Provo neighborhood changes opposed

PROVO — A proposal to change the way neighborhood chairmen are selected is meeting some resistance from the two City Council members who have served in such positions.

The proposed ordinance change would mandate elections every two years for the city's 34 neighborhood chairmen. As the program is now set up, neighborhood chairmen are elected at neighborhood meetings for a minimum term of two years, but no date is specified for the election, nor is the term limited to two years.

Councilwoman Cynthia Dayton, who was a neighborhood chairwoman before running for the council, said changing the informal selection process to a regular election would politicize a program that was never meant to be political.

"We don't want to create a situation where that grass-roots voice can't be heard," Dayton said.

— Marc Haddock