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Show Lawmakers KO some townships By MARINA O'NEILL and GREG KRATZ_ Standard-Examiner staff SALT LAKE CITY - Despite a valiant effort to save them, the hard-won townships of Reese, Warren, Marriott and Mutton Hollow were erased from the political map Wednesday as legislators gutted the 1996 law that allowed them to form. Hooper, East Huntsville and Slaterville will remain - not as townships with fixed borders, but as planning districts to advise the Weber County Commission. "I'm going to go find somewhere to cry," said disheartened township advocate Nan Peacock of Hooper after the final 17-11 Senate vote. Bill Morris, a Marriott Township board member, was bitter. "We're surprised that (legislators) would think they could take something away that the people had voted on," he said. "They're telling you how to live in your community, and you have to like it.... "The Legislature giveth, and the Legislature taketh away." Weber County commissioners sent a letter to senators Tuesday stating their concerns about the bill. And area legislators, including Sens. Joe Hull, D-Hooper, Craig Taylor, R-Kaysville, and Robert Montgomery, R-North Ogden, made several attempts to keep townships in place, grandfather in existing townships or delay changing the law in favor of a year of study. "You've just struck the last nail into the coffin of people having any form of self-determination," a frustrated Hull said. "We have beat the townships to the ground today," Taylor said, opposing an unsuccessful last-minute move to replace the elected planning districts with appointed officials. "Let's not kick them while they're down." Gov. Mike Leavitt said he will wait to review the final version of the bill, which changed shape many times, before deciding whether to sign it. The changes were approved by the House on Monday. When lawmakers created the township concept in the last minutes of the 1996 Legislature, communities throughout the state jumped at the chance to protect their borders from annexation. Fourteen, including six in Weber County and Mutton Hollow in Davis County, won support from a majority of registered voters in their areas as required by the law. The townships formed by the law were advisory, but the tiny size of some of them and their ability to lock in their boundaries alarmed lawmakers, who feared they had created a web of mini-fiefdoms. The main problem with the 1996 law, in House Speaker Mel Brown's view, is that townships believe they have more power than they actually do. Brown sponsored this year's restructuring. "When you sit down and talk to them they thought they were not a city, they were not a town, they were not a county and they were not a state - but they were a nation," Brown told senators Tuesday. "It is just not a nation building, kingdom thing," Peacock of Hooper said. "It's identity, borders and the power to keep out annexation. And that's what we thought we had. We followed the rules, we did what we thought we were supposed to." "We'll lose control of our borders," said Deyonne Walker, of the East Huntsville township. "And the borders actually define the township and give us our sense of community." Brown said his compromise plan solves many of the current problems with annexations, eliminating the need for townships. His changes would prevent cities from annexing property against its owner's wishes and limit "cherry picking" of prime commercial areas by requiring that new parcels abut city boundaries. But the bill also nullifies any already formed townships with fewer than 400 registered voters, and would require Reese, Warren, Marriott and Mutton Hollow to apply to their county commissions for continued existence. Large townships, such as Hooper, Slaterville and East Huntsville, will become elected planning districts able to advise commissioners but not lock in their borders. Morris said he does not know how other Marriott residents will react to the loss of township status, but he thinks they have two choices. "We can either fall back and play dead and let ourselves be taken advantage of ... or we can express our opinion and become a planning district or incorporate," he said. "This is really a fundamental issue to those folks who elected to form townships," Hull told fellow senators. "It was the first time many of them have gotten that involved in government. Of course, we're saying, 'Don't get involved again, because we as the Legislature know better.'" Morris said that was one negative lesson he learned from his first foray into politics. "It's opened my eyes that what the powers that be want, they get, and they don't care who they step on. I'm just really concerned about the leadership that tells us they want grassroots support, tells us they want us to participate, but yet when citizens want to take just a little control over their communities, they slap everyone in the face." Brown said that was not the message of his bill. "We're not telling you that you made a mistake, we're telling you that we made a mistake," he told township supporters. "We'll never come to a resolution on this, because everyone wants to change it just a little bit to suit them." March 6, 1997 February 26, 1997 pioneer communities just dissolve." East Huntsville Township board member Deyonne Walker said she is hoping for a compromise. "We really have enjoyed the fact that we could be townships and have some identity, as well as local input into what is going on within our boundaries," Walker said. Murray agreed. "If we can make it past this round, then we're home free." 67 |