On July 7, the Sandy City Council nullified the mayor's veto of a provision that removed the city’s Central Wasatch Commission membership fee, reaffirming the council’s commitment to leaving the compact.

Sandy lawmakers put most of the funds reserved for the commission into the water capital fund. The “purpose and effect” of the mayor’s line-item veto was to transfer the funds back to the CWC.

Council member Marci Houseman said state law allows city executives to veto specific appropriations, but it does not permit them to transfer or add money.

“That is what tonight's vote is about,” Houseman said at the July council meeting. “It's not a vote about any single program. It's a vote about keeping the power of the purse … where the law places it. And that is with us.”

The city’s legal team was split on whether a mayor’s veto reverts funds to the tentatively adopted budget. But the council overriding the veto effectively neuters any potential court challenge, said Sandy City Attorney Lynn Pace.

While Sandy is no longer a paying member of the CWC, the city still needs to formally file notice with the commission’s board to confirm its departure.

Sandy lawmakers originally decided to withdraw the $95,000 membership fee because the CWC’s Central Wasatch National Conservation and Recreation Area Act has stalled in the U.S. Congress for a decade with little progress.

Mayor Monica Zoltanski vetoed the move to pull funding from CWC because of the commission's priority to turn Sandy's main watershed into federally protected land.

The mayor’s veto also notes that former Democratic Congressman Ben McAdams, a candidate in the newly drawn, Democratic-leaning district, made passing the CWC's drafted federal legislation one of his main policy goals.

"Our local funding portion, in conjunction with the federal and state actions, would help protect our watershed and guide transportation solutions — all founded on overwhelming constituent public support from Sandy residents," Zoltanski's veto states.

Throughout June and into July, many Sandy residents spoke out against the council's decision to defund the CWC during public comment. Locals often opposed the move because the commission’s goals and funding of transportation alternatives could act as a bulwark against the construction of a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

“In my opinion, when you voted to defund the CWC, you went against the interests of the people you purport to represent,” Diane Long said during July 7’s public hearing. “The citizens of Sandy that have continuously said, ‘we don't want this gondola. We want the watershed protected. We want the canyon protected.’”

The CWC does not have an official position on the gondola. Councilor Houseman, who formerly represented Sandy on the CWC’s board, cautioned against viewing the commission as the gondola’s adversary.

“If I were CWC leadership, I would be alarmed by the claims that are being made that the CWC is the tool for fighting the gondola,” Houseman said. “... The commitment was to bring parties together, have collaborative conversations, remain neutral on transportation solutions for the canyons.”

Other Sandy lawmakers emphasized how the commission has fallen short at fulfilling some of its main goals.

“If you go to the CWC website, you see a list of 14 goals that were established 13 years ago in Mountain Accord. Five of them have been accomplished,” Council chair Cyndi Sharkey said. “... And those include things like creating an online dashboard, morphing from Mountain Accord to CWC. It doesn't say anything about accomplishment of saving the watershed.”

The other goals CWC achieved include completing a study on cottonwood canyons’ visitor use, developing a recreational master plan for the Wasatch Front and funding projects that find transit solutions and protect the mountains’ watershed.

The commission announced 12 project grants near the end of June. Some of them include education programs and the expansion of a free shuttle service to the Guardsman Pass near Park City.