Why Do County Elections Matter?
Because the Republican Party Primaries are coming up on June 23, Engage held an event on May 26 to give citizens an overview of Utah County government and consider what qualities and policies positions voters should look for in candidates. We will hold a follow up event on June 15 (see details on our main page), featuring a debate among candidates for county office. We intend to hold a debate in the fall with the nominees from all parties.
Our May 26 event featured former Governor Gary Herbert who, before he was elected as governor, served as a county commission for over 14 years. We met at the Gary Herbert Institute at UVU where he offered insights and wisdom about county government. I have tried to capture the main ideas he shared in this post for the benefit of those unable to attend.
First, a word about county government. Counties lie between cities and the state, and they play a significant role in deciding county budgets and county taxes, administering elections, providing public health and safety, establishing land use policies, and fostering coordination across cities for such important issues like planning, development, and transportation. Utah County is a large county of almost 800,000 citizens and 25 cities, and it is represented by a county commission of three members who function as both the legislative and administration branches of county government. This is one of the largest counties in the country with only three commissioners. Alternatives in other parts of the country for a county this size include a commission of five members or a division of the government into two branches, with a county mayor and a county council, such as in Salt Lake County. One important question facing Utah county (and one that voters should keep in mind) is how long we can justifiably keep the same form of government with an ever-increasing population.
Because the commission consists of just three individuals (and two of these seats are up for election this fall), Governor Herbert insisted that it is paramount to seek people for this office who know how to get along and work together. The chances of things falling into dysfunction are higher with fewer commissioners, which is one reason why he suggested that maybe a five-person commission might be better. (On a side note, in 2019 a referendum on changing Utah county to a mayor/council model was defeated and one reason was because people perceived this as an expansion of government. Commissioners are full time, so the proposal would have reduced the number of full-time employees from 3 commissioners to 1 mayor and with a council of five part-time employees, so it was even possible that the proposal would have cost taxpayers less money. Five commissioners, by contrast, would increase full-time salaries needed from 3 to 5.) Herbert alluded to the past, without naming names, when commissioners have failed to get along and the county found itself, he said, “at loggerheads” with one another.
Governor Herbert made it clear that he is opposed to hyper-partisanship. He insisted that a second quality we should seek in candidates is the ability to convene and bring people with strong political differences to the table. He cited his own experience both on the council and at the state where he regularly brought opposition leaders to the table to try to find common ground. He believes in discussing “the issues rationally and respecting differences of opinion” and doing the work to “build consensus” even when a leader knows he or she can get their way. When asked if he is concerned about the acrimonious and divisive political culture in D.C. finding its way to the state and local levels, his answer was an emphatic yes. “What we’ve created in the U.S.,” he said, “is an us vs. them environment and ‘them’ is the enemy and they need to be destroyed.” He lamented the loss of the concept of a loyal opposition where differences can be seen as productive rather than as signs of betrayal or even as a danger to the nation. He cited Trump’s insistence on the stolen election of 2020 as an example where a story, without evidence, is nevertheless promoted to “speak to the extremes” and create division, and he hopes we can avoid this. There is also no evidence, he additionally noted, that illegals have made an impact on elections (this was verified just recently by our Lieutenant Governor Henderson who says they found only 27 noncitizen votes out of over 2 million voters since 2018). Finally, he insisted on voting first for character and then for policy alignment. He noted that today we have it backwards: we seek candidates who align with our views before we check for character. “That’s not the way we should do it,” he said. We should check for character first.
When asked what he thought was the most important issue facing Utah County, he said “growth,” citing that we are the fastest growing county in one of the fastest growing states in the country. People want to live here, he insisted, because we are family friendly and have a high quality of life, so growth is a measure of our success. We need vision and forward-thinking planning to meet that growth, rather than candidates and voters who want to wish growth away.
So, in sum, we learned from Governor Herbert that
1) county government should command the attention of citizens
2) we should look for people with good skills in getting along and in convening people with different points of view
3) we should look for candidates who avoid the extremes of hyper-partisanship, who are not talking to the extremes and who avoid the pitfalls of national politics at this moment
4) we should look for candidates with vision about how to grow without losing our quality of life.
This was good advice and is in harmony with the values we espouse at Engage. Please come to the June 15 debate with your questions so we can get to know these candidates well and so that those who are registered to vote in the primary can do so in an informed way. This is our community. These are the front lines. We want a political culture of healthy democratic discourse in our county and state, where we remain focused on protecting human dignity and facilitating human potential and avoiding the extremes of hyper-partisanship. More responsive and more responsible government can only happen with more engaged voters like you getting more informed and more involved.
George Handley, Executive Director of Engage Forum