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State adviser offers Wallsburg help to rewrite building, enforcement and procurement policies
Summary
A Mountainland Association of Governments Local Administrative Adviser told Wallsburg council members on Oct. 24 that the state-funded program can help with drafting enforceable building codes, procurement policies and grant applications; council asked for templates and prioritized short‑term rentals, cemetery rules and a stormwater master plan.
Spencer Foster, the Local Administrative Adviser assigned to the Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), told the Wallsburg Town Council at a work meeting on Oct. 24 that the state-funded Local Administrative Adviser program can supply staff support and templates to towns that lack capacity.
Foster said the Utah League of Cities and Towns helped create the program after finding many small towns “don’t have bandwidth” or full-time staff. He described a network of advisers across regional AOGs and said Wallsburg is one of about 19 towns eligible for help. “If you need help with something, we can either help you with it or get you to who can,” Foster said.
Council members used the presentation to outline priorities they want the LAA to address: a comprehensive overhaul of the town’s building and development code, clearer enforcement language for nuisance violations (including limits on RV stays), procurement and purchasing policies to support audits, and a short‑term rental ordinance. Foster said the program can provide templates, review draft language, and — where available — connect towns to funded consultants for items such as subdivision ordinances.
The presenter noted limits: MAG’s LAA program is not intended to replace specialized land-use technical assistance that other state programs supply for general plans and complex transportation or land-use projects. For those items the LAA can advise and point the town toward the appropriate technical-assistance program.
Foster also pointed council members to resources and examples on the MAG website (www.magutah.gov/laa) and said the program can help with fraud risk assessments, ethics statements, purchasing policies, internal controls and grant applications. The council and staff asked Foster to add a short‑term rental ordinance and a stormwater master‑plan effort to his immediate project list and to review proposed code language before the town posts ordinances publicly.
Next steps the council agreed to include preparing draft ordinance language for review, receiving the LAA’s fraud‑risk assessment, and scheduling follow-up at the November work meeting so staff and the adviser can refine proposals before legal review.
