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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah House passed a bill reducing the number of fireworks days in July and Utah's Senate passed a bill to create first responders who specialize in mental health and suicide prevention. Here's a round-up of what's happening during the first week of Utah's 2018 legislative session.
Utah lawmaker seeks to create first responder for mental health, suicide prevention
The Utah Senate voted Tuesday to create a new kind of first responder who specializes in mental health and suicide prevention.
SB31, the Utah Mobile Crisis Outreach Team Act, passed 26-3 in the Senate and now moves to the House for consideration.
"I'm told by Salt Lake City that more than 1 in 6 calls for a first responder is in regards to a mental health or behavior health crisis," the bill's sponsor, Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, told his Senate colleagues.
The Cache County Sheriff's Office says it's 1 in 4 there, Thatcher said, and it's the same in Sanpete County.
"Can you imagine a world where 1 in 6 to 1 in 4 emergencies were a house fire and we had no firefighters to send? Can you imagine if instead we said, 'We'll send a police officer?' That is the very world we live in for mental and behavioral health," he said.
Senate Minority Leader Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, asked how Utah is going to pay for the first responders' licensing. Thatcher said such licenses would be paid for by employers, just as with paramedics.
Resolution affirms civil liberties of Utah college students
A resolution that affirms the civil liberties of students at Utah's public colleges and universities was unanimously endorsed by the Utah Legislature's Senate Education Committee on Tuesday.
SCR3, sponsored by seemingly unlikely political allies Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, and Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, "strongly encourages state institutions of higher education to vigorously defend the civil liberties of students through policies that ensure the protection of constitutional rights."
The nonbinding resolution recommends that state colleges and universities "each develop an appeal process for cases in which the institution's policies are challenged for failing to protect a student's rights."
Utah lawmakers pass bill reducing fireworks days for July holidays
The Utah House passed a bill Wednesday that would reduce the number of days around the Fourth of July and Pioneer Day that fireworks would be legal in the state.
HB38 allows fireworks two days before July 4 and July 24, and one day after, a total of eight days around those two holidays. Current law allows 14 total days around those two holidays.
Fireworks would remain legal on New Year's Eve and Chinese New Year. The measure does not ban aerial fireworks. It would give local governments the right to restrict fireworks in hazardous areas but does not permit an outright ban.
Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, called his bill, which passed the House 69-3, a good compromise among police and fire departments, cities, counties, fireworks sellers and residents.
The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
