Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- The Utah House advanced HB465, requiring Salt Lake City to partner with state law enforcement for funding.
- House Majority Assistant Whip Casey Snider supports the bill to improve public safety.
- Salt Lake City's representatives and mayor criticized the bill as coercive and unnecessary.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah House of Representatives on Friday moved ahead with a plan that could require Salt Lake City to partner with state law enforcement or lose state funds over opposition from many of the lawmakers who represent the state's capital city.
House Majority Assistant Whip Casey Snider, R-Paradise, said HB465 is meant to improve public safety in Salt Lake City and praised Mayor Erin Mendenhall for advancing a public safety plan after Republican state leaders called out "inadequacies" in how the city polices itself.
"This bill is hopefully about protecting, preserving, enabling our capital city," Snider told colleagues on the House floor Friday. "As many of you know — working here or living there — there has been an increase in crime and a deterioration of our prized capital in recent months. Due to comments made by the leaders of this body and the Senate and the governor, I believe the mayor of Salt Lake City has stepped up, and there is a plan in place that will hopefully enable all parties to cooperatively work together to finally get ahead of the homelessness and crime that has plagued us all for far too long."
"What this bill ... fundamentally is about is codifying that agreement," he added.
The bill would require the city to enter into an "interagency agreement" with the state Department of Public Safety in order to continue to receive funds, though it doesn't prescribe what the parameters of that agreement should be. Snider has said the bill is meant to provide accountability to ensure the mayor's public safety proposals take shape.
HB465 passed the chamber 54-16. All House Democrats and two Republicans voted against it.
While Republicans cited the bill as a needed effort to improve public safety after too many years of what they see as insufficient policing, several lawmakers who represent Salt Lake City criticized the move and questioned the need for state intervention.
"I don't think there needs to be legislation," said House Majority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City. "What I'm hearing from the sponsor of this proposed bill is that this is supposed to be in partnership. So, as the good sponsor said, he's not coercing Salt Lake City to do what the Legislature wants ... but why do we need legislation if we are in conversations?"
Rep. Hoang Nguyen, D-Salt Lake City, described herself as a "proud resident" of Salt Lake City for more than 33 years and said the city is "much safer than it has ever been, especially coming out of the pandemic over the last five years."
"I would love to work with the state to be a collaborative partner to make our state, our city better," she said. "But when it comes to more punitive bills like this, where it seems to push and coerce law enforcement and elected local leadership to do these types of things, it's a little bit hard for me to follow."
Mendenhall was asked Thursday if her appointment of Brian Redd as the city's new chief of police would change the Legislature's efforts to pass HB465.
"Probably not," she said. "I think they're going to do whatever they want to do, and it has nothing to do with my decision here."
Mendenhall spoke about the bill last week when it was presented to a House committee and called the proposal "coercive," "unnecessary and damaging to the trust that should be built between our levels of government."
But for many Republicans, that trust has already been eroded in recent years by Salt Lake's policing decisions, dating back to the riot during a protest against police and other protests during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
"We have dealt with this for a long time," said Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden. "The problem is, it is our capital city. We all have a vested interest here. We have specifically invested heavily in the last several years in our capital city because it belongs to all of us — whether we have a residence here or whether we don't."
Rep. Tyler Clancy, a Republican from Provo who also serves on that city's police force, said the bill addresses an "inequality" in public safety in Salt Lake City compared to other places in the state.
"I support this bill because I think it's important that wherever you live, whatever ZIP code— whether that's in St. George, whether it's in Cache County, whether that's in Salt Lake City — you deserve to be safe if you're a citizen of the state of Utah," Clancy said.
In summing up his bill presentation, Snider said he is optimistic the bill will help the state and its capital city move toward improved public safety.
"I hope that these provisions will allow all of us to move forward in a way that will ultimately fix what are very real ... very complicated problems," he said.
HB465 now goes to the Senate, where lawmakers have until March 7 to consider it.
Contributing: Carter Williams
