January 2018 | Vol. 18 Iss. 01
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WEST JORDAN’S YEAR OF INITIATING CHANGE By Travis Barton | travis@mycityjournals.com
Jim Riding and his wife, Kathe. In November, Riding was voted the next mayor of West Jordan City. (Courtesy Jim Riding)
I
t was a year of movement for West Jordan in 2017. From the elections and a city manager retiring to the city’s form of government and its new facilities, West Jordan continued to upend the status quo. Here are some of the city’s biggest stories from 2017. Change of Government vote In what was a hotly debated topic for the majority of 2017, residents voted to change the city’s form of government, by a 63-vote margin, from council-manager to a council-mayor, more commonly known as the “strong mayor” format. “It was such an unknown,” said Mayor-elect Jim Riding on how the vote would turn out. “I had friends on both cases; I could not get a good feel for how it would go…there (were) so many people on both philosophies.”
Under the city’s current councilmanager form, a professional city manager hired by the city council acts as the CEO of the city, carrying out its dayto-day tasks, while the mayor serves as chair of the city council. In 2020, under what will now be the city’s council-mayor form, West Jordan’s mayor will serve as CEO, becoming the head of the executive branch of municipal government. The mayor would implement ordinances passed by the city council, appoint department heads and officers for the city departments and has veto power subject to the council’s ability to override the veto. This form of government would remove the city manager position but create a city administrator position that would perform administrative powers and duties under direction of the mayor.
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In a tight vote, West Jordan residents voted to change the city’s form of government starting in 2020. (City Journals)
While conversation of changing the form of government has surfaced in years past, it wasn’t until 2017 that it really picked up steam. January saw a 4-3 vote in favor of putting the change of government option on the November ballot. The resolution, brought forth by Councilman Dirk Burton, initiated a process that would last the next 10 months. “I desire to let the public have the choice,” Burton said at the time. The measure received pushback, however, with concerns including the lack of options (only the council-mayor form was on the ballot) and the inability to return to the council-manager form. While the council-manager form is the most popular government form in cities throughout the United States, it was removed from state law in 2008,
though cities that had that form were permitted to continue the practice. Now that it’s changed, it cannot return without state law being changed. The question was removed from the ballot in March after residents asked for more time and education on the subject. A Forms of Government Ad Hoc Committee, made up of nine members, was created to study the forms of government before making its consensus recommendation in August to remain with the current council-manager form. The committee’s report expressed concern about the amount of power the new form of government gives the mayor and placed emphasis on the “quality and temperament” of elected officials as “the most critical element in the successful operation of a city.” Despite the recommendation, the Continued on Page 4...
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