed that buildings existed in substantially completed form without any building permit issued or fees paid thereon; that building inspections were either not performed or not properly performed, resulting in numerous and substantial building code violations; that building permit fees, plan check fees and impact fees were improperly computed thru errors in computation or low valuation resulting in great Joss of revenue to the City and the sewer district, and allied building improprieties. im-proprieties. The City Manager responsible respon-sible for the administration and management of every department of the City, except judge and city attorney, attor-ney, appeared culpable for tolerating or being unaware of the situation. "The City Council's sole action was to hire one semi-qualified building inspector inspec-tor who shortly quit and was not soon i eplaced. "On August 16, 1979, the Citizen's Council presented to the City Council a letter containing ten items of pressing concern to the citizens, No. 8 of which concerned the foregoing fees collected by the Building Department. In its September Sep-tember 17, 1979 reply to this letter, the City Couincil responded to item No. 8 by saying it had assigned a Councilman to make a detailed analysis of the present building fee schedule and presented the DimitnBiiedl ffnnon . Prospector from 1 someone has to climb up to the bedroom ceiling, knock out the skylight, slide down the roof, and down to the ground three stories below." Because of his close association with the condominium owners, Adams said he is most interested in seeing their concerns answered, and he looks to Huntsman Goodson for help. "They seem to be very responsible and interested in getting the problems resolved," Adams said. "Since they've become involved, I haven't waited 30 minutes for a return phone call, where before we waited three weeks for K&M. "Hutch did one helluva a job here... he did what he started out to do," Adams continued. "And my sincere feeling now is that Huntsman's goal is to continue con-tinue to make the project a good one. I think the Square will see some of the best times in the next year." As for Huntsman Goodson, spokesman and company officer Phil Parker said they intend to work closely with the homeowner's association, arfd he assured that management of the property will remain virtually unchanged. " ' f "RfcMPMPER.WDiRA... MO BOMBS--. c)U5T NlCE THlM&S thB Ealiitr Councilman's report in apparent final solution of the problem. The Councilman's Coun-cilman's report in summary stated: "To my knowledge, after a very thorough review of all permits issued from January 1, 1979 through August 20, 1979 1 think it is clear that our self-reporting self-reporting system is producing better results than the most often used standards stan-dards and that it is very difficult to question an evaluation that exceeds the most supported standards (published by the International Conference of Building Officials. ) ' ' And that was that. "The City's disdain to put its own house in order for almost a year after the exposures led to the recent investigation in-vestigation conducted by an independent indepen-dent source, the Summit County Attorney. Attor-ney. This resulted in the arrest of the Public Transportation Director; the Building Inspector; resignation of the City Manager in lieu of prosecution; disclosure that of ten developments selected at random by the investigators the City lost an alleged $30,000 from errors in computation of fees and a further fur-ther $234,000 thru failure to challenge understated building cost valuations; that construction on certain buildings was commenced prior to the issuance of building permit and payment of fees, and that lack of inspection or improper inspections resulted in building code violations so pervasive that "stop work" orders were recommended in some instances. Further details of the investigation were released only to the City Council and not made public. "At the next City Council meeting on J June 5, members of the audience suggested that the only way to lay to rest rumors rampant in the city was to conduct an independent audit of all building permit applications not barred by the Statute of Limitations and of discernible building code violations and questionable development approvals granted. Your honor stated that the first order of business was for the City to determine whether the building costs used by the investigators were valid estimates for the times of construction involved. A citizen suggested that insurance in-surance companies keep full and complete com-plete historic records of building costs and that he and a competent group of volunteers he would recruit would be happy hap-py to measure the square footages of all of the buildings in town involved and apply the appropriate square foot building costs to determine the exact "We are currently negotiating with Keith Garner to purchase an interest in the convention center, health club and Grub Steak restaurant," Parker said, although he declined to discuss the extent ex-tent of the interest or any dollar amount offered to K&M. He noted that the negotiations did not include any commercial com-mercial property or condominium units at this time. Parker admitted that the turn of events came as much as a surprise to Huntsman Goodson as it did to Hut-chins' Hut-chins' friends and business associates. "We were thrust into the middle of this a week ago, so we have proposed an interim arrangement with Management Concepts Inc., and its key people will continue to operate here until un-til the negotiations are completed," Parker said. "You have to understand that we were negotiating before the demise of Management Concepts, and had the negotiations proceeded to their conclusion, we would have been the owners of the underlying property and real estate. We weren't looking to manage the property. Ideally, we would become the owners and then enter into THE ii 4 ii FOR INDIA" amount of fees owed to the city. You closed further discussion on the subject by assuring the audience that the City would continue its own investigation to determine whether an independent audit needed to be involved. "A month has elapsed since the County Coun-ty Attorney concluded his efforts and turned his findings over to the City Council. Nothing concrete has come out of City Hall and the public remains in the dark as to what, when and if anything will come out of the City's own efforts to investigate itself. We hope for a forthright report and assiduous follow-up from our new administration in contrast to your former administration ad-ministration who chose to close ranks and "bury the bodies" last yea; when the cards were laid on the table. The cloud on our city and escalating loss of revenue could have been averted by calling Mr. Skanter and Mr. Matthews to task last August instead of ignoring the obvious and attempting to rely on the report submitted to us in your September Sep-tember 17, 1979 letter of response. "We regretfully observe that the Council's "very thorough review of all permits issued from January 1, 1979 through August 20, 1979" encompassed four of the 10 developments covered by the investigators who found them errant. "In his report, the Councilman failed to report anything amiss in any of these four permits he scrutinized. Also, he failed to note that no building permit had been issued for the Carbide Lamp which was steadily being built during the time of his reveiw. In fact, the building permit for this structure was reported in the Park Record as costing the City $3,608 computation error and $6,592 from low valuation. This permit was not issued until November 2, 1979. This report should serve as a good example, if nothing else, of why the City Council should not act as its own prosecutor, judge and jury. "In keeping with the purpose of the Park City Citizens' Council seeking better government, we await the City's early response to the serious and unresolved matters which surfaced during the recent investigations." Very truly yours Park City Citizens' Council Robert Pinder Chairman an arrangement with a management firm." For the time being, Huntsman Good-son Good-son has formed a company that is a division of K&M Inc., called Prospector Management Inc., under which they are managing the Prospector Square properties. He said they intend to work with the homeowners association to use the convention center in a complimentary complimen-tary fashion, honoring all room and center rentals previously agreed to. Asked if Huntsman Goodson was aware of the complaints voiced by some unit owners, Parker answered in the affirmative, affir-mative, but added that the negotiations with K&M are not final. "Our options are open," he commented. Parker noted that Huntsman Good-son Good-son is involved in a variety of businesses, including the chemical corporation, cor-poration, a fuel oil distributorship and several real estate projects. "We hope to convey our intent to keep the property operating," Parker said. "All health club memberships will be honored and the restaurant will remain operating. We want Prospector Square to keep operating and provide the services ser-vices that it has in the past. AMERICAN NO. 1 NON-FICTION NON-FICTION BESTSELLER! iiiiin im inani M 14 II Friday Thursday Old Men v j. Yacht Club, men's Softball; 6 p.m., high school City Counlil Meeting, 7 p.m., Prospector Square Conference Center TfHE IRISH CAMEL LTD Nolw open for the summer season with a new menu serving fine Mexican dishes, burgers & salads Try our frozen Margarita and Daiquiri set-ups. HOURS: Lunch 12-2:30 Happy Hour 5-7 Dinner 5-10:30 Closed Wednesday Located at 434 Main Street Park City 649-6645 1? r NOW OPEN FOR LUNCH Weekdays 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Saturday Rodeo in Oakley, 8 p.m. Celebrate! Main Street at 10:30 a.m., followed by games and contests at City Park. Muckers vs. Dead Goat, rugby, 2 p.m.. City Park Fireworks! At the golf course at dusk Rodeo in Oakley. 8 p.m. Sunday Big John Strong Children's Child-ren's Circus; -1 p.m., and 7 p.m.. Prospector Square; children under 12 free, children over 12 $1, adults $4. R ESTAURANT Best Salad Bar in Town Serving Prime Rib nightly 649-7100 OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK FOR DINNER Monday-Thursday, 5:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m. Friday & Saturday, 5:30 p.m.-ll:00 p.m. Sunday, 5:00-10:00 p.m. Tuesday Free Im munization and Blood Pr essure Clinic, 3-5 p.m., tSummil County Health De pt.. 467 Main St. Park City Park City iSchool Board meeting, 7 :30 p.m., high school distr ict office HO Wednesday Agenda for the I eighties meeting, 7 p.m., Prospector Prospec-tor Square Conference Center i |