Creation of Utah Lake Authority -- Status and purposes

(1) Under the authority of Utah Constitution, Article XI, Section 8, there is created the Utah Lake Authority. (2) The lake authority is: (a) an independent, nonprofit, separate body corporate and politic, with perpetual succession; (b) a political subdivision of the state; and (c) a public corporation, as defined in Section 63E-1-102. (3) (a) The statewide public purpose of the lake authority is to work in concert with applicable federal, state, and local government entities, property owners, owners of water rights, private parties, and stakeholders to encourage, facilitate, and implement the management of Utah Lake. (b) The duties and responsibilities of the lake authority under this chapter are beyond the scope and capacity of any local government entity, which has many other responsibilities and functions that appropriately command the attention and resources of the local government entity, and are not functions of purely local concern but are matters of regional and statewide concern, importance, interest, and impact, due to multiple factors, including: (i) the importance and benefit to the region and state of a healthy, vibrant, and ecologically sound Utah Lake; and (ii) the enormous potential for regional and statewide economic, aesthetic, environmental, recreational, and other benefit that can come from the management of Utah Lake. (c) The lake authority is the mechanism the state chooses to focus resources and efforts on behalf of the state to ensure that the regional and statewide interests, concerns, and purposes described in this Subsection (3) are properly addressed from more of a statewide perspective than any local government entity can provide. (4) (a) The lake authority supplants and replaces the Utah Lake Commission, established by interlocal agreement. (b) The Utah Lake Commission shall: (i) cooperate with the lake authority to transition, as soon as practicable, Utah Lake Commission functions to the lake authority, to the extent consistent with this chapter; and (ii) take all necessary actions to dissolve the Utah Lake Commission no later than May 1, 2023. (c) The lake authority may, by majority vote of the board, succeed to the position of the Utah Lake Commission in any contract in which the Utah Lake Commission is a party. (d) (i) As part of the transition from the Utah Lake Commission to the lake authority, the lake authority shall offer an employee of the Utah Lake Commission employment with the lake authority in the same or a comparable position and with the same or comparable compensation as the employee had as an employee of the Utah Lake Commission. (ii) Subsection (4)(d)(i) may not be construed to affect the at-will status of an individual who becomes an employee of the lake authority. (e) After the authority board is constituted, an advisory or technical committee established by the Utah Lake Commission shall continue to function under the direction of the board as a subcommittee of the lake authority until the board modifies or discontinues the subcommittee.