Early fireworks in county debate over events

Commissioner Mellor’s Fourth of July, fair planning comes under scrutiny
    Commissioner Jake Mellor looked under siege at last Wednesday’s Carbon County Commission meeting as he faced a slew of questions and criticism regarding planning and budgeting efforts ahead of planned events this summer, including a Fourth of July concert by country singer Darryl Worley combined with a more robust Energy Days than in previous summers.
    Mellor, who is the commission’s representative in charge of recreation, has been leading volunteer efforts to organize this summer’s offerings, and under a tight budget.
    “This is a very special event,” he told commission Chair Casey Hopes and Commissioner Jae Potter in a lengthy description of what’s planned. “We’re incorporating an amazing first-time Harley Davidson ride from Timpanogos down to the fairgrounds and this is a fundraiser for Angels of Hope. Just as a big highlight, we’re going to have events from the Fourth with Energy Days. We’re going to have some food vendors. That’s going to be new. We’re going to have a carnival all four days. We’re going to have some bull riding events. We’ll have some mounted shooting. We’re going to have a movie night in the soccer field. We’re going to have a foam dance in the barn. We’re going to have a motocross race on Saturday that ends just in time for the three-band concert that we have organized.
    “It’s all very exciting because at the end of the day, you are going to ask what does it cost. And you know, it’s actually very touching to realize that this event at this time how many people are donating their services. To pull off an event like this would cost Duchesne or Uintah county $60,000. But we’re going to do it with the budget we have for the whole summer.”
    That budget for the whole summer is $40,000. Potter and Hopes expressed concerns that Mellor and an ad hoc committee of volunteers had failed to account for equipment, labor and other costs in planning the event.
    Also, concerns were raised that Mellor had been disingenuous when speaking to the other commissioners and the public about combining Energy Days, the Fourth of July and the annual county fair.
    In response to Hopes’ concerns about being misled about Energy Days and the Fourth of July being combined with the county fair, Mellor said, “Commissioner, this is not the county fair this is a different event altogether.”
    “That’s not what you’ve told me in the past. You told me that we were combining county fair with Energy Days,” Hopes retorted. “So you are taking all the funding…”
    Mellor interjected, “Not all the funding, nope. A lot of the events that we do for the county fair will still be there. In fact, the county fair will be more robust than it has been in the past. And we still plan to do it all under budget.”
    Eventually, Potter weighed in on the discussion.
    “I just don’t believe that the costs have been counted on equipment, personnel and so forth. I appreciate the information that’s coming in late here. But again I don’t see any total on what really the cost is of making the change here. I am not for not expanding it, but I am pretty sure that Fourth of July, the Energy Days, the 5,000 that come, probably the majority of them are local,” he said. “You come to us in a roundabout way.”
    Potter also expressed concerns that Mellor was pressuring the commission to enter into contracts without the proper notice to the public in a bid to finalize the event planning quickly.
    “I’m really not trying to kill this. I am, Commissioner Mellor, discouraged from where you’ve taken this. Number one you talk about a contract with a billboard company. Did we not just go through a open and public meeting training where all contracts have to be approved by the commission?” Potter said, referring to a refresher course led earlier Wednesday by the commission’s civil attorney regarding the state’s open meetings law. “Every one of these things that we are talking about have to go through that proper channel. And so we should’ve been working on this a long time ago and planning on it for next year. Because a couple of things you’re asking, I am not willing to do.
    “One, I am not willing to break the laws of the state of Utah or Carbon County to pull off an event.”
    Mellor said he would never ask the commissioners to break the law. He also took exception to plans to contract with a billboard company as anything more than making a reservation to purchase the billboard space at a later date when the commission can meet to approve it.
    Hopes, too, was not against expanding the summer recreation agenda to include more events, including some that will cost attendees to attend. His primary issue revolved around being asked to make a decision shortly upon receiving details about Mellor’s and his group’s planning.
    “A lot of this information is brand new. I haven’t seen everything. Like I said, the first time I heard about this was the convention when you announced it to the public. I don’t know that there has been a lot of discussion with the commission about what’s going on or what your proposal is. And that makes it very difficult to make a decision. We still don’t have numbers on what you’re spending, what costs on what things,” he said.
    Mellor assured the commission there was still time to follow proper procedure and pull off a great event.
     “Well we still have two or three months before the events. A lot to do. And yes, in a perfect world, we would be planning this November, December for July….We are working really hard to make this happen,” he said.
    At the end of the discussion, no action was taken. Neither was any action taken on the following item seeking changes to and possible expansion of the county’s Fourth of July and county fair events.
    Still, Mellor wasn’t finished hearing from his fellow board members.
    Hopes was critical of a weekend motocross event—one Mellor had tauted at the beginning of the meeting–that utilized county volunteers in a manner outside county policies.
    “Our policy says that anytime you are going to use volunteers, they need to first come in and register with the county. We treat them the same as if they were coming in for a job interview. In a lot of situations we ask them to take a drug screen panel if they are going to be using any of our equipment, if they’re going to be working with kids. We get a background check on them. We make sure they’ve been trained and provide them with some basic safety training as well,” Christian Bryner, the county’s civil attorney said, adding that those requirements are made by the state.
    Hopes reminded Mellor and ad hoc committee members that if they expected volunteers to work their summer events, they would be required to follow the policies in place.
    And then there was discussion about the commissioners’ travel budget. Each commissioner is allocated $3,500 annually for travel. All of them sit on local, state and national boards that often require attendance at meetings and conferences. Mellor has already exhausted his travel funding for the year.
    An agenda item sought a consideration for amending travel budgets.
    Potter reminded Mellor again that there is a process in place, policies to follow should he wish to increase his travel budget.
    “That kind of budget amendment would have to be advertised well in advance. I believe it is seven days. The thing I’d like to see before we do that is really, what are your plans for travel? We all know where our meetings are, we all know what those expenses are,” Potter said. “We all sit on boards. We all travel. We all have that responsibility once a budget is set to make sure that we are trying to meet that. I know that’s been more than one time a discussion for tonight.”
    Hopes, who added the travel item to the agenda, said he did so because Mellor has repeatedly submitted receipts for reimbursement to the county for travel expenses he’s incurred despite knowing he’s already spent his annual travel allotment.
     “Commissioner, the reason I wanted this on the meeting today is because if you’re asking for an amendment to your travel budget, you need to present an amendment to the travel budget. You are still traveling, you are still submitting reimbursements, but we can not pay those out until the budget is amended,” he said.
    Mellor, already defensive earlier in the evening, said he felt the travel item was purposely placed on the agenda to harm him. Mellor is in the midst of a reelection campaign for his seat and faces stiff opposition within his own party and from Democrats who have made the county’s finances a central campaign issue.
    “I think this item on this agenda was more to put me in a bad light…I say that because in our discussions you said prepare something for May. And so I have something prepared for May. And we can’t make a decision until it is advertised two or three weeks out, yet it was put on today’s discussion by the chair who controls the agenda.
    An exasperated Hopes finally gave up, saying, “That’s not worth debating here. That’s what needs to happen. You need to prepare a budget so it can be amended or approved for an amendment. What you have asked us before is to take it out of economic development and we can not do that without having a budget amendment. And going through formal process. So it was not to paint you in a bad light, we just weren’t getting answers,” he said.