Pornography Addiction Pilot Program

As I’ve talked with constituents about issues in the community, one issue that keeps surfacing is pornography addiction in our youth. Studies show that 100% of our youth will be exposed to pornography before they graduate from high school. The porn industry is targeting children and youth, knowing that once they are addicted they will continue to fund this industry as adults.

Since Salt Lake County has a Behavioral Health department and the County Health department, I recently introduced them to a non-profit group called “Fight the New Drug.” 

“Fight the New Drug” has been featured in The Washington Post, Nightline, CNN, and The Huffington Post, and has presented assemblies in schools throughout the nation. They talk about pornography addiction, not from a moral standpoint, but in how pornography affects brain chemicals, relationships and society. These assemblies receive rave reviews as this group takes a very difficult subject and addresses it without being explicit or making it uncomfortable. It is not sex ed, but rather a simple explanation on how pornography works in the brain. You can visit fightthenewdrug.org for details. 

My goal is to have "Fight the New Drug" assemblies in every middle school, junior high and high school in Salt Lake County. We are piloting this program next month in Taylorsville so all stake holders can see what “Fight the New Drug” does and what their assemblies are all about. Bennion Jr. High and Eisenhower Jr. High will host assemblies on October 20. On October 21, Taylorsville High School will have two assemblies for their students. On October 21 at 7 p.m. a community meeting for parents, grandparents and others who may be interested will be held at Taylorsville High School (5225 S. Redwood Rd.) to discuss how to best talk to youth about this issue. 

Fight the New Drug also has a free, anonymous, online recovery program called “Fortify” that would be available to our county residents at no cost.

I anticipate we will need $100,000 to have “Fight the New Drug” in every middle school, junior high and high school in Salt Lake County over the next two years. I have private donors who are paying for this pilot program, and will continue fundraising to obtain additional private donors to fund other schools. There may be an opportunity for funding through a Behavioral Health RFP which will be going out at the end of the year. I will not be asking to add anything into the county budget. In some schools PTA’s fund these kinds of assemblies, but I would like to make sure it’s available in every school, no matter the financial situation.

We've already had some communities approach us with a desire to bring this assembly to their schools. Sandy City, for instance, said they would help fund this. A few years ago their Healthy Sandy committee hosted a “Fight the New Drug” parent meeting. Gordon Johnson, chair of Healthy Sandy said, “We had a full house when we held this meeting at Alta High and received rave comments. I was sitting by Greg Miller, CEO of the Miller organization who, like others in the audience, said it was outstanding.” He added, “Our city has identified pornography as a very serious problem that we need to aggressively combat and we consider the "Fight the New Drug" campaign to be one of the most effective ways of doing so.”

Get on board with our effort! There is a link to the side of this blog where you can donate funds which will go directly to "Fight the New Drug" to fund our county schools initiative.

Watch this video to see what Fight the New Drug assemblies are all about.

We appreciate KSL 5 for their news coverage of our efforts, as well as ABC 4's great news story.

SLCO Public Works affects all of us

Did you know that if all of unincorporated Salt Lake County were one city it would be the second largest city in the state? Salt Lake County government has the responsibility of acting as the public works department for all of unincorporated county. And if you think your city doesn’t rely on the county for any public works services, think again (although not listed below, Salt Lake City does contract with the county for Animal Services, a division of Public Works). This department does a fantastic job in providing services that all county residences enjoy. The graphic below shows which service every city in the valley receives from the county:

The Operations division works hand-in-hand with virtually every city in the county to ensure that traffic signals work, the weeds don’t get overgrown and that roads are maintained and plowed.  Here are some interesting facts that you need to know:

• ·       It is illegal to park your car on the side of the road from November to March because of the danger it causes to snow plows and other drivers when they have to swerve to miss your car. (Although each city has its own ordinances that address this issue.)
• ·       The county makes it a priority to fix a pothole within 48 of it being reported. You can find their contact information here.
• ·       The county keeps a list of pavement projects that need to be completely redone or touched up. You can find out about where your street is on the list by clicking here or calling 385-468-6100.
• ·       Only the highest traffic areas will get paved at night, usually. Noise is the biggest factor, but to do major road projects at night causes lower quality of work because of fatigue and bad lighting. It also is pretty expensive because the county has to pay premium wages.
• ·       If a tree falls in your front yard and blocks some of the street or a roadway and there’s nobody around to hear it….you still have to clean it up. If not, you can be sighted for public nuisance in not clearing the roadway from a tree on your property. 

A special thanks goes out to Public Works Director (and former Taylorsville Mayor from my district) Russ Wall, Operations Director Kevyn Smeltzer, and all of the men and women who keep the county running.

Recycling Helps to Save the Landfill (and Taxpayer Dollars!)

The Salt Lake County Recycling Office staff conducted over 120 tours of the Salt Lake Valley Landfill in 2013. Many groups come to see where their garbage goes and discover ways to prevent so much of it from going into the landfill. Our landfill takes in 3 million pounds of garbage per DAY!  That adds up. Many don’t know how valuable our landfill is to our ability to dispose of waste. Without our landfill, what would happen?  One thing for sure – our fees for garbage collection and disposal would be much higher (think 10 times higher).

Salt Lake County residents have a great tool to help preserve our landfill: Recycling! All Salt Lake County residents have the ability to recycle materials from their homes – even people in apartments and condos. Things like plastic bottles, aluminum and steel cans, cereal boxes, newspapers, and moving boxes make up about 60 percent of the waste in our landfill. Imagine the life we could add to our landfill by recycling these things! When we send these things to the landfill, their life is over.

When we make the choice to put something in the recycling bin instead of the garbage container, we give that product new life. For example, plastic soda and water bottles can be recycled into fibers that can be used to make fleece jackets or carpet. It takes about 400 soda bottles to make a fleece jacket.  Those same bottles in the landfill will just take up space and eventually leach chemicals into our environment. Unfortunately, very few plastic water bottles are recycled – The average person uses 167 plastic water bottles per year but recycles only 38.

Recycling is so important to the life of the landfill and to our environment that Mayor McAdams issued a challenge to residents to increase our recycling by 20 percent. Recycling has many benefits including reducing air pollution. A national recycling rate of 30 percent reduces greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing nearly 25 million cars from the road.

So next time you have paper, plastic, metal, or other recyclable items, but them in a recycling bin. (They don't even need to be rinsed out!) For ideas on increasing your recycling, visit our recycling website.

What does the county assessor do??

When I was appointed to the Salt Lake County Council in January of this year, I made a goal to visit with every elected official holding a county office. I have met many fantastic leaders and hard-working county employees who are driven and focused on providing great customer service to residents. Among those elected officials is the county assessor, Kevin Jacobs. Here are some of the things he and his staff does:

• Lists and maintains records on each piece of taxable "real" and "personal property" in Salt Lake County. (Real Property includes land and buildings. Personal Property includes business furniture and fixtures, business equipment, construction equipment, and manufactured homes.)
• Responsible for the equitable and fair assessment of all properties in Salt Lake County. Individual real property parcels now number over 350,000 and cover an area of 737 square miles with a market value over $120 billion. There are over 90,000 personal property accounts valued over $5.2billion. These records are all public. Access to these records, excluding motor vehicle private records, is available online and at the office at 2001 South State Street N2300.
• Determines fair market value for residential, commercial, and other taxable property in Salt Lake County. Fair market value of real property may go up or down depending on the real estate market in the county. Personal Property is valued based on schedules developed by the Tax Commission.

The office has recently been reorganized to better serve the taxpayers. An appeal division was eliminated and appraisers assigned appeals within the geographic area they work. This will better coordinate all types of work for a given area whether new construction, reappraisal, or appeals and taxpayers will better interface with a specific individual. Additionally, they have implemented new regression modeling software, are organizing phone mediation conferences for appeals at the State Tax Commission level, and are in the process of implementing an integrated tax system countywide.

They are the most diverse and yet best performing assessment jurisdiction in the State. They maintain an office of licensed and certified appraisers current in mass-appraisal practices and have received local and national recognition for the assessment work they accomplish.

Property Tax Relief

Recently you may have received your property tax notice in the mail. These notices show all property taxing entities and projected changes in the tax rate. 

There are those in the county who may qualify for tax relief of some sort. Please read below to see if you may qualify for tax relief.

The Salt Lake County Treasurer is responsible for the administration of the five tax relief programs in Salt Lake County.
 

Within each tax relief program there are specific eligibility requirements that must be met.  The eligibility requirements may change from year to year. Applicants must prove the eligibility requirements are met on an annual basis before tax relief can be granted 

 

In order to be considered for tax relief, applicants are required to provide tax returns and other proof of income, savings and investment statements, including retirement accounts, doctor's certifications and other relevant material.

The annual application deadline is September 1st. 

 

Programs and general requirements...
* Circuit Breaker - 66 years old or surviving spouse with household income up to $31,208
* Indigent - 65 years old or disabled or in extreme hardship with household income plus adjusted assets that do not exceed $31,208
* Hardship - Any age in extreme financial hardship with household income plus adjusted assets that do not exceed $31,208 + $4,020/ dependent
* Veteran - Disability or Active Duty 

o Disability -Veterans with a service connected disability or the unmarried surviving spouse or minor orphan of a veteran with a service-connected disability or a veteran who was killed in action or died in the line of duty

o Active Duty - Over 200 days of consecutive federal active duty out of the state

* Blind - Legally blind in both eyes or the unmarried surviving spouse or minor orphan of a blind person
 

Please call us the Treasurer's office at 385-468-8300 if you need an application form or have a question.

Salt Lake County Animal Services

Salt Lake County Animal Services provides consistent, reliable, and professional solutions for animal-related problems, which encourage responsible attitudes and allow people and animals to co-exist in a safer environment.

Our Animal Control officers serve the residents and pets within the unincorporated area of Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, Holladay City, Herriman City, Midvale City and Riverton City.

Our comprehensive animal care and control services include:

• Pet adoptions and placement of animals with rescue groups

• Enforce animal-related city and county ordinances; 24/7 field operations

• Provide shelter for all types of lost and abandoned pets

• Investigate complaints of animal cruelty, abuse and neglect

• Provide humane euthanasia for pets in our areas at the request of pet owners (fee for service)

• Respond to emergencies involving injured or aggressive animals

• Community education, media and outreach events

• Provide pet licensing and vaccinations

• Volunteer and foster programs

Most recently the County Council voted to give the shelter a much-needed renovation, turning their auditorium into a multi-use office space, animal rehab center, and a cleaner area where citizens can get their pets rabies shots and vaccinations.

We are proud to be the largest municipal no-kill shelter in Utah. We appreciate our supportive community and invite you to come visit our shelter. We are always looking for great volunteers! You never know, you might meet your new furry best friend. Salt Lake County Animal Services is constantly striving to find innovative ways to save animals and be better at serving our community.