HB356 passed minutes before midnight on the final day of the 2025 legislative session.
Gov. Spencer Cox signed it into law March 27, while also promising a special session to address the bill’s “unintended consequences.”
The law requires most county councils to have fully districted seats, meaning each member must represent a certain geographic area of the county. For Summit County, that’s a complete change from its current format of five seats, all at large and all held by Democrats, mostly from the western side of the county.
Wasatch County will also need to redraw its district map unless the legislation is changed. Its council has five districted seats and two at-large members, all of whom are Republicans.
The law requires counties to form a districting commission by June 1. Wasatch County has not taken steps to form such a commission, nor is it on the agenda for its council meeting Wednesday, May 21.
County manager Dustin Grabau said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Tuesday he’s not worried.
“We’ve been assured by the governor’s office, both houses of the legislature, that the interim session that’s forthcoming will not impact Wasatch County,” he said. “So, we don’t really see the need in going through that exercise, largely because we don’t expect to have to make any changes.”
A date for the special session hasn’t been announced. If it doesn’t happen before June 1, Wasatch County would be in violation of state law if it fails to act.
“We’re looking at evaluating kind of the best way to proceed, kind of given what we know right now,” Grabau said.
He said Wasatch County is different since it already has some districts.
“That’s a form of government that many entities across the state have, and one that, for whatever reason, the state legislature is not concerned about as much as they say they’re concerned about Summit County’s,” he said. “I know [Summit County], I think, gets unfairly targeted by the state legislature in a number of ways. I think this is just one of those.”
Grabau said the mixed format for councils is a good compromise.
Wasatch County wrote to the governor’s office asking for a veto and adjustments to the bill in March. Its proposed solution would still force Summit County to change its council.
Four Summit County mayors also wrote to the governor in “strong support” of HB356 and called for a special election for all council seats. Summit County Democrats decried the letter.
