By Taylor Stevens | The Salt Lake Tribune
An array of elected officials from cities in southwest Salt Lake County support a bill that would allow communities to strike out and create their own county without a majority vote from the county they would leave behind.
Representatives from Herriman, Riverton, West Jordan and Copperton say they don’t feel their interests are represented at the county level and are frustrated by what they see as a disproportionate lack of funding from the county when it comes to transportation and Zoo, Arts and Parks programming.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they want a “divorce.”
“I don’t believe that we take good negotiation tools off the table,” Herriman City Councilwoman Sherrie Ohrn said of the bill.
“It gives [us] some leverage to perhaps be heard,” agreed Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs.
As it stands, a proposed secession must be approved countywide by voters on both sides of the split. But Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, wants the decision to fall only to residents in the area considering independence.
