Cemetery board delays decision on interlocal legal services agreement after members seek changes

The Snyderville Basin Cemetery District Board discussed a proposed 10-year interlocal agreement to pay Summit County for legal services and voted to table action until the board can review the draft and propose edits.

Board Chair Max Greenall opened the item by noting a draft interlocal agreement (ILA) for county legal services had been posted and asked the county attorney about the proposal. Brian (county counsel staff) explained that the draft ILA would set an hourly market rate of $350 for legal work, bill quarterly, and include indexing to inflation; he said the county began tracking time spent on districts on Jan. 1 and provided examples of hour totals for other districts as context.

Brian told the board the ILA is substantively similar to agreements Summit County uses with other special service districts and that the county attorney would not be singling out the cemetery district. He said the draft allows the county attorney to consent to use of outside counsel in limited circumstances and that paragraph 1 of the agreement outlines the county attorney's role in approving outside counsel.

Board members raised several concerns. Several members asked whether the agreement would be exclusive, noting the cemetery district is an independent district and that board members wanted the ability to seek a second opinion or retain outside counsel in some circumstances. Brian said the draft is written intentionally to be exclusive but that the county attorney would normally not withhold consent for outside counsel in legitimate cases; he also noted the board would retain the right to hire outside counsel with the county attorney's approval, and that any substantive change would require negotiating with the county attorney's office.

Several board members said they had not received or reviewed the draft. The board agreed to defer action to the next meeting to allow time for review and potential redlines: board member Pete moved to table the discussion of item 4 to the next meeting; Will seconded. The motion carried with verbal assent; the board asked Ryan Stack or county counsel staff to circulate the draft and requested that two board members with legal training (Bill and another board member) review redlines and return comments to counsel before the next meeting.

The item will return to the board's next agenda; members asked that any proposed language making the agreement nonexclusive be routed to the county attorney for response before the board votes.