Council Demos protest appointees to UFA board

Three Republicans critical of the Unified Fire Authority have been appointed to represent Salt Lake County on its board.

Councilmen Russell Skousen and Cortlund Ashton and Deputy Mayor Alan Dayton have been approved by the Salt Lake County Council to serve on the UFA's board of directors, despite protests from council Democrats who worried about the lack of bipartisanship and the fact that all three appointees opposed the UFA. The three were approved by a 6-2 vote.

"It's an attack on those who supported the UFA from day one," Councilman Joe Hatch said.

The UFA, which was officially created this month, manages fire service for the unincorporated county and the five cities — Holladay, Draper, Riverton, Taylorsville and Herriman — which had previously contracted for fire service from the county. A board of directors consisting of one representative from each city and three from the county was created to make the management decisions.

As soon as next year, the county could create a special service district for fire, which would have the power to levy taxes. The UFA does not have that power.

Hatch suggested that since both council members generally opposed the UFA, there are concerns about costs to unincorporated county residents and "this has never been favored by the mayor's office." Mayor Nancy Workman instead should appoint one council member who supported the UFA. He recommended Randy Horiuchi, a Democrat who is elected at-large and has worked closely with the contract cities.

Ashton, however, said the appointees are good choices because they bring divergent representation to the table. Skousen represents the east side, including Cottonwood Heights and Holladay, while Ashton represents the south valley, including Draper.

"There is a good logic to what the mayor has proposed," he said. "We have a countywide representative (Dayton), a councilman who represents a large part of the UIC (unincorporated county), and myself, who represents four of the contract cities."

---

E-MAIL: jloftin@desnews.com