Although the State has goes to the “Working 4 Utah” initiative, which consists of 10-hour workdays Monday through Thursday, Tooele County Commissioners have asked that the Tooele County Assessor’s Office keep the same hours of operation, which are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., as a courtesy to taxpayers.

For certain transactions, the assessor’s office needs assistance from the State Branch Motor Vehicle Office. Because of this, there will be certain transactions on Fridays that the assessor’s office will not be able to process, according to Tooele County Assessor Wendy Shubert. The transactions would include name changes, adding a lien holder to a title for business or personal reasons, insufficient evidence of ownership, problems with credit card transactions, or license plate transfers.

“People had thought that we would go 4-10 along with the state, but we’ll be keeping our hours the same,” said Ardith Higley, chief deputy for the Tooele County Assessor’s Office. “It’s mainly the motor vehicles department that is supported by the state, and the assessor’s office may have to limit what it does on Friday because of the state. However, if Tooele County ever changed over to a four-day workweek, we would probably change too.”

JoAnn Torres, chief deputy recorder for Tooele County, said it is still unsure whether or not the recorder’s office would stay open if the county switched over to a four-day workweek. The county commission and department heads are scheduled to discuss the possibility of the county working four 10-hour days a week sometime next week.

“We haven’t really gone there just because the commissioners haven’t decided if the county will switch over yet,” Torres said. “We’re just waiting for the commission to make a decision, and we’ll decide once they do.”

Doug Radunich: dougrad@tooeletranscript.com