Voters in three counties and one city in Utah will be asked Tuesday whether they want to change their form of government.
Salt Lake, Weber and Morgan counties all have proposals on the ballot to change the current three-commissioner form of government to a council.In the case of Salt Lake and Weber counties, an independent elected executive (Weber) or mayor (Salt Lake) would administer county operations. In Morgan County, the council would appoint a county manager.
The councils would have nine members in Salt Lake, seven in Weber and Morgan.
The city of Washington Terrace, in Weber County, has an initiative on the ballot that would give more power to the city mayor and add four members to the five-member council. All council members are currently elected at-large. That would be changed to seven members elected by district and two at-large.
Washington Terrace Mayor Richard Jackson has repeatedly said he is nothing more than a figurehead after the City Council passed a resolution last March transferring authority over city employees from him to the city manager.
The county initiatives in Weber and Morgan counties both arose from citizen petitions. The issue of changing the form had been simmering for a while and finally boiled over when the Weber commission decided in 1997 to sell land that many thought should have been made into a park.
In Morgan, the final straw was a series of decisions regarding access to county records.
In Salt Lake County, the commission itself initiated the process but only after being pressured by the state Legislature, which threatened in 1997 to pass a law forcing the vote.
Salt Lake County voters have faced, and rejected, change-of-government proposals before. But, in the past, those were coupled with various schemes to consolidate governments in the valley.
Proponents of the change say it would institute checks and balances by separating legislative and executive powers, while opponents say it gives too much power to the county executive (or mayor).