GOP to take control of S.L. County Council

SALT LAKE CITY — Republicans have regained a majority on the Salt Lake County Council.

Small-business owner Richard Snelgrove defeated longtime Utah journalist Holly Mullen on Tuesday night in the race to replace Democrat Jenny Wilson for a six-year at-large seat on the County Council.

Snelgrove received 54 percent of the vote compared with 42 percent for Mullen, a Democrat and Wilson's stepmother.

Snelgrove's victory, combined with the re-elections of Republican incumbents David Wilde (District 3) and Steve DeBry (District 5), will give the GOP a 5-4 majority on the council in 2011.

Democrats have held the council majority for the past two years.

"It's because of the support of my family and a large group of volunteers of University of Utah students that we were able to prevail," Snelgrove said.

He said he wants to bring the principles of being thrifty and frugal to Salt Lake County government "so taxpayers get the best bang for their buck."

Mullen said she hopes the now GOP-majority council doesn't ignore the needs of all county residents.

"We need good budgeting and good accountability," she said as results trickled in Tuesday night, "but we also need to provide service and care about people."

Wilde earned a third term as the District 3 representative and a fourth term on the County Council overall, defeating Democrat Diane Turner 56 percent to 44 percent.

In District 5, Steve DeBry garnered 69 percent of the vote to retain the seat he won in a special GOP election after Jeff Allen retired for family reasons in November 2009. Democratic challenger Tyler Andrus' got 31 percent of the vote.

Democrats retained the District 1 seat being vacated at the end of the year by Councilman Joe Hatch, with Arlyn Bradshaw earning a comfortable 67 percent to 33 percent victory over Republican and former at-large County Councilman Steve Harmsen. Bradshaw has been a council adviser to Hatch for the past three years.

Salt Lake County voters approved Proposition 1 to raise the final $15 million needed to complete the Utah Museum of Natural History project. Fifty-seven percent of county residents said they are willing to pay an additional $2.40 per year in property tax for 15 years, based on an average home price of $265,000, to complete the new $101 million, 163,000-square-foot museum at the Rio Tinto Center on the University of Utah campus. Forty-three percent voted against the bond.