State audit reveals Vineyard failed to report ‘substantial’ payments to developers

The Utah State Auditor has dinged Vineyard City for obscuring its use of public funds and omitting hefty payments made to developers.

After examining financial information from 2018 to 2024, the auditor‘s office found Vineyard’s Redevelopment Agency had not submitted all its transactions to the Transparent Utah website as required by state law. The office outlined its concerns in a six-page limited review issued Thursday afternoon.

“The tone at the top of Vineyard is one of not being very transparent and being hostile to anyone who asks questions,” State Auditor Tina Cannon said in an interview Thursday. “And that is really concerning.”

The RDA omitted “substantial payments to developers” building projects like Utah City, Vineyard’s future downtown, according to the findings.

“This could raise public suspicions,” the report noted, “that those payments were intentionally hidden.”

Vineyard Mayor Julie Fullmer issued a letter and response document to the auditor’s office Wednesday, ahead of the audit becoming public. A Vineyard City Council member provided a copy of the letter to The Salt Lake Tribune. In it, Fullmer stressed the city’s commitment to transparency and refuted some of the report’s findings.

“We are committed,” the mayor wrote, “to continuous improvement.”

She acknowledged the city’s incomplete financial reporting, but noted that the auditor’s office issued an alert in May “to all local government entities in Utah” reminding them to upload final revenue and expense reports, including any corrections or adjustments. The city has since posted all its transactions to the transparent.utah.gov website, the mayor said.

The mayor did assert to the auditor’s office that other cities are guilty of the same transparency errors, Cannon said. But she said that was an inadequate excuse.

“If other people are breaking the law,” Cannon said, “they shouldn’t be and we will find them too.”

The audit report also noted the city had created “roadblocks” for those seeking information on how the RDA spent its public funds.

“If greater detail is requested,” Cannon wrote in a cover letter accompanying the report, “the city must provide access.”

The auditor’s office received “many requests,” the report said, from various community members to conduct a review of the RDA’s finances and transparency. It also urged city staff and officials to “set a tone of civility.”

Many City Council meetings have devolved into bickering matches and contentious public comment periods after the community learned Fullmer quietly pledged $5 million in RDA funds in 2020 to the now-defunct Utah Lake dredging and island-building project.

Cannon called on the mayor and other city officials to “stop acting like little children, be professional and follow the law.”

City explains why tax oversight group has not met for more than a decade

Vineyard created its redevelopment agency in 2007 to clean up about 2,000 acres of the old Geneva Steel site. The RDA collects its revenue from property taxes that would have otherwise gone to taxing entities like Alpine School District and Utah County.

It expects to collect nearly $12.7 million in property tax revenue this year. Most of those dollars would have gone to local schools, Cannon noted.

“Any time you’re using tax increment financing and taking away from the school children of Vineyard,” she said, “you should be very transparent about where it went.”

The audit report further confirmed that the RDA had avoided oversight from taxing entities like Alpine Schools.

The RDA adopted a resolution in 2009 requiring yearly meetings so taxing entities could “stay abreast” of the RDA’s budget and activities, but there have been no meetings since 2011.

Earlier this month, RDA director Josh Daniels shared a memo claiming taxing entities had no obligation to meet. Daniels said he used artificial intelligence to write portions of the document, as previously reported by The Tribune. It cited case law that appeared to be information the AI fabricated.

He issued the memo June 4, the same day the auditor’s office sent its findings to city officials.

While Daniels maintained that the RDA does not need to abide by its resolution requiring annual meetings, the state auditor appeared to disagree. Cannon added that Alpine School District’s imminent dissolution into three smaller districts further highlights the need for scrutiny.

“Now what will they do?” Cannon said. ”[Alpine] can’t sign off on this anymore, they won’t exist."

Oversight is particularly important for the Vineyard RDA, the audit report notes, because state lawmakers created a carve-out in 2020, allowing it to extend the life of its projects and tax collection without getting the impacted taxing entities’ input.

Fullmer’s response document, however, notes legislation adopted in 2011 allowed taxing entities to forgo yearly meetings if redevelopment agencies provide reports instead. Although it does not appear the Vineyard RDA and taxing entities adopted a formal agreement that nixed annual meetings, the change to state code was why they stopped meeting, to the city’s “best understanding,” Fullmer wrote.

‘It’s bad policy’

The auditor’s limited review also raised questions about a city policy that allows Fullmer to approve purchases up to $125,000 without the City Council’s approval.

“The threshold for Council involvement is very high,” the report says, “and inadvisable for an entity of this size.”

Fullmer’s response noted the policy aligned with state code and that Vineyard had recently “benchmarked” its purchasing approvals with nine other cities in Utah County.

“It’s bad policy. I don’t care how many people are doing it,” Cannon said. “This is not Julie Fullmer’s personal money.”

The mayor also alleged the review came at the request of a “single member” of the City Council, who openly discussed its findings while the document was still a draft. She asserted the auditor’s office shared its report with that council member before the rest of city leadership.

“We think this action does not reflect the spirit of professionalism,” Fullmer wrote, “called for by audit standards.”

The mayor was likely referring to council member Jacob Holdaway, who frequently raises questions about the city’s spending in public meetings, often to the other council members’ evident frustration. He shared the copy of the mayor’s letter with The Tribune, which was not attached to the auditor’s limited review document at Fullmer’s request.

“We have extended a lot of professional courtesy and respect through this process,” Cannon said.

Reached by phone, Holdaway denied that the auditor’s office shared its findings with him before other council members.

“I knew of the problems before the [report] was issued,” Holdaway said, “because I’m the one who shared the problems with them.”

He also said council members were not consulted when Fullmer drafted her response.

Canon further denied selectively releasing information.

“We don’t leak documents out of our office,” she said. “That’s a fireable offense.”

She balked at Fullmer’s assertion that the audit was conducted at a single council member’s request, calling it “ridiculous.”

“In the last six months I’ve had more requests to look into Vineyard than any other entity in the state,” Cannon said, “and that’s saying something.”

The “attitude” in Fullmer’s letter deflecting blame, Cannon added, “is probably why I’m getting all those complaints.”

While the auditor’s office did not include specifics when it noted the RDA’s “substantial” unaccounted developer payments since 2018, Cannon said it meant a million dollars or more.

Holdaway alleged a discrepancy of $3.5 million in 2024 alone during a May 14 meeting.

Vineyard’s finance director, Kristie Bayles, did not dispute that amount when Holdaway asked.

Holdaway attempted to obtain the city’s ledger shortly after he was elected to the council in 2023. Vineyard’s previous finance director resigned days after corresponding with Holdaway about his request, emails show.

After city staff repeatedly told him all transactions were available on the state transparency website, Holdaway said, he finally obtained the full ledger about five months later and found payments weren’t always being shared with the state.

The file revealed questionable spending by the city and its RDA, including trips abroad for employees and pricy memberships for the mayor to World Trade Center Utah and 47G, Utah’s aerospace and defense association.

“The sad part is, government waste is not illegal,” Holdaway said. “But at least the citizens now know how and where their money was wasted.”