House Bill 356 was passed just minutes before midnight on the final day of the 2025 legislative session.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox hasn’t yet signed the legislation, which will require the Summit County Council to change from five at-large seats to five districts if it passes into law.
Debate during the 2025 legislative session largely targeted Summit County, but the final version of the bill also sweeps up any county with fewer than 175,000 people. That’s why Wasatch County would have to make changes, as County Manager Dustin Grabau explained.
“The bill as currently approved would require Wasatch County to adopt a seven-district model, as opposed to our five districts and two at large,” he said on KPCW’s Local News Hour Tuesday.
The county would need to adopt a map of new council districts by October 2025.
Grabau said he’s also concerned that the bill would require the current councilmembers to be randomly assigned to the newly drawn districts, regardless of where they live.
“The bill allows anyone who’s currently in office to remain in office, and when their term expires is when the seat that they are randomly assigned is eligible for election,” he said. “But because of the nature of this random assignment, it’s possible they would be ineligible to run for the seat that they would occupy by the end of this year, because they may not live in that district.”
In a letter sent March 12, Grabau asked Cox to veto the bill and send it back to the legislature for adjustments.
Among the county’s concerns, he wrote, were late-hour amendments that left county leaders with no time to advocate for their interests. The county also believes voters should be represented by councilmembers who live in the districts.
“Citizens would lose the ability to vote for three of our seven-member council. Also, candidates for offices would only be able to run for one eligible seat instead of three,” Grabau wrote. “These issues jeopardize our ability to ensure our council represents fewer special interests.”
The county also has concerns about “generating qualified candidates from smaller populations” if it had to form seven districts, according to Grabau’s letter.
Finally, Grabau noted the bill also impacts other governments with council structures that include a mix of districted and at-large seats. Those include Grand and Morgan counties as well as the cities of Provo, Sandy, West Jordan and Ogden.
“We believe that these unintended technical issues should be addressed prior to implementation of this bill,” he said.
At the end of his letter, Grabau suggests the state instead require county councils to have five districts or to have districts for two-thirds of its seats, whichever number is greater.
That change would still force Summit County to change its council, while Wasatch County could maintain the status quo.
Summit County has also opposed the legislation, with Deputy County Manager Janna Young calling the bill a “shameful political stunt.”
