Townships: We've got signatures Petition drive called a success; if certified, special election would be next By RALPH WAKLEY_ Standard-Examiner staff Those township people are nothing if not persistent. Less than six weeks after House Speaker Mel Brown convinced the Legislature to do away with Utah townships, the supporters said Saturday they have collected more than enough voter signatures to stop the state lawmakers in their tracks. And just to be on the safe side, Utah Township Summit chairwoman Deyonne Walker said, "We've been going for a 20 percent cushion," and organizers of the petition drive will continue collecting voter signatures until Monday afternoon, the deadline for turning them over to county clerks. "I haven't been able to get a final count yet because we're still out there, but we're convinced we have the number of signatures we need," Walker said. The 1996 Legislature allowed for creation of townships, primarily letting rural residents protect their neighborhoods from annexation by adjacent cities. But Brown's bill, which passed this year's Legislature during the final three days, stripped away the ability of townships to preserve their borders. Brown's measure, scheduled to become effective the first week in May, will dissolve every township and reconstitute those with populations of 400 or more registered voters as township planning districts, allowing them only to advise counties. It gives those communities some protections by preventing cities from annexing property without owner approval. "This shows that people are not happy with how they've been treated," said Duncan Murray, Warren Township Board chairman. "They just shoved the bill through the Legislature. If this becomes the law, we'd have a much, much lower status." If county election officials certify at least 67,188 signatures, or 10 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election, the Township Summit will have succeeded in preventing Brown's repeal from becoming effective. The issue will be put before a public vote. Certification of signatures will take about two weeks. "We'd like to have a special election in August," said Walker, a member of the Hast Huntsville Township Board. The bill eliminates small townships such as Reese, Warren, Marriott and Mutton Hollow and turns large townships like Hooper, East Huntsville and Slaterville into planning districts. April 13, 1997 Townships regroup Supporters say shortfall in Salt Lake County doesn't hurt chances for vote Standard-Examiner staff and wire services HUNTSVILLE - Although they fell short in Salt Lake County, township movement officials are hopeful they collected enough signatures elsewhere statewide to force a referendum vote on a 1997 bill that would abolish the neighborhood governments. "I don't want to claim victory until we get the count in and certified," Deyonne Walker of the East Huntsville Township board said Tuesday. "But, what we've been told by our people collecting signatures is that we have the counties they were supposed to get." The township supporters need the signatures of at least 67,188 registered Utah voters to prevent legislation sponsored by House Speaker Mel Brown from becoming law next month. If they collected enough signatures, the future of townships then would be decided by voters in a statewide election. In addition to getting the signatures of 10 percent of the Utahns who voted in the last gubernatorial election, the petition drive supporters also must get 10 percent of the voters in at least 15 counties. Since they apparently failed to get 10 percent in Salt Lake County, they would have to substitute another county. But they can count the Salt Lake signatures toward the statewide total if needed. Walker, chairman of the Township Summit, said her supporters reported reaching the 10 percent level in Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Daggett, Davis, Duchesne, Emery, Morgan, Rich, Summit, Tooele, Wasatch, Wayne and Weber counties. "They said they did have the counties" by Monday's collection deadline, she said. "What we've been told is we have them." Now the signatures must be certified by each county clerk's office. The signatures must be of registered voters not just people eligible to vote. In Weber County, she said, petition officials collected signatures from shoppers who live throughout Northern Utah, in Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Morgan and Rich counties. The Weber County Clerk's office has promised to forward those signatures to the home counties of those voters, Walker said. But Walker said clerks in some other counties have indicated they may not have time to be as cooperative and may just count local signatures. "We're really subject to the whims of county clerks. It's possible we could lose a lot of signatures." April 16, 1997 74