At its May 21 meeting, the council created the board that will draw five voting areas from which to elect the five councilmembers in compliance with a new state law requiring districts.
The board includes every Summit County mayor, or a resident they appoint, as well as a resident of the unincorporated county and the county clerk, who can’t vote.
Since the Wasatch County town of Hideout successfully annexed part of Richardson Flat across the county line, Summit County attorneys say the board will include incoming Mayor Ralph Severini.
“Myself and Hideout and are honored to be part of this group and to hopefully collaborate in a highly productive way, and look forward to meeting my fellow participants,” he told KPCW. “Hideout is all ready and willing to be a productive and integral part of the committee, as we have now land in Summit County.
Hideout’s roughly 350 acres of Summit County land is both undeveloped and unpopulated. But the town has expressed a hope to build commercial services and gathering spaces in Richardson Flat.
“It was something that kind of came out of the blue, because we … we thought we have six mayors, right?” Councilmember Chris Robinson said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” May 22.
The town and county previously battled in court over the controversial annexation, which was enabled under state law for a period of just 100 days in 2020, and Hideout prevailed last summer.
The county's deadline to form the districting commission was June 1.
Also joining the committee is former Summit County Councilmember Malena Stevens of Pinebrook.
She’s the representative for the unincorporated county, where the majority of residents live. The council has also made Stevens, a Democrat, the committee chair.
Democrat Eve Furse is the Summit County clerk. Municipal offices are nominally nonpartisan.
It remains to be seen if the six other mayors besides Severini join the committee themselves or appoint a representative.
Four of the six signed a letter in April asking state leaders to amend HB356 and force an immediate special election to seat a new slate of councilmembers once districts are in place.
The Summit County Democratic Party criticized the letter and called on the mayors of Henefer, Coalville, Kamas and Francis, who it claims are Republicans, to rescind it.
Park City Mayor Nann Worel and Oakley Mayor Zane Woolstenhulme told KPCW they were not consulted about the letter nor asked to sign it. They say they didn’t know about it until it was made public.
Worel and Woolstenhulme have always maintained support for some form of a districted county council though, as have some councilmembers.
Democrats in general have decried HB356 as a partisan power grab, but supporters of the bill say it will increase eastside representation and ideological diversity on the currently all-Democrat council.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox has said the bill will come up for changes this year in a special session of the Legislature, which has a Republican supermajority.
He has said that’s to address “unintended consequences.” Those included roping Wasatch County into the districting requirement. It has two at-large members on its seven-person council, but HB356 would require all seven come from districts.
Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” May 20 state leaders “assured” the county it need not redistrict its all-Republican council.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
