Homeless encampments are pictured north of Salt Lake City. (Photo by Joey Ingelhart/Getty Images)
After Utah’s top Republican state leaders demanded Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall take steps to improve “public safety” in her city — or else the Legislature would be prepared to step in — a new bill has been unveiled that appears to fulfill that promise.
That bill, HB465, went public Monday. It’s sponsored by a member of House Republican leadership: House Majority Assistant Whip Casey Snider, R-Paradise.
“This bill is not punitive in nature,” Snider told Utah News Dispatch in an interview Monday night, adding he’s “not trying to single out Salt Lake,” though he acknowledged that the city is “front and center on this.”
Snider also issued a prepared statement saying he appreciates “Salt Lake City’s efforts to develop a long-term plan to improve public safety in our capital city.”
“HB465 aims to support the city — and other large cities — to address public safety and formalize partnerships that benefit our communities and our state,” Snider said.
If HB465 becomes law, it would require police departments of cities with populations of over 100,000 that also host homeless shelters — in other words, Salt Lake City — to enter into a “public safety interagency agreement” with the Utah Department of Public Safety to crack down on homeless encampments and drugs or else risk losing state funds.
The bill would set two deadlines to pressure the Salt Lake City Police Department to form an agreement with the state’s top public safety agency. If it’s not done by July 1, the city could face “reduced” funding from the Homeless Shelter Cities Mitigation Restricted Account, a fund meant to help cities that host emergency shelters deal with their impacts.
Further, if an agreement is not in place by Oct. 1, the state could withhold local road funding.
As currently drafted, HB465 would also allow the Department of Public Safety to enter into agreements with police departments of other large “first-class” cities, or those with populations over 100,000. Those include West Valley City, West Jordan, Provo and St. George. West Valley and St. George also host homeless shelters and have received homeless shelter mitigation funds from the state — but Salt Lake City has been the only city facing public calls from state leaders to improve public safety within its jurisdiction.
The bill would create a new “public safety rapid response team” within the state Department of Public Safety. That team would respond to “public safety events” defined as “a situation significantly affecting public safety,” including an “illegal homeless encampment” and “a large-scale illegal drug distribution occurrence.”
“We’re trying to be very cognizant of state resources and state investments,” Snider said. He acknowledged “these are local issues,” but he added state officials “want to be there in an advisory capacity or a help-added capacity.”
“If things fall apart, there are some measures (to potentially withhold state funds), but that’s more meant to bring people to accountability than it is to be punitive,” Snider said.
Snider said his bill first and foremost focused on “working collaboratively” with Salt Lake City. “I’m hoping this is value additive. I don’t want to detract from the direction the city is moving in, and hopefully we can just work collaboratively, together, to solve these critical problems in Salt Lake City.”
‘Fed up’: SLC mayor answers Utah leaders’ call for plan to ‘restore public safety’
The bill — which was only unveiled Monday and has yet to be considered in a committee hearing — comes after Mendenhall last month answered state leaders’ call and directed Salt Lake police to crack down on illegal camping, drugs and gun offenses as part of a sweeping “public safety plan.”
It’s now been more than four weeks since Salt Lake City officials took action starting Jan. 12. Last week, the city reported 460 jail bookings, 89 citations for illegal camping, and 42 guns seized as part of the effort.
In response to a request for comment about Snider’s bill, a spokesperson for Mendenhall’s office issued a statement Monday expressing a willingness to partner with the state, while gently saying the legislation is not necessary.
“Salt Lake City appreciates the state’s desire to expand our partnership on public safety, though we don’t necessarily believe legislation is required,” the spokesperson for the mayor’s office said. “As we outlined in the Public Safety Plan, it will take a coordinated approach to achieve the results we all desire. We appreciate Rep. Snider’s invitation to collaborate on this bill in recent days and look forward to continuing those discussions.”
Why is requiring a formal agreement with DPS necessary?
Snider said Mendenhall’s plan outlined some “positive steps,” and his bill is meant to “contractually bind people together” to ensure long-term cooperation while creating some measures to hold cities accountable. He said public safety is a “perennial issue,” and “accountability is important long-term to really fix this.”
“You really can’t have an agreement — any kind of contract — without a penalty for violation of the terms. I mean that’s just standard fare, and that’s really how I see it,” Snider said. “If things break down, this is the clause that addresses damages, as it would in a standard contract.”
Pressed on why his bill is necessary if Mendenhall has already signaled a willingness to work with the state, Snider said it’s a big enough issue to warrant formal state involvement.
“I’m even hearing in Cache County from constituents about the concerns about what’s happening in Salt Lake,” Snider said. “If the mayor’s plan can move forward, this just assures that everybody’s serious.”
He added: “I don’t think with a couple of strongly-worded letters that we can get to the same level of accountability, which is why I think the legislation is necessary.”
Snider said Mendenhall has illustrated that her administration is taking the issue “seriously.”
“We just want to make sure she’s committed,” Snider said, adding lawmakers can only do so much during their 45-day session to ensure that. “We’re all going to go home the first week of March. And I’m thinking of what’s going to happen in the nine months after we’re gone. Hopefully this bill is really seen as a partnership that brings everybody together long term and settles this issue.”
In his mind, Snider said the “best thing that could happen” is the state Department of Public Safety works with Mendenhall to “bolster her efforts, she had additional people helping to navigate this very difficult issue with her, she feels the support the state and a year from now … (the city) continues on a positive trajectory.”
“I just want results, our constitutions want results, the state wants results,” Snider said. “If this will be embraced in the spirit in which it is offered, which is partnership with accountability, I think everybody can be successful.”
Will state leaders answer Mendenhall’s calls for ‘system-wide’ changes?
Along with promising immediate action from Salt Lake police, Mendenhall also issued a call to action of her own to state officials and other local leaders as part of her public safety plan: make “system-wide” improvements and “create space” for not only the state’s homeless network, but also the Salt Lake County jail and the larger criminal justice system.
Utah’s top Republican leaders that sent Mendenhall the letter Dec. 13 expressing frustrations with “disorder” in Utah’s capital city — Gov. Spencer Cox, House Speaker Mike Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams — have generally been complimentary of Mendenhall’s response, but have also been noncommittal on whether her actions would be enough to satisfy their demands and stave off legislation to increase state involvement in city affairs.
Mendenhall has warned that for her plan to succeed, state leaders can’t treat it as an “a la carte menu,” and pick and choose what they like. She said it has to be implemented holistically — but state leaders have also given vague answers as to whether they’ll answer all of her calls listed in her lengthy and complex plan, including requests for more funding.
Will the Utah Legislature follow SLC mayor’s plan for public safety, homelessness?
Asked whether lawmakers will be answering Mendenhall’s calls — including additional funding — Snider said “she’s right” that the public safety plan needs to be implemented holistically.
“This bill is one in a series,” he said, pointing to another bill being sponsored by House Majority Whip Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, aimed at addressing jail overcrowding. That bill, HB312, would prevent counties from releasing inmates who are arrested or convicted of a variety of crimes — as well as allow counties to contract with other counties to hold inmates if they run out of space.
“Here’s what I don’t want to end up with,” Snider said. “I don’t want to end up in another situation where we spend all that money like we did on (Operation) Rio Grande, and we walk away and cannot point to any substantive changes at all.”
The state-led Operation Rio Grande — a sweeping, two-year crackdown on crime in a downtown neighborhood surrounding a homeless shelter that the state later shut down — cost more than $67 million. Beginning in 2017, that operation broke up what state officials described as an unwieldy homeless population but scattered on-street camping and other issues associated with homelessness into other areas of the city.
“Operation Rio Grande spent a lot of money, and we have nothing to show for it,” Snider said. “That’s really what I’m trying to get around.”
Tracking Salt Lake City’s efforts
Monday, the city unveiled a new website tracking the progress of Mendenhall’s public safety plan. Of 27 actions the city committed to, three are marked as complete, while 24 are in progress.
“It’s not enough to take action — we must also ensure residents can see the progress we’re making,” Mendenhall said in a prepared statement. “This website does exactly that and then some, providing updates on the steps we’ve already taken in just 25 days since the Plan’s release, as well as outlining key legislative recommendations for lawmakers.”
Snider’s bill comes after prominent state and community leaders involved in efforts to transform Utah’s homeless system have criticized Salt Lake City for not doing enough to enforce anti-camping ordinances and crack down on drug use and distribution.
Among them is Randy Shumway, chairman of the Utah Homeless Services Board and vice chair of the Utah Impact Partnership, a group of influential philanthropists who donate funds toward homeless services and have helped lobby the Utah Legislature for more money.
State leaders call SLC police ‘ineffective,’ urge mayor to act — or state will step in
Shumway in recent months has called on Mendenhall and the city’s police chief to do more than they’re already doing, arguing that the fentanyl crisis is particularly sharp in Utah’s capital city.
Earlier this summer, when on-street camping reached seasonal highs, Mendenhall said it’s “incredibly difficult to continue to wait for more shelter” as state officials continue their secret search for a 30-acre property meant to house a “transformative campus” meant to increase Utah’s emergency shelter bed capacity by up to 1,200 beds. That search is ongoing, and state officials have a deadline of Oct. 1, 2025 for the 1,200-bed shelter to be built.
Meanwhile, voters rejected a $507 million bond to increase Salt Lake County jail capacity. Mendenhall has urged county and state leaders to find another way to increase room in the jail, saying Salt Lake City police are left frustrated when offenders they arrest are instantly and repeatedly released because of jail overcrowding.
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