Salt Lake County residents received a little something extra accompanying their tax notices this week, and County Council members are working to make sure it never happens again.
The tax statements included a double-sided insert paid for by nearly $10,000 in taxpayer funds.
The front featured a photo of Democratic Salt Lake County Recorder Rashelle Hobbs, who is seeking reelection in a race against Republican challenger Richard Snelgrove, a former council member. The back of the full-color flyer instructs residents to sign up for Property Watch, a county service that notifies residents of any changes to their property titles.
“In the 10 years I’ve been on the council, I’ve never had to ask an attorney, ‘Is this considered electioneering?’ until now,” council member Aimee Winder Newton said during Tuesday’s Salt Lake County Council meeting. “Even if something is legal because it doesn’t say ‘please vote for me’ in it, it’s very concerning.”
Winder Newton said the front side of the flyer looks like a campaign mailer. The county has offered the Property Watch service for several years, she added, but Hobbs “conveniently” decided to advertise the program in the final weeks of her reelection campaign.
Revenue at the county recorder’s office is also lower than anticipated this year, Winder Newton noted, yet Hobbs spent money on a full-color, two-sided mailer.
The county previously paid for a similar insert that advertised other programs the last time tax statements were mailed out, council Chair Laurie Stringham said, recalling that a one-sided insert was “a lot cheaper.” Deputy County Recorder Will Kocher said this year’s two-sided notice was the cheaper option.
State Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, sponsored a bill this spring that requires counties across the state to include a notice within tax bills on how residents could sign up for the Property Watch program.
But after a discussion with the Association of Counties, Harper said the intent of the legislation was to send a notice that would be “something simple, not very expensive, but whatever the county chose to do.”
“I have had some people contact me as well, saying, ‘It appears that what has been inserted in the tax notice goes beyond what you requested,’” Harper said to the council on Tuesday. “It’s just a little bit concerning that something of that nature was inserted.”
Hobbs told council members that the intent of the flyer was to notify residents of the county’s free service amid “predatory” campaigns from companies urging older residents to pay for similar alerts regarding their property titles.
She added that after a “careful second review,” her office decided to send the flyer because the insert made the text larger and easier to read. The review, Hobbs said, found the office could still cover the cost of this insert without “impacting other operations.”
“My picture was included in the insert and is included in Property Watch, data services, and other Office of the Recorder designs and materials because I believe it’s important for residents to recognize and feel connected to their elected officials, and to be able to identify the duties that different elected officials perform,” Hobbs said. “There was no special request from or treatment granted to me in the creation and inclusion of this insert.”
Snelgrove, meanwhile, said Hobbs should apologize for the mailer.
“By Recorder Hobbs using her name in large font and picture prominently placed, same as the campaign photo on her website, it dilutes and distracts from the more important message of promoting Property Watch,” Snelgrove said. “This is something that Salt Lake County taxpayers subsidized. ... I also feel that probably an apology is in order to the people of Salt Lake County for this unethical use of taxpayer dollars.”
Winder Newton said Property Watch is an important service, but said the council didn’t allocate funding to the office so it could pay for the insert’s $9,640 price tag. She argued that if Hobbs had sent an insert without a photo, which also solely focused on the Property Watch service, she would’ve been able to print the notice in just one or two colors, cutting the cost in half.
Kocher said the county recorder’s office was able to cover the cost of the flyer through its operations budget because it had leftover funds from underspending.
Although the flyer was found legal by the council’s attorney and the county’s district attorney, Stringham said it’s “definitely unethical in my book.” Winder Newton added that she and council member Ann Granato are working on an ordinance to prevent taxpayer funds from being used this way in the future.
“It’s troubling now, the week that ballots are dropping, and we’re now getting people saying, ‘What are you council members doing allowing this to happen?’” Winder Newton said. “We want to make sure they know we’re working on this.”
