Given all the public vitriol that seems to greet every new bit of news about Real Salt Lake's relationship with Sandy city, I was greatly surprised by something I read in the Deseret News this morning:

"The Sandy City Council, acting both on its own behalf and as a redevelopment agency, signed off on the remaining $10 million in the $45 million public funding package (for Real's new stadium). The meeting was a public hearing, but no residents showed up to comment."

The council's online agenda, which appears to have been posted in accordance with Utah's Open and Public Meetings Act, does show that the council was scheduled to recess in order to convene into a Redevelopment Agency meeting. I had trouble finding a similar agenda for the RDA portion of the meeting, but Sandy spokesman Nick Duerkson told me that the notification was properly made and posted in accordance with the law.

Either way, it wasn't exactly a secret that this was coming up. You'd think that the staunchest critics would be on the ball.

For his part, Duerkson said he wasn't surprised. He said Sandy meets with RSL in a bi-monthly planning meeting -- and usually only a few members of the public bother to show up.

I suppose it's far easier to attack RSL and Sandy on the Internet comment boards and letters pages of the state's daily newspapers than it is to actually show up and try to make a difference. And yes, I'm sure an argument could be made that the council would have signed off on the final piece of this funding package no matter who showed up to complain at the meeting.

But when the public abandons its duty to participate in the process, it allows those in power to say -- and correctly so -- "we didn't hear any complaints."

-- mdl

Labels: Open and Public Meetings Act, Sandy, Sports