Suit filed over Jordan district-split vote

Herriman, individuals call situation unconstitutional

Herriman city and individual voters on the west side of Jordan School District have filed a federal lawsuit claiming their lack of a vote in a proposed school district split this November violates their constitutional rights.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court Monday and assigned to Judge Ted Stewart, claims a school district split election will nullify the west side's votes to elect school board members, deprive them of a voice in whether to create a new school board and subject them to "disastrous taxation and economic burdens" without their say, in violation of the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment.

"No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live," the lawsuit states. "The United States Constitution leaves no room for exclusion of people in a way that changes that right."

The lawsuit, which names Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert as defendants, seeks to overturn state law on creating smaller school districts and halt the November election unless Jordan District's west-siders can vote.

Jerry Walker, a Herriman city councilman, said the city filed the lawsuit because the west side has given a lot to the east and they don't want to be left out.

"The bottom line is, this is my opinion, the people on the west side of the Jordan River built all the schools and facilities on the east side," he said. "We contributed to every one of those. I think it's time for the east side to step up and do the same thing for the west side."

The constitutional question was raised last spring by five west-side mayors, whose cities may have to raise taxes to make ends meet should tax-base-heavy Sandy, Draper, Midvale, Cottonwood Heights and Alta form their own east-side school district. The Jordan Board of Education also sought a legal opinion in the matter from Blake T. Ostler — one of the attorneys in this lawsuit.

But Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has said the law likely would withstand a challenge, and Brigham Young University law professor Frederick Mark Gedicks has penned an opinion that the law is constitutionally sound.

"The Legislature determined that self-determination was more important than majority rule, and that was consistent with case law," said Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore, a leader in the movement to secede from the state's largest school district.

"It becomes an ironic situation, where the people who do not have the right to vote right now feel their rights are being violated ... but what about the people who want to split, who are being prevented from doing it and being indentured by a majority saying, you can't do it because we need your tax money? It's a two-edged sword."

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