Earlier this month, the Summit County Council asked residents to weigh in on a controversial new state law changing how councilmembers are elected.
House Bill 356 says the county has to draw five districts to elect the council, rather than each voter choosing each councilmember at-large.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has said HB356 will come back for revisions in a special session this year. So the county wanted feedback on how many districts there should be, how they should be drawn and what should happen to current councilmembers.
So far, feedback from two public hearings indicates that residents believe districts are good, especially five districts. And many said they support districts because the council made decisions in the past that they feel didn’t represent their interests.
“Dakota-flipping-Pacific,” former Summit County GOP vice chair Jimmy May said at the first public hearing April 15 in Coalville.
North Summit fire response
“You would get rid of 60 firemen that were volunteers, and think that your agencies from Park City are going to come in and take over? It's a real mistake. So I think that the council definitely needs redistributed [sic]. It definitely needs reassessment,” Coalville resident Rebekah Taylor said April 15.
Taylor was referring to when the county council suspended the entire North Summit Fire District in 2022. The move followed what the district’s board said were a series of insubordinate acts that culminated in a refusal to respond to a hunting accident where a woman died.
North Summit fire has since been professionalized, earning a better insurance score, but that came with a 300% property tax increase.
Coalville resident Trenton Bosworth lamented the tax increase and said he doesn’t think service improved that much at the April 23 public hearing in Kimball Junction.
“I was in that fireman meeting when the condescending, patronizing tones were being used. Tons of people were there. It was a very long meeting, and it didn't matter,” Coalville resident Walter Brock said April 15.
On the Park City side of things, the issue has been Dakota Pacific Real Estate.
Kimball Junction development
The county council approved a deal with the developer in December that residents have so far unsuccessfully tried to nullify in a referendum. Many are worried about traffic in Kimball Junction worsening.
“And that's not just a right-left thing,” Oakley-area resident Sue Pollard said. “Dakota Pacific, it was overwhelming that everybody is against it.”
Another Oakley resident, Jerry Heck, lamented the Dakota Pacific development approval too.
Southern Summit County has its own political flashpoints, but in recent history, it hasn’t clashed directly with the county council as much as North Summit or the Park City area have.
Hoytsville resident Dawn Langston brought up both the North Summit fire and Dakota Pacific controversies during her public comment April 23.
“We haven't felt represented,” she said. “On the other hand, I can also see having concerns about when things pass through the Legislature at the last minute. That also concerns me. I also have some concerns about districts, because if you want to start districts, they can do all kinds of things with districts that are not necessarily ‘by and for the people.’ And at the same time: the whole thing with Dakota Pacific...”
For all the geographic representation benefits that were discussed at the two public hearings, current Councilmember Chris Robinson said HB356 boils down to a partisan power grab. He said it’s the Republican party trying to gain a foothold in blue Summit County.
“I am sympathetic toward the notion that — even though I may think I represent you because I ranch over on the eastside, or I've spent, spent a lot of my time over there — that that's not the same as seeing you at church, or seeing you in a grocery store, or having my kids play on your kids’ soccer team,” Robinson said. “I see that as different.”
A special session to amend HB356 is expected in May. Wasatch County is also asking for changes because the bill requires all seven of its seats to become districted, rather than having two at-large.
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