Those payday lenders aren’t gonna regulate themselves!
Three years ago, former Salt Lake City council member Nancy Saxton proposed an ordinance to regulate payday lenders in Salt Lake City. The ordinance - identical to that used in West Valley, Taylorsville, Midvale, Sandy, and South Salt Lake - was sent to planning where it has been languishing.
Some of the dysfunctions of Rocky Anderson’s administration are to blame for that state of affairs. We know that the City planning department has had it’s share of problems:
Salt Lake City’s planning division as a nonsupportive, micromanaged den of dysfunction plagued by cynicism, chronic turnover and politicians masquerading as planners.
The 125-page missive says, “Sadly . . . in far too many cases,” residents are viewed as “the enemy” by both management and staff.
For the past decade, “the ineffective process feeds on itself and then continues to degenerate into ever-increasing dysfunction,” reads the report by Citygate Associates, which will be presented to the City Council today.
However, with Ralph Becker securely in office and a majority of coucilmembers who want to regulate payday lenders, we should get some action, right? Wrong.
The payday lending ordinance is bottled up in planning, trapped. City council won’t act without staff and administration leadership; the administration can’t act until they fix the mess in planning.Â
So it’s just stalled. It’s time to act.
