PROVO — Almost without warning, the Utah County Commission voted Tuesday to terminate the county's participation in the Mountainland Association of Governments.

Commissioners Jerry Grover and Steve White, who both voted to pull out of the association, cited a laundry list of concerns with the council of governments, which had included elected representatives from Utah, Wasatch and Summit counties and 33 cities within those counties.

Created in 1971, the association — called MAG — has no legislative authority.

But the association is designated by the federal government as the transportation planning entity for Utah County and the agency in the region in charge of services for the elderly.

MAG also provides other services via various local, state and federal funding sources.

Grover thinks the county will increasingly compete with MAG for funding, and that prompted Tuesday's action.

"We'll probably be attempting to compete with MAG for some of the programs that the state offers on a regional basis," Grover said.

Grover sees several of MAG's programs as redundant. And he thinks Utah County government could take over elderly assistance programs such as Meals on Wheels.

"We really have a duplication of efforts — they have economic development, the county has economic development, the cities have economic development," he said.

White said MAG lacks accountability.

"Here, we stand for election; if we're not doing a good job, then people have a way of ridding themselves of our odious decisions," he said. "When it comes to a regional entity that's non-constitutional, non-statutory as far as election of officers go, then the people have no say in being able to change the direction and the nature of that which takes place."

Commissioner Larry Ellertson voted against the motion, citing concerns that the commission needed more time to examine the issues.

MAG Executive Director Darrell Cook said the commission's action took him by surprise. "Yesterday, it came up on a revised agenda on the county Web site, and that was the first knowledge we had," Cook said.

"I've never known that they were even threatening to do this," said Springville Mayor Fritz Boyer, MAG executive-council chairman.

Boyer said some of the issues raised by commissioners had been discussed previously, but only in a very superficial manner. "What discussion we have had has been very brief and very cursory," he said. "They haven't been in detail, and certainly not studied."

Cook said he doesn't foresee a direct impact on the programs offered by MAG, which has a total yearly budget of $6.9 million. The association will lose about $30,000 annually in funding contributed by Utah County government.