HOOPER -- Sponsors for Hooper have unanimously voted to have seven City Council members in their proposed town and also to utilize Weber County's three voting districts in the town's area as its council districts, with some minor adjustments to even up population.
About two dozen residents attended a recent meeting at Hooper Elementary School to provide input to the 10 town sponsors. Hooper voters approved the incorporation process on May 2.The Weber County Commission now must approve the decisions by the Hooper sponsors at its Wednesday meeting. The next step will be a June 2-16 filing period for a mayor and City Council members. If needed, a primary election will be held Aug. 8, and the general election will be Nov. 7.
Duncan T. Murray, attorney for the incorporation process, said Washington Terrace currently has the most City Council members in the state with nine.
"It's probably not a good idea to have that many," he advised the town sponsors.
Five council members is probably the most common number in the state, but Salt Lake City also has seven council members.
"There's safety in numbers," Mark Bingham, a resident, told the town sponsors.
Hooper will have two council members from each of the three districts and one at-large council member.
Also decided was the length of the terms for the mayor and council members to bring them in line with the state's election process. The mayor will have an initial three-year term and a four-year term thereafter. The top general election vote-getters for the council, one for each district, will have three-year terms. The at-large member and the other three council members will have one-year terms for the initial cycle and four years thereafter.
Some concern was expressed about what would happen if there aren't enough candidates for the council. Murray said any vacancies can be filled by appointment.
Dennis Weston, one of the town sponsors, did research for the city's three districts. He said since District 3 has 879 registered voters, compared to 763 for District 1 and only 528 for District 2, some boundary adjustments need to be made. He proposed taking part of District 3 and adding it to District 2 to better balance population.
Murray said the district populations need to be within 10 percent of each other.
Weston said all the city's district boundaries will have to be redone at the first of the year after the release of the 2000 census figures.
Hooper's population is estimated to be 4,500.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com