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- A Utah House committee advanced a bill requiring Salt Lake City to collaborate with state law enforcement or risk losing funds.
- Mayor Erin Mendenhall opposes the bill, calling it "coercive" and "unnecessary" for public safety.
- The bill, HB465, aims to address homelessness and crime, creating a rapid response team with the Department of Public Safety.
SALT LAKE CITY — A bill that could require Salt Lake City to partner with state law enforcement on public safety or lose certain state funds was approved by a Utah House committee.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall spoke publicly on the proposal for the first time Friday, saying it is unnecessary and touting a public safety plan she presented to lawmakers last month after Gov. Spencer Cox and other top state officials called out "inadequacies" in the city's policing. Mendenhall said her plan already calls for coordination between various state and local entities but added that every level of government is responsible for working to address shelter space, affordable housing, mental health care and jail space.
Republican lawmakers, however, expressed anger about law enforcement in the capital city, going back years, and voted to recommend the bill to the full House of Representatives for consideration.
HB465 requires Salt Lake City — and other large cities that receive homelessness mitigation funds — to contract with the state Department of Public Safety or risk losing the funds. It also creates a rapid response team to combat open-air drug trade and "consistent camping," according to bill sponsor House Majority Assistant Whip Casey Snider, R-Paradise.
He described the bill as a "collaborative" approach to addressing the "longstanding and unfortunately perennial issue" of homelessness and crime while presenting it to the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.
"At its core (HB465) is really about formalizing collaborative opportunities," he said. "It is about ensuring that commitments that are made in various capacities by municipalities are held true and like any good contract in this space."
"I believe it is meant to be very much a handout in terms of working together. It's meant to be very much collaborative," he added.
Mendenhall disagreed, as did representatives for the Utah Chiefs of Police Association and the Utah League of Cities and Towns.
"Public safety is every mayor's top priority and that is no different for me and Salt Lake City," Mendenhall told the committee, adding that she and police have been "working relentlessly and innovatively to combat the rising crime that we saw in our city — which was on trend with most large cities across the country."
Since 2021, she said the city has "seen incredible results ... but I know that statistics are not important if people do not feel safe in their city."
Mendenhall rattled off several of those statistics, including more than 500 arrests and jail bookings in the last month, 118 camping citations and seizures of methamphetamines and fentanyl.
"The collaboration that's required under Rep. Snider's bill is part of the work that we are excited to do with DPS, but let me be clear, legislation that requires cities to enter into this partnership and penalizes us if we do not is not real collaboration," she said. "It is coercive, and it is unnecessary and damaging to the trust that should be built between our levels of government if we are truly going to work together to solve big problems."
David Spatafore, who spoke against the bill on behalf of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association, argued the policy would be better addressed through a memorandum of understanding between the state and city rather than "in a state statute with heavy consequences."
The bill "is not proactive and it will either create issues or — even if successful — will not solve the problem," he said.
Rep. Sandra Hollins, a Democrat who is the only member of the committee who lives in Salt Lake City, expressed concern about the precedent the bill would set by essentially forcing the city to adjust its policy of policing.
Several Republicans angrily pushed back on criticisms of the bill, saying Salt Lake City has done too little to address homelessness and crime for years, saying the state has waited long enough for the city to take more action.
"We've definitely become this traffic way of drugs and organized crime, human trafficking, and it's time for that to stop, and this is a really strong message to all of our agencies," said Rep. Melissa Ballard, R-North Salt Lake.
Rep. Matthew Gwynn, R-Farr West, who serves as the police chief of Roy, said he's "at odds with the rest of the chiefs" in supporting HB465.
"We should absolutely be in a position to manage the money that we're giving them, and if it's being used inappropriately, we're going to fix the issue," he said. "The message is abundantly clear: Things have to change. When they do, then maybe we can walk backward."
Snider concluded by saying his bill isn't meant as a punitive measure, emphasizing the state has to "intercede at this point."
"I don't think any of us want to be here," he said.
HB465 cleared the committee with a 7-1 vote and now advances to the full House. The legislative session ends on March 7.
