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Senate passes moratorium, task force on city manager form of government
Summary
The Utah Senate approved a second-substitute of Senate Bill 41 that imposes an 18-month moratorium on municipalities adopting a manager form of government and creates a task force to study municipal government code and report by November; the measure was amended to clarify task force costs and passed on third reading.
The Utah Senate on Monday amended and passed a revision to Senate Bill 41 that bars municipalities from establishing a manager form of government for 18 months and creates a legislative task force to examine municipal government code and recommend changes.
Sponsor Sen. Walker said the second substitute ‘‘prohibits the establishment of a manager form of municipal government until February, puts an 18 month moratorium on creating this new form of government, [and] requires the repeal of any ordinance that's been done this past January’’ and adds a task force to study how voters’ approval should factor into future form-of-government changes.
The amendment adopted in the Senate adjusted the bill’s fiscal note to reflect updated task force costs. Walker described the task force membership as ‘‘3 members of the Senate, 8 members of the House, and 4 nonvoting members appointed by the league’’ and said the panel will report to the Political Subdivisions Interim Committee in November.
Sen. McCoy asked whether any cities currently pursuing ballot initiatives would be affected. Walker replied that ‘‘there are at least 2 cities that will be addressing this on a referendum vote this coming November, and indeed this will not affect that.’’ The sponsor emphasized the bill is intended to ‘‘let the dust settle’’ after several local controversies where city councils changed their form of government by ordinance rather than by public vote.
The Senate substituted the bill with the second substitute, adopted the amendment and concluded a roll call that sent the amended bill forward: second substitute, as amended, received 27 yes votes, 0 nay votes and 2 absent and was ordered for third reading.
The task force provision centralizes further study and preserves the status quo for 18 months while legislators and municipal stakeholders consider statutory changes.
Next steps: the bill will be read for third time as ordered and proceed to the House for consideration after Senate procedure is complete.
