Will Summit switch?

Managing the government of a community as diverse as Pitkin County, Colo., takes a full-time executive. And Pitkin's manager says she's worth every penny — all $130,000 of it.

Pitkin is home to skiing hot spot Aspen and is surrounded by rural farming towns, much like Summit County, home of Park City. Summit is considering a similar change in county leadership like Pitkin instituted in the 1980s, enlarging its County Commission from three members to five and appointing a full-time county manager.

But whether Summit residents want a six-figure employee at the helm will be decided at the ballot box.

"A good county manager will save his or her salary multiple times," said Hilary Smith, Pitkin County manager.

In the midst of heated debates surrounding a governance change, Smith recently spoke to Summit residents about the advantages of more commissioners and an appointed head.

Summit Steps Forward, the group pushing the change, paid for Smith's visit. The group also has two prominent figures as co-chairmen — former Salt Lake City Mayor DeeDee Corradini and former Olympian Jim Shea Jr.

On the other hand, Less is Best, the group opposing what it calls costly and unnecessary additions to county leadership, is urging voters to look beyond the glamour of Summit Steps Forward and focus on the dollar signs.

"I don't think we need a $200,000-$250,000 county manager to supervise about 15 percent of the county employees. That's where I have a problem with this, because I don't see it's cost-effective," said Rob Weyher, a member of Less is Best, and the current Summit County Democratic Party chairman.

The hot-button issue prompted a countywide vote in 2004 and a government study. Now the two groups are touting the effects of a possible change.

How to balance the interests of the west-side resorts and east-side farms is of particular concern. With mounting growth pressures in Park City and the Snyderville Basin, county leaders are striving to develop a future while holding onto the county's agrarian past.

"They may be reaching a point where a better form of representation needs to be implemented," said Salt Lake County Councilman Jim Bradley. Bradley is a member of Salt Lake County's nine-member council and also served as a commissioner in the '90s, when the county was still using a three-member government form.

"I miss those days when I just had to go to one commissioner and say, 'Let's do it.' You just needed one vote," he said. "But I can't say that's a better form of government."