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SOUTH SALT LAKE — Residents who sought a referendum to get the South Salt Lake City Council and mayor's raises on the ballot took their case to the Utah Supreme Court on Monday after their request got rejected.
One of the group's referendum requests got rejected on April 8 due to a technicality that the group's attorney says is incorrect, said sponsor Timothy Webb.
"The sponsors and the growing support for the referendum are working to bring this decision to the people, and out of the mayor and City Council's self-serving hands," Webb said in a prepared statement.
On March 23, the South Salt Lake City Council passed a resolution raising its own wages and removing a previous city rule that required a compensation commission to review suchraises. The commission included three mayor-appointed residents and one council-appointed resident. In the resolution, the council said the commission "has not produced information helpful to informing the City Council in regard to compensation questions."
The council members previously made $946 per month, or $11,352 per year. The raise increased their yearly salary to $17,431, which some council members said is comparable to the pay of surrounding city councils. The body also approved the pay increase to be retroactive to the start of 2022.
Meanwhile, as part of the same resolution, Mayor Cherie Wood's compensation increased from $6,791 per month to nearly $11,000, raising her salary to $136,224 per year. Last year, Wood made $81,644 in wages.
Webb said he and others who submitted the referendum request don't necessarily oppose pay raises for civil servants, but the process the council took to pass it.
The city attorney, however, told the petitioners that they needed to submit two referendum requests because the ordinance passed by the City Council overturned two previous ordinances.
But the petitioners believe they only needed one request because it pertained to just the latest ordinance — that which put the pay raises in effect.
"This is why we are bringing this to the Supreme Court today as one of the routes of recourse," Webb said.
The referendum sponsors want the Utah Supreme Court to decide whether the request was valid. The group chose to go to the Supreme Court rather than a district court in an attempt to expedite the process, writing in the petition that "proceeding in a lower court could only result in increased delay and cost" before a decision is made, and would "eliminate" sponsors' ability to gather enough signatures to get on the November ballot.
The case could also mark the first time the Utah Supreme Court has ruled regarding the statute that requires a referendum request for each ordinance, which the Utah Legislature passed in 2019, according to the group's petition to the court.
The group also requested a referendum to put a storm water drain fee that was passed by the City Council on the ballot in November as well. That request has not yet been approved or denied.
When asked for comment, a city spokeswoman said, simply, "The city is aware of a petition filed with the Utah State Supreme Court; it is being reviewed."
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