The four Vernon residents who showed up Thursday night for a town hall meeting with the Tooele County Government Study Committee weren’t shy about sharing their support for a change in county’s government structure.
“We don’t want them to make a career out of it,” said Sharleen Manzione, after hearing the study committee’s proposal for a five-member part-time County Council at the Vernon Fire Station. “We want people that are serving out of sense of civic duty, not as a job. Our mayor and council out here serve for next to nothing and they put in thousands of hours.”
Manzione’s husband, Rodney Manzione, has been on the Vernon Town Council for 10 years.
Along with a five-member council wielding legislative power for the county, the study committee recommended an appointed county manager with executive responsibility for the county, said Erik Gumbrecht, the study committee’s vice chairman.
“I like the idea of having one manager over the different departments,” said Rodney Manzione. “I think you would get better accountability that way.”
The study committee has been traveling throughout Tooele County this month making presentations as its wrap up preparing its written report on the county’s form of government.
Along with the Thursday night meeting in Vernon, the study committee also made a presentation at the Stockton Town Council on the same night.
The study committee also made presentations in Tooele City on Jan. 9 and in Stansbury Park and Grantsville on Jan. 10. It has a presentation scheduled at the Rush Valley Town Council meeting on Jan. 24.
The study committee announced in November 2017 that it recommended the current three-member commission form of government be changed to a five-member part-time council elected by districts with an appointed manager.
Vernon Town Mayor Dennis Clark said he likes the idea of electing council members by district, even though federal law requires all districts to be of equal population.
“At least with districts, we would be a larger part of the voters that elect a council member than we are right now with the commissioners,” Clark said.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2016 population estimate puts Vernon at 332 with the county’s total population at 64,833.
Rick Shumway, a former mayor of Vernon, said Vernon has always had problems with Tooele County.
“It’s not just the current commission,” Shumway said. “It’s been going on for years.”
When the town of Vernon contracted with Tooele County for road work, Vernon was never able to get a satisfactory accounting of funds spent on Vernon’s roads, according to Shumway.
Vernon recently had problems with a county trail for off-road vehicles that ran through the town and the elimination of the county’s bookmobile service, according to Rodney Manzione.
“During the financial crisis they did away with the bookmobile,” he said. “Then when things got better, the commissioners got a raise and we never got our bookmobile back.”
The town spends $3,000 per year to get the bookmobile from Millard County to stop in Vernon, according to Manzione.
“That’s a sizable chunk of the budget in a town our size,” he said. “I’m in favor of changing the form of government. Hopefully we’ll get some representation and accountability.”
Shumway asked Gumbrecht if the five-member county council could be non-partisan.
Gumbrecht responded that state law would not let the study committee propose non-partisan offices at the county level. State law also does not allow for recall elections or term limits, according to Gumbrecht.
“That’s too bad,” Shumway said. “We have a lot of Dugway employees that can’t run for partisan office because of the Hatch Act.”
The Hatch Act, sponsored by Sen. Carl Hatch of Arizona, passed Congress in 1939. It prohibits federal employees and certain employees whose jobs are federally funded from running for partisan offices.
The study committee has until Feb. 9 to produce its final report.
After that, the county attorney has 30 days to review the plan and make sure it meets constitutional and statutory requirements. The committee will have a chance to correct any legal defects that the attorney finds, according to Richard Mitchell, study committee chairman.
The committee will present its plan to the County Commission, which may decide to place the committee’s recommendation on the ballot for the 2018 election.
If the commission decides not to put the recommendation on the ballot, signatures may be collected on a petition to place the recommendation on the ballot.