Legal counsel weighed in on the consideration of expanding Uintah County Special Service District boards during Monday’s Commission meeting. Last week, the Commission was split on board appointments and the future of the Uintah Transportation Service District was called into question. This week, Commission Chairman Bill Stringer opened the discussion stating that the Commission does want to expand several boards to “have more minds at work” on where funding will go as districts operate on significantly less funding than years past. County attorney Jonathan Stearmer then presented his findings of the necessary process in order to expand the board. Referring to state code, Stearmer said the Commissioners do have the authority to either expand or detract the number of members on district boards. In order to expand a board, the notice must be posted at least 1 month before the deadline of accepting nominees. He also clarified that appointments must be made by resolution. Stearmer also clarified that in the case like last week when no candidate receives a majority vote, then one is selected from the top 2 candidates by lot. Based on the information presented, the Commission decided to take a step back and begin the process of posting the notice of their intention to expand the Transportation, Impact Mitigation, and TriCounty Health district boards.
