Posted By administrator on May 19, 2009
Five Voting Districts vs. Three At-large Commission Districts.
Is it an idea whose time has come?
Is it time to scrap Sanpete County’s 3-countywide-commissioners form of government in favor of an expanded county council? An increasing number of Sanpete County citizens believe it is. Recent events have thrown the issue into sharp relief as the limitations and flaws of the current system have manifest themselves to the detriment of both the commissioners and the county.
The event that broght the issue into sharp focus was the need to fill the commission seat vacated by resigning Commissioner Bruce Blackham (Gunnison) in early 2008. In keeping with a long-standing, albeit likely less than legal “arrangement” wherein one commissioner was from the north, another from the central and the third from the south areas of the county, Dr. Dwight Inoye of Gunnison was appointed to serve out the remainder of Blackham’s term.
Inoye’s appointment required that he run for reelection in the next general election (Nov. 2008). Much to the chagrin of advocates of the “arrangement”, a well-respected, highly-qualified and popular politician from the North, Spencer Cox, then Mayor of Fairview, defied tradition and threw his hat in the ring. Cox was elected by a narrow margin. His election sounded the death-nell of the “arrangement” and has forever changed how Sanpete County commissioners are nominated and elected.
However, Cox’s election presents the county with another troubling political connundrum. The north end of the county (from Ephraim north) outnumbers the south end nearly two to one, with Gunnison Valley, including Mayfield, representing only just over 19%. With the considerable imbalance of population it’s conceivable that Gunnison Valley might never be able to elect a commissioner from their area again.
Many of us don’t think that’s right. It’s a perfectly natural thing for voters to want to be represented by someone they regard as one of “their own.” Despite the best intentions of any commissioner, it’s also easy to see how voters in Gunnision Valley would have a hard time believing that a politician from the north end of the county would consider their interests to be just as high a priority as the interests of his home constituency, particularly if those interests are adverse to each other.
Fortunately, state law has provided a way that would virtually assure that all areas of the county are represented equally by commissioners elected from each individual area. It’s a way that a number of other Utah counties who have wrestled with this problem have taken advantage of.
Utah’s counties increasingly are abandoning the 3-commissioner form of government in favor of having expanded county councils of five to seven council members generally elected from defined voting districts rather than being elected “at-large”. (At large council members are allowed in some counties but are usually a minority of the council. Counties who have made the change include Grand, Cache, Salt Lake, Wasatch and, just last year, Summit County, with other counties considering doing so.
The change in government form also involves a change in commissioner duties. They become the county’s legislative body and no longer run the day-to-day business of the county. That job is turned over to either a County Manager, who is a hired employee serving at the pleasure of the County Council, or a County Administrator, who is elected.
Now, for the first time, an organized, serious effort aimed at changing our county government has the backing and support of many prominent citizens. A committee is being formed that is drafting a plan to scrap the current three countywide commissioner form of government in favor of a five-member county council that would be elected from each of five clearly defined council districts. (To see a map of the proposed county council districts, go to the “Links” heading on the main page and click on Proposed Voting Districts.)
The plan proposes hiring a qualified professional County Manager who would take over the chief executive officer duties currently being performed piece-meal by our part-time commissioners. The County Manager would serve at the pleasure of the county council. Here is some of the thinking behind the plan.
COUNTY GOVERNMENT GROWTH AND ITS INCREASING COMPLEXITY HAS OUTSTRIPPED THE CAPACITY OF OUR THREE PART-TIME COMMISSIONERS TO EFFECIENTLY AND EFFECTIVELY PERFORM
The current three-countywide-commissioners form of government goes back to the time when the county’s towns were small, the budget was small and the county government relatively simple. Sanpete County government has grown enormously both in size and complexity since then. Today the budget is in the millions of dollars. The geopolitical landscape has shifted significantly with the amazing growth of the north end of the county. The complexity of county government has increased exponentially as services have increased and the demands on county government have escalated. And finally, state and federally mandated programs and regulations have made governing and administering the county more difficult, expensive and demanding.
While all this has been going on, our county commission has remained the same. It consists of three part-time commissioners who have both legislative and executive officer responsibility for county government; all the while trying to maintain their full-time jobs in the private sector. They are part-time politicians, not professionally trained or educated as governmental administrators.
There is no question that the county would benefit enormously by retaining a full-time professional County Manager who is educated, trained and experienced in public administration. Fairview City has retained the services of such a professional manager on just a part-time basis and former Mayor and now Commissioner, Spencer Cox, characterizes the benefits to the city as being “in the millions of dollars.”
Having a County Manager would put a professional in charge of tracking grants and other financial opportunities, writing grants and applications, establishing efficient executive management policies and procedures, coordinating county departments, drafting and proposing budgets, maximizing county revenues and the efficient use of county assets. It would maintain consistency of policy implementation and management from one political administration to the next. The savings and benefits from the retention of such a professional could easily be counted in the millions of dollars in a very short period of time.
GROWTH HAS CHANGED THE GEOPOLITICAL DYNAMICS OF THE COUNTY MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR COMMISSIONERS TO ADEQUATELY REPRESENT ALL THE DIVERSE INTERESTS AND CONSTITUENCIES THAT EXIST IN 21ST CENTURY SANPETE COUNTY
Time was that Manti was the center of the Sanpete universe, both in terms of population and political influence. That is no longer the case. Today over 65% of the county population lives north of Manti, with over 43% of the population living north even of Ephraim. The north end of the county is experiencing explosive growth that will see this pattern of population imbalance accelerate even more in coming years.
The county has grown so diverse in its body politic, both geographically and politically, that it is now impossible for our countywide elected commissioners to adequately balance and represent all the diverse geopolitical interests that need advocacy in county government without jeopardizing their reelection in the next election.
The solution; replace commissioners with council members elected from each of the natural geopolitical areas of the county, then let them be free to advocate for their district’s interests without fear they offended another geopolitical constituency on the other side of the county. Such a system recognizes the natural diversity of the county, is responsive to local growth patterns, gives more balanced representation across the board, and assures that the various interests of each constituency is given proper advocacy and consideration in the dissemination of county services and opportunities.
Interestingly, in the past, one of those speaking out in favor of such a change has been none other than former Sanpete County Commissioner, Mark Anderson. He has strongly advocated such a change to previous commissioners. Such a change was also the subject of one of the first conversations that took place between Anderson and Suzanne Dean, owner and publisher of the Sanpete County Messenger, when she first took over the newspaper.
Those proposing the plan are considering a petition drive under Utah law that, if successful, would lead to the first step in the process; the creation of a “study committee” who would have up to one year to study the county’s options and make a recommendation to commissioners as to their findings. If enough registered voter signatures are gathered on the petition, it will trigger a special election on the issue of whether or not to create the study committee. In advance of the petition drive, backers say that one or more public meetings will be held by organizers to explain their goal and how the process works.
About the author
Comments
Leave a Reply