Salt Lake area mayors have no plans to disband their new unofficial council and suggest the objecting county commissioners simply deal with it.
"The county has nothing to worry about," said Murray Mayor Lynn Pett. "We're not meeting as an adversarial group; it's just a forum to discuss city issues."The mayors held their third monthly meeting Thursday in spite of increasingly strident complaints from county commissioners who view the gatherings as a threat to inter-governmental cooperation.
At the Salt Lake County Council of Governments general assembly meeting Wednesday night, Commission Chairman and COG president Jim Bradley urged the mayors to work within existing organizations.
The mayors responded Thursday that they have no intention of abandoning COG or jeopardizing what they described as a "good working relationship" with the County Commission.
West Valley Mayor Brent F. Anderson said the mayors' council will actually complement COG by focusing city issues before they are raised at COG. Anderson, who organized the new council, said, "We're not in competition with COG."
COG's membership is comprised of 12 mayors and three county commissioners, which gives the mayors a controlling vote in any case. As described by the mayors, the new council is akin to a "mayors' caucus" within COG.
Anderson, who leaves office at the end of the year, said he started the informal luncheons as a forum for mayors to exchange views and information. No single issue or dispute with the county prompted the gatherings, he said.
Pett said, "In the 35 years I've been in government, I don't think we've ever had a better relationship between the cities and the county, and this isn't going to change that."