Midway council approves SRS as CPACE administrator for upcoming Omni Ali application, ties legal costs to applicant

Midway City Council on a 4-0 vote approved a professional services agreement naming SRS to administer the city’s participation in the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE) program for an upcoming Omni Ali application, with the agreement to be finalized subject to the city attorney’s approval and the applicant covering review expenses.

The decision matters because Utah’s CPACE program requires the governing body where a project is located to consent before a property owner may use CPACE financing. Council members debated whether to approve SRS as the citywide administrator now or to limit approval to a single project; the council settled on approving SRS as administrator specifically tied to the known Omni Ali application and requiring that applicant-paid expenses cover city review.

CPACE allows property owners to accept a voluntary lien placed at their request, which can be assigned to a third‑party lender. According to city counsel during the meeting, that lender typically indemnifies the city and assumes collection rights under the statute, which reduces direct city exposure in practice. Council members and staff emphasized that the city’s only expected costs are staff time and the city attorney’s review of the agreement unless the council chooses otherwise.

Several council members asked whether naming SRS as administrator would preclude other administrators or require the city to use SRS for all future projects. Staff and SRS representatives explained that SRS is the state‑approved administrator and that the state Office of Energy Development has designated SRS to perform technical and statutory eligibility reviews; however, council members retained the option to require project‑by‑project approvals. The council added language to the motion to make the agreement project‑specific in practice, tie it to the upcoming Omni Ali application, require applicant payment of any review costs, and make final execution subject to attorney approval.

Councilmembers Lisa, JC, Craig and Kevin voted “aye.” One councilmember initially asked for more time and voted “nay” on an earlier procedural motion but later the final motion carried with the four recorded aye votes. The council did not adopt a citywide, perpetual commitment; instead the action leaves room for the city to revisit administration for future applications.

Next steps: SRS and the applicant were instructed to finalize the services agreement and return it for final review and execution after the city attorney’s approval. The Omni Ali CPACE application and the formal participation decision are expected to come before the council at a subsequent meeting before any technical reviews or engineer reports are commissioned.