Bureaucratic accountability: A look at Utah's redevelopment agencies

The average citizen know very little about what redevelopment agencies are or what they do. Concerns about redevelopment agencies usually do no arise until citizens find themselves in an area targeted for redevelopment. Questions then arise as to what rights they have in the matter. Can the government really take away my property even if I don't want to sell it? This paper will address the controversy surrounding redevelopment projects in recent years. Such controversy surrounds not only individual property rights, but the rights of the public in general. Questions arise in redevelopment projects as to the point at which public interest ends and corporate welfare begins. Most importantly, this paper addresses the issue of accountability. Are Utah's redevelopment agencies accountable? If so, to whom are they accountable? This paper will first look at several writings on the topic of governmental bureaucracies and accountability. A typological approach by John P. Burke on bureaucratic accountability will then be presented. This writing will then be used to assess whether Utah's redevelopment agencies are truly accountable.