Council approves transfer of Public Works Engineering to Municipal Services District with separation payments and asset handover

The Salt Lake County Council approved a package of documents authorizing the transfer of the county's Public Works Engineering division to the Greater Salt Lake Municipal Services District (MSD), including asset transfer terms and separation payments for employees who will move to the district.

Catherine Kanter, briefing the council, said the MSD exercised its contractual right under the master interlocal agreement to provide municipal engineering services and elected to take over the county's Public Works Engineering functions effective Dec. 31. "No employees are essentially losing their job," Kanter said; she told the council 13 of roughly 15 positions would become MSD employees while two positions remain with county flood control.

The documents before council included an amendment to the master interlocal agreement, an asset-transfer agreement listing equipment, some software licenses, and a separation-payment agreement intended as compensation for loss of future county retirement benefits for long-serving employees. Lisa Hartman, an associate deputy mayor, said the total separation payment amount was roughly $10,000 and that the MSD agreed to pick up that cost.

The asset transfer covers office equipment, cell phones, and five fleet vehicles; Hartman said the county would transfer replacement-value credits into the county fleet account so MSD would have the five vehicles plus a balance to fund future replacements (the parties discussed an approximate total replacement fund of about $169,000 for the five vehicles). The amendment added Brighton as a member of the MSD and preserves continuation of municipal services for unincorporated areas via the MSD.

Council discussion touched on operational tradeoffs: some council members said moving engineering out of the county bureaucracy will reduce shared efficiencies with flood control (staffing surges for runoff seasons and emergency responses). Kanter acknowledged potential efficiencies lost but said the MSD board had concluded the municipal services would be better managed under MSD oversight.

Council approved the resolution authorizing execution of the interlocal amendment and related agreements. The resolution authorized county staff to make non-substantive edits to the executed documents to accommodate municipal-level amendments and directed county attorneys to finalize form language.

The transfer follows a similar process used in a prior 2019 transition of planning and development services and will be effective for municipalities as each city signs the amendment in the coming weeks.