As Summit County officials prepare a 2011 spending plan they are scrutinizing what money should be doled out next year to some non-profit organizations. Groups like the Wasatch-Summit County Children’s Justice Center, Peace House, Recycle Utah and People’s Health Clinic have relied on the funding to help keep operating budgets in the black.

But support some nonprofits receive from the county could decrease next year. On Wednesday, the issue came to light in a Summit County Council meeting at Kimball Junction.

Some organizations receiving the funding offer services the county would otherwise need to provide, Summit County Manager Bob Jasper said.

“I don’t want to just give nonprofits money,” Jasper said. “Hopefully we’re buying a needed service.”

The nonprofits in some instances provide services more efficiently than the government, he explained.

“The services that are provided are services the County Council thinks are important,” Jasper said in an interview Friday.

But the county lacks objective criteria for evaluating which applications deserve funding, County Councilman John Hanrahan said.

“It’s whoever applies, not what we might think is necessary for the citizens or the community,” Hanrahan said about the procedure the County Courthouse uses in the grant program. “It just doesn’t seem right.”

About 12 organizations applied for funding in 2011. The Summit County Council is currently considering the requests. The money requested totals about $182,900.

According to Dave Thomas, deputy county attorney, some groups that applied do not qualify under state law to receive funding. The purposes of the organizations must fulfill a “core governmental function,” according to Thomas.

Programs could also support the mission of the county’s two general plans or help fulfill one or more of the County Council’s goals.

“Based upon these criteria, it is my professional legal opinion that the following applications do not qualify for consideration of grant funding: Mountain Mediation Center, Inc., People’s Health Clinic, Christian Center of Park City, and the Peace House, Inc.,” Thomas stated in a memo to Jasper.

Non-profit organizations that applied for funding in 2011 included:

Mountain Mediation Center Inc. — $12,000 to support mediation services

People’s Health Clinic — $30,000 to supplement operational expenses

Christian Center of Park City — $15,000 to support the food pantry

Friends of the Wasatch/Summit County Children’s Justice Center — $12,000 to support operating expenses

Summit Land Conservancy — $12,000 for completion, monitoring and legal defense of conservation easements

The Winter Sports School in Park City — $2,500 to support a drug abuse prevention seminar, exterior restoration or scholarship fund

Recycle Utah — $25,000 for transportation costs and education

Peace House — $25,000 to provide services to victims of domestic violence

Uinta Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development Council — $6,400 to support projects and operating expenses

Friends of Animals Utah — $25,000

Historic Park City Alliance — $8,000 to support a recycling program on Main Street

Summit County Public Art Advisory Board — $10,000 to fund the purchase of public art for the library in Coalville