Maloy vs. Monuments, Seized Property Auction, Badass Vending Machine

M Today on CityCast Salt Lake, I went to a seized assets auction in the basement of the Marriott and lived to tell the tale. But first, what you need to know about Celeste Maloy's new public land bill, and of course, some people who deserve a shoutout. It's Tuesday, March 31st. I'm Ali Viata, and here is what Salt Lake's talking about. Hey, this is Allie. I'm popping in at the top of this episode because right after we finished recording, we got some breaking news. So you are probably following as we are the fact that the Department of Homeland Security purchased a large building on the west side of Salt Lake City. that they have every intention of turning into an ICE facility, immigration and customs enforcement detention center. They could house up to 10,000 people. Now, Salt Lakers have protested the purchase of this asset. Salt Lakers have protested, you know, the values around this facility and the city itself has made it clear that they don't support this and that they are trying to find out ways to slow this. We just got a quote from Salt Lake City Mayor Aaron Mendenhall, who says that she just had a 30-minute virtual meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Charles Wall and the deputy chief of staff to the director Tim Kaiser. This is a quote from the mayor about that meeting. I was told ICE plans for Salt Lake City to host one of its mega centers with capacity for approximately 7,500 to 10,000 individuals. It would represent a hub in the hub and spoke model. They indicated they are waiting for a due diligence report on their recently acquired parcel of land and that the information would be shared with city officials. They expect work to begin on the site in the weeks and months ahead. I asked if they plan to coordinate with Salt Lake City regarding changes to the building and life and safety measures the city typically enforces through building codes. They said they plan to consult our fire marshal on these issues, but did not commit to any other city review on the building. They did not provide information about the anticipated environmental and traffic impacts to the area, nor did they have specific information on utility needs for the site. End quote. The mayor also emphasized that her position on this facility has not changed. She has deep concerns and says she has concerns related to, quote, public safety, air quality and potential impacts to the Great Salt Lake due to increased water use. So.

If we hear more about this, we'll certainly talk about it on this show. But for now, this is everything that we'd heard from the mayor who says that she will not be further commenting. Newsletter editor Thedina Ria, good morning. Good morning. Citycast Sally contributor, Kate Gretzinger. Good morning. Welcome back. Thank you. Good to have you. Kate, we really wanted to talk to you today because next week is spring break. A lot of us are going to head to southern Utah to enjoy Red Rock Beauty. One of my favorite places to go is Boulder, Utah, which is home to Grand Staircase Escalani National Monument. But it seems like there's an effort to change that. Again? God, like... blink in this state and there will be a new public lands bill. Yeah. They just never give up the fight. What is the story here? I mean, it's good, you know, employment insurance for me makes sure I still have a job. That's right. We should mention it. Seriously. You do comms for the Center for Western Priorities, which is why public lands policy is your expertise. That's right. That's right. Yeah, we're a group that works on public land conservation across the country on federal public lands. So this is my bread and butter. If you guys remember what you probably do if you lived in Utah, when Trump took office, he shrunk bears ears and grand staircase. During his. first term, he reduced the sizes of both of those monuments. So the backstory on this is we've kind of been waiting for him to do that. And he hasn't, which has been great. Biden, of course, restored the size of both of those monuments. And in restoring the size of those monuments, the Biden administration put in place new monument management plans. And these are plans that are developed through extensive consultation with local stakeholders, tribal stakeholders, national stakeholders like the Sierra Club and stuff like that. So an industry, of course, they also talk to oil and gas folks, coal folks, grazers, cattle grazers. And they create this thing called a monument management plan that essentially is like, the teeth of the monument. It's like the monument itself is just a line, is an invisible line. And then the monument management plan says what actually can happen where inside of the monument. So this is stuff like where you can take an off-road vehicle, where you can graze cattle, where you can sort of hike and recreate and like where you can like ride a bike, for example, stuff like that. Right. Wasn't the thing about the Biden administration's monument, like management plans that was unique to, if I remember quickly, it was like one of the first times that the tribes had been consulted? 100%. Yeah, they consulted all five of the self-identified Grand Staircase Escalante tribes. Okay. Yes. I remember that. It was big, it was a big deal. Yes. So, fast forward.

industry cannot make new mining claims in the protected area and the BLM cannot lease or Forest Service cannot lease any of the land in that area for drilling and then logging also is barred inside of a monument. Yeah. And so the whole back and forth is like keeping it protected and kind of like loosening those protections like going back and forth. I want to make it clear that the protections on like. drilling and mining and logging i believe will stay in place if this monument management plan is repealed i'm 99.9% sure about that it's more um about grazing which is allowed in the monument how much will be allowed and offroading again how much will be allowed and i think maybe like so yeah Like, yeah, those are sort of the ones that have gotten the most attention because they're sort of what Malloy is touting. She's like, my plan honors locals, wishes to graze and ride their ATVs all over this landscape because their ancestors came here and that's why they have a right to do it. So like that's her argument. They came over with their ATVs. Exactly. Yeah. Like, you know, that's how they got there. Yeah. But yeah, that's sort of the play by play. Yeah. Okay. The wagon train was the ATV parade of the, you know, previous centuries. Yeah. Yeah. I know that she, like, Celeste Maloy, she's used this Congressional Review Act, like her advantage recently. Like, I know in 2025 she used it to block a National Park Service rule that restricted off-road vehicle and ATV use in Glen County National Recreation Area and was able to get that pass. So. What is, do you think it's likely with this new act she's using? So that's a really good question. I think that in the past, it's been easier to get these through because less people knew about them. But what is actually going on right now concurrently is a representative from Minnesota is trying to use the same act to repeal a mineral withdrawal that protects the boundary waters, wilderness, canoe area watershed, which is like one of the, preeminent wilderness areas in the United States. And so it's getting a ton of press, like really national press. Like the descendants of Teddy Roosevelt like wrote a letter saying like this is really bad. Don't do it. So the CRA is, which is the law, is getting a lot of attention right now and a lot of negative attention. And so I think that might. work to Celeste Molli's disadvantage. There's also a timeline on this. The CRA resolution has 60 Senate days to be passed before it expires. So that means like days that they're in session.

And as you know, our Congress is really dealing with a lot bigger fish right now. So there's a partial shutdown. Exactly. So there's a chance that her timing is just really bad and that it just expires. And that's kind of the hope on the boundary waters one. There's a good chance that happens here. And it's probably the best way to defeat this as well. I have a timing question. Sure. Because as we know, Representative Celeste Maloy, who if you can't picture her, think. Perm. Short. And she will come to mind. She's also the only woman in our federal delegation of Congresspeople and senators. She is facing a primary challenge from one Phil Lyman, who is sort of the king of the ATV caucus. He illegally led like an ATV parade. on public land that was closed to off-road vehicles. He got arrested for doing it. He was kind of like, became a rock star of that movement for it. Actually, President Trump pardoned him in his first term. And Phil Lyman is now running against Celeste Malloy in the Republican primary to represent this kind of new district that she's going to have to contend with now because we've got these new congressional maps. Is this her, like, trying to signal to delegates and primary Republican voters that she loves ATVs as much as Phil Lyman does? Yeah, I think it's not going to hurt. I think it's a big reason she's probably pushing it forward after seeing just how unpopular it was. But she actually asked one of the government offices that deals in like legal opinions. She asked them for an opinion on this months ago before he had announced he was running. So it's been in the works. So I don't think that's her primary motivation. But I do think that. She will use this to campaign and prove her public lands bona fides for sure. It would be a feather in her camp at the Republican convention, certainly, if she could get it done. Huge feather. Hmm. Because she, I mean, Phil Lyman has good odds against her. He ran for governor. He has tons of name ID, you know. I think it's for sure possible that Phil Lyman becomes our, becomes a Utah state of Utah congressman, which is, or a federal congressman from the state of Utah, which is really crazy. Yeah. Kate, you and I are both pretty familiar with Phil because we have spent time. Well, you lived in Bluff. I worked in Bluff, which is the basically gateway to the Navajo Nation, far, far southeast corner of the state. He currently represents that part of Utah. Well, not anymore. He was representing that part of Utah. Anyway. Yeah, he's a bit of a nut. He's a nut. Okay.

I guess to close. I mean, for people who are mad about this and who have been writing letters to Congress since 2016, when the, you know, Suea Protect Wild Utah and we stand with Bears ears, lawn signs, absolutely covered Salt Lake City. Yeah. What's the move here? Yeah. It's unfortunately the same old story. Contact your representatives. Let them know how you feel. And that includes, you know, your your senators because they're the ones who will be voting on passing this or not. It actually already passed through the House. I should mention that. So contact your senators. Kate Gretzinger, Thedina Ria, I have to tell you that on Sunday afternoon, I went to an auction of seized assets, federally seized assets, in the basement of the Marriott at the University of Utah. Ask me anything. Okay. How was the basement of the Marriott? What's it like down there? It's basically just the first floor, but you have to like, you go in and then you have to go downstairs, like pass the Starbucks, keep going downstairs. This is the university one, right? Uh-huh. The University Marial on Wakara Way. And what I think was, well, this whole experience was incredibly strange, but. I got like a very unassuming Instagram ad advertising this auction of seized assets. And it was like Rolexes, Chagall's, like... Picasso's. Luxury items. Picasso's. And I clicked it, which is funny because I don't spend very much time on Instagram these days, and signed up for it. And then they... reminded me every minute of my life until it happened to go. But when I got to this auction, I will tell you. So like, it was in a quite small little room in this Marriott. There were probably 50 of, no more than 50 of us that attended. Wow. And outside, there was like a registration table and then just a security guard. And they gave me a number and said, Go on in. We'll start in 30 minutes. What was the crowd like? So I would say it was a mixture of like old guys with money and young guys with less money. Interesting. Male heavy. A handful of couples, which I actually think if I were to do this again, you definitely want to bring a friend to an auction because. It's a very impulsive situation and you need a gut check with you. Like being alone at an auction is kind of crazy making. But yeah, I mean, I really got to put my art history minor to work in this room. It was.

Yeah, what did you see? It was mostly paintings and then quite a bit of jewelry. And so when you get there, they give you like these little red stickers, like garage sale stickers. And you go around and you put a sticker on anything that you would want to bid on. And if nothing gets a sticker, this is like a traveling road show. So then they just move it along to the next auction. But I'm curious if how much money they actually made in the end. Because again, these are like IRS like seized assets. So I think the bulk of it. Were things on a discount? Were they a good deal? Yeah, yeah. I was supposed. I mean, you were supposed to get a deal. Bulk of it was stuff that was seized from people's homes, presumably like folks who didn't pay their taxes. All the money that the feds make off of these auctions goes into the U.S. Treasury asset forfeiture fund, which I was Googling while I was there. And I guess it's like a fund of money that goes to like victims of quote unquote white collar crime. So it's like a restitution fund. Okay. And then the auction house that- Shopping for a good cause. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. The auction house that coordinates all this, I think, gets a take. Because there was like an 18% charge on any purchases. It's high. And they had a whole, the woman who was kind of running this was not the auctioneer, but she was clearly in charge. And she had a whole strategy for like when they rolled things out, in what order they rolled things out. But the auctioneer was a hoot. And they clear, they called themselves a road show. Like they travel around and do this. And I was just like, okay, they need to get on TV. You must not be from here because if you wanted to make money from Salt Lakers, you would not be holding this auction at the Marriott at the university on a Sunday afternoon where 50 of us showed up. And halfway through the auction, half the room empty. Amazing. Well, Ellie, how often does this happen? Is it like annual? Is it ever coming back here? I don't know. Okay. I had a feeling you'd ask that cave because I had a feeling you would have, you love to shop. Yeah, I'm in the market for a large painting. There were large paintings. So a couple key takeaways. One is, it really lays to bear the philosophy of like something is only worth what someone will pay for it. Because they do this thing at the auction house where they're like, this bracelet is worth $61,000, which there was a $61,000 bracelet. I tried it on. And.

Oh. You got to try it on. Oh, yeah. They have a, they have what I would describe as kind of a floppy guy who walks around and like makes you put all the jewelry on because he's like, don't you want it? Come on. You got to try before you buy. You want this woman's necklace that they ripped from her neck when she committed money laundering. Are these local seizures? I don't think so. From Salt Lakers. That would be funny. What is the name of the auction company that does this? I think it was called. Buckle in. Auction events. Oh, God. Auction events, Inc. Yeah. So, okay, so $61,000 bracelet, for example, they paraded out. It's sold for 10K. Now, does that mean this bracelet is a $10,000 bracelet? Or does it remain a $61,000 bracelet? Because again... No one wanted to pay $61,000 for it. So who decides, right? But could you turn around and take it to an auction in Los Angeles and probably sell it for more because that's going to be a more hot to trot crowd than those of us? I mean, if I'm there, you're not selling anything for $61,000. I'll tell you that. So like, then me at the Marriott on a Sunday. But the other thing about that that's interesting to me is like the rich got richer and the poor got kind of grifted, I think. So like, for example, they brought out a Taylor Swift gold album that I don't think was actually like a gold album. I think it was just like fan art. You know what I mean? Like it's in glass, but it's just like looks like a gold record next to. It was like actually just a plastic album that was gold. Yeah, like the guy would say, like, now this here is just wall art, you know? This isn't like, this is just wall art. I'm going to be. But like, it's sold for $250. Or like someone paid like $450 for a framed. A framed Basquiat, John Michael Bosquiat print. Now, it was not signed. It was not numbered. I could go to AllPosters.com and order that print, head down to Michaels, frame it and mat it. We'd come in under $100. Somebody paid $400 for it. To me, that's a loss. Okay, wait, but I'm seeing a... I'm on their website, and I'm seeing a Dali signed and numbered. Right, exactly. So... I also learned all sorts of things about what it means for art to be signed and numbered. But, like, they brought out this. This was the most stunning piece. This was the thing where I was like, am I about to bid on this? A signed and numbered Picasso. Oh, wow. Which means. So signed and numbered means that Pablo Picasso signed this, like by hand, interacted with the print. And... only signed so many. So like this is, say, number 50 out of 216 that he sat down and signed. It had sold at Christie's in 1983 for $31,000. It had like a little flyer on the back that was a receipt from that sale. It sold in the Salt Lake Marriott on Sunday for $10,500. Wow.

Should have taken that one to New York. Is that a deal? Did somebody who has $11,000 to spend just like make out like a bandit? I don't know. Let's find out. I'm Googling. Art history majors right in, please. I'm on this, this like other auction website for art. And I'm seeing a massive range in prices for signed and numbered Picasso lithographs. There's like a $45,000 one and a $3,800 one, both hand signs. Right. So I do think it's like like really hard to know if you're getting scams. Like you have to really be an expert on this stuff that sounds like. Yeah. Yeah, which I don't, I didn't get the impression that anyone in this room was. There were a couple really funny moments. One was where the floppy guy was bringing around a diamond ring. And he went up to a guy who was sitting in front of me and was like, you don't have anyone you could propose to. Come on now. Oh, and he was doing a bit where every time he showed you the diamond ring, he'd get on one knee to show it to you. Oh, my gosh. And cheesy. Again, I was having the time of my life. That's super fun. But he says to this one guy, he's like, come on, you don't want this diamond ring? And the guy goes, I melt them down every week. Wow. Diamonds? I think like he probably goes to these kinds of auctions to see what he can get and then to get a good deal. Melt it down. Like there's probably like a sub economy to this whole auction like thing. But also another moment that I thought was really striking where the auctioneer was kind of bullying because. he's very transparent like we're here to get as much money as possible from you and he even does this like kind of negotiating tactic where someone bids 3,800 and he's like no one else is bidding more but he's like come on like I need to sell this for 4,000 can you just do 4,000 like just be just transparent right be a Be a friend. Like, help me out. Be a pal. Help me out. And, like, he would pull out a piece and be like, now this is a gorgeous piece. What a gorgeous piece. This is a framed, a signed whatever. He's a Las Vegas artist. I recently sold one of these pieces for $30,000 in Los Angeles. This is quite the piece. Let's start the bidding at $500. Can I get $500? And then if no one said anything, he'd go, these people hate this. Get this out of here. They don't want this. Bring me the other one. I mean, it sounds like a blast. Okay, so I went to the auctionevents.com or whatever, and there's very little information. They do not have a list of upcoming auctions. Oh, no. But you can sign up to be on their guest list, which I just did. You should. So I'll let you know if, or Ali can let everyone know if they're coming back to Salt Lake.

Absolutely, I will. Yeah, do they say? Member event, we'll all go to the auction house. It sounds like a blast, honestly. Yeah. Kate Gretzinger, Thedina Ria, we make a habit of doing shoutouts on Tuesdays. Therina, what do you want to shout out? Oh, I want to shout out Gossip Kitchen. So it's a new restaurant. It's where the old Lizzie's used to be downtown. Okay. It's now Gossip Kitchen. And it's so good. I was so surprised because I've been let down. I feel like recently by especially kind of pricier restaurants in Salt Lake. And so this was a pleasant surprise. I have been burned by fine dining too many times to name. Yeah. Very wary of the tiny meal, the multi-course tiny meal. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm proud of these hoops. They do like, it's like Italian-Japanese fusion. Okay. And then they have like a speakeasy in the back, which is really cute. And yeah, it's a fun place. This is the one next to Fice, like on second and what is that, Edison Street? Yeah, right by there. Okay. I walked by it the other night and it looked busy. So that's good. Good. I'm glad to hear that. New places are popping up because I know like Yala Z's closed and like Este Pizza, which was over there closed. So it's good they're getting more food places there. Kate, what's your shout out? It's the lower falls via Bell's Canyon Trail. This is down by Sandy. There's a gorgeous, gorgeous reservoir. And this is my pick because it's been so hot. I was like, I got to go find some water. And there's a gorgeous reservoir that you can hike up to. It's like a very short hike to get there. And then if you keep going, there's like about halfway up to the actual falls. There's like... a beautiful giant rock that you can lay on in the sun and a really nice little pool of water that's like just deep enough to sort of like wade into um so if you're looking to cool off is this a dog friendly hike i don't think so but let me check no that explains why i've never done it yeah when you have a dog you just don't know the dog the the the watershed hikes yeah leave the dog at home it's because it's yeah in the watershed exactly yeah okay is it a beginner friendly hike i would say it was pretty easy but it is steep um but it's not long okay at least to get to the parts that i'm oh that's nice

Cool. Yeah. Good one. How fun. Good one. What about you, Allie? I'm giving the hugest ever shout out to the city of Ogden, which just announced that as a partnership between Ogden City Communities that Care and Weber County Human Services, they are placing 10 harm reduction vending machines around the county. So cool. So these are literal vending machines where you can access for free things like naloxone kits, which is if you're unfamiliar, naloxone is the thing that can reverse an opioid overdose. There's like a nasal spray. There's an injection. You can get free fentanyl test strips in these vending machines. They'll have like various hygiene items. Think like tampons, et cetera. Safe sex supplies, condoms, you name it. And then all sorts of like resource information for various treatment and recovery services. That's so cool. This is awesome. I cannot imagine. When are we getting it here? When are we getting it in Salt Lake? And ain't that the thing, right? It is so funny how everyone acts like Salt Lake is this like wildly progressive, like, you know, whatever city. And then these other cities in Utah pop up with these like really creative and cool strategies. And you're like, huh. It might just be easier to get things done when, I don't know, you're not as big. I don't know. If the stuff is free, I imagine it will go somewhat quickly. You would hope. Yeah. It's a real investment and a cool experiment. The other thing I think is really cool about this is that the machines will track distribution. So they'll be able to get all this interesting data about like what people want when they're using, when they're like going to these machines, what machines and what places are most access. Like where do people feel safest reaching these resources? Like figuring out how to remove barriers and. like meet people where they are. So I'm excited for a year from now when we've got data. Yeah, I hope it works. Just like in general. I think it's cool. I love a big swing. I love a big swing, especially a public health one. All right. Quickly before we go, this is a member-supported show. Shout out to our newest CityCast Salt Lake Neighbor. That's what we call our members, Taylor G. As a thank you for your $10 a month support of this show, we like to pass the mic on Tuesdays and let our members share shout-out. So I've got two here for us to read. Why don't you each take one? Chuck L is shouting out Fountain Records. Adam is a homegrown culture maker, passionate about building community around music. His jazz nights are a goddamn revelation. Check it out. Shout out Chuck and Adam. Yeah, Fountain Records is the one that's in the old Canella's next to babies. That's so fun. Yeah.

Luisov is shouting out Mexicano Latino Institute. They're the Mexican consulate's key nonprofit partner, funding, organizing, and amplifying cultural and educational events across Salt Lake City. And they are looking for board members, which is a great way to serve your community. Yeah, join the board of the Mexicano Latino Institute. That sounds fun. That sounds like a fun one. Yeah. All right. Don't forget, you can support this show and get great perks by becoming a Citicast Salt Lake neighbor. You can do that at membership.citycast.comfm. And then, you know, you can shout out as many people, places and things as you want over time on this show and in our newsletter. Citicast Salt Lake contributor Kate Gretzinger, newsletter editor Thedina Ria. Thanks for hanging with me today. I'll see you guys later. Thanks for having us. Bye. That is all for us today here on CityCast Salt Lake. We will be back tomorrow morning with more from around town. Take care.