A response to “The Porcupine Quill: A step towards fairer representation”:

In a column touting “fairer representation,” one wouldn’t expect the opening lines to alienate and discredit the experiences of so many Summit County residents. 

No, Ari, we don’t all think an Epic or Ikon Pass is as essential as electricity or water.  Believe it or not, there are many non-skiing/riding Summit County residents and for some, paying monthly utilities is a real challenge. In addition, I doubt the thousands of Summit County residents that sit in daily, rush hour traffic would agree that “Our biggest traffic issue involves a herd of elk blocking S.R. 224 during Sundance.”

Out-of-touch intro aside, Mr. Ioannides goes on to say that Summit County is unique as the only non-districted council form of government in Utah. This is misleading because it fails to mention that 21 of the 29 Utah counties have non-districted (at-large) commission forms of government. 

Summit County is one of three Utah counties in which voters opted for a council-manager form of government. All three counties are unique: Summit with five at-large seats; Wasatch with two at-large and five districted; and Tooele with five districted seats. The few remaining counties have a council-executive form of government or an expanded commission form of government all determined by local voters.  

The bill Ari proposes will lead to better representation in Summit County was passed in the final minutes of the 2025 Utah legislative session. This after being pulled from the committee in the Senate and preventing Summit County representatives and residents from weighing in. 

Interestingly, it was Republican Rep. Teuscher of South Jordan who sponsored H.B. 356. Yes, the same Rep. Teuscher Ari commended in a previous column for eliminating the bargaining rights of Utah’s public employees in H.B. 267, also sponsored H.B. 356 targeting Summit County voters. Is this “fairer representation”?

As it was passed, H.B. 356 requires all council seats (not the 65% Ari referred to from an earlier version of the bill) to be divided into districts, unintentionally and unfairly impacting Wasatch County voters as well. The districts are to be drawn by a proposed districting commission that underrepresents the majority of voters by disproportionately favoring incorporated cities and towns (one-third) over the county’s larger unincorporated population (two-thirds). The districts will then be assigned to current councilors by lottery regardless of where they live or when their seat is up. Is this “fairer representation”?

H.B. 356 will divide Summit County voters (30,000) into five districts (6,000 each), severely limiting the pool of candidates and voter options in every district. From someone who just ran for office, timing is everything and further narrowing participation hurts voters by reducing the eligibility of qualified and experienced candidates ready and willing to run. 

Additionally, rather than voting for all five councilors (two or three every two years), Summit County voters will now only be able to vote for their one district seat every four years. Is this “fairer representation”?

Rural Summit County has successfully elected officials countywide — including our current assessor, auditor, clerk, and Councilor Hanson (who defeated her Park City primary opponent by a wide margin) all hailing from eastern Summit County — demonstrating that these voters have a voice, which the bill’s proponents and Ari fail to acknowledge.

The examples of residents in Henefer, Kamas, and Coalville not having a voice de-legitimizes the value of municipal representation and wrongly assumes that residents don’t have broad countywide interests and ties. One could easily argue that at-large representation leads to greater voter influence and accountability for these residents.  

Beyond its procedural failures, H.B. 356 creates an impractical timeline and chaotic process that lacks foresight. Other portions of state code address the addition, deletion and change of districts. If the Legislature had taken time to formulate an orderly plan intended to value the will of voters, they would have employed those methods. The aggressive timing, districting process, and lottery system opted for in this bill are as arbitrary and poorly thought out as the bill itself with no regard for best practices. 

Citing the council’s vote to amend the Dakota Pacific development agreement as an example of being insulated from political consequences is absurd. As the legislative branch, the council is elected to make difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions to protect the health, safety and well being of all Summit County residents. 

Each of the five councilors thoroughly explained how they came to their decision and have been faced with very real political consequences. While some residents didn’t like the outcome, that doesn’t mean they were ignored. Their voices, along with others, and the very real threat of backdoor legislative fixes (ironically similar to HB356), are precisely what informed the council’s negotiations and ultimate decision.   

Ari’s assertion that the council should have made this change proactively is equally absurd as well as undemocratic. The ability to determine representation at the local level is a cornerstone of democracy. In 2004, it was the Summit County voters that initiated a study on changing its form of government. After considering district-based options, a seven-member committee recommended a council-manager system with five at-large seats.

This model was placed on the ballot in 2006 and chosen by voters, as districting could and should have been had voters wanted that. This issue has not been raised in public input to the council or in local news outlets. Why would the county put this on the ballot when there has been no public sentiment for an alternative expressed? HB356 overturns that decision and the voice of the people while dictating the will of a few disgruntled citizens and their legislator friends.  

To conclude that county councilors were only elected by Park City voters is a complete denial of the facts and ignores the voices of thousands of East Side voters. To imply we are only responsive to West Side voters or issues is also inaccurate as evidenced recently in our open space bonds and emergency services sales tax. Ari’s assumption that districted elections will lead to “real political competition” also ignores the facts in the outcome of our very recent race. While I defeated Ari, I think a 1.4% victory demonstrates healthy competition.   

To be very clear, I am not opposed to districting. I support fairer representation and am very open to exploring policy and alternative forms of government with that goal in mind. The idea of proportional representation is one we rarely hear Republicans in Utah advocate for and certainly worth discussing. 

I am, however, opposed to the process in which districting was mandated in a bill that undermines the principle of local control, disregards the will of Summit County voters, and was passed without transparency or public input.

Lastly, the numbers just don’t support the dichotomy Ari is trying to lay out. We are far more complicated and interconnected than portrayed. We have much more in common than not. The old East Side vs West Side, Democrat vs. Republican way of thinking that Ari presents is what I believe to be stuck in the past. 

In general, I find “The Porcupine Quill” to be divisive, off base, and counterproductive.  While I appreciate the Park Record’s attempt to highlight different perspectives, Ari’s column seems to be more intent on driving our county apart than problem solving as a community.  

We’re all in this together and we’ve got a lot of work to do. Let’s not let the divisiveness and dysfunction of our state and national politics play out in Summit County. Fairer representation is something we should always strive for and HB356’s legislative overreach is not the pathway. 

I ran on regional collaboration because I believe we must work together to find meaningful and lasting solutions. Let’s take a step towards a more unified and cohesive Summit County by engaging in meaningful dialogue and healthy debate. Join me and our Wasatch County friends by asking Gov. Cox to veto H.B. 356, allowing local voters to preserve their right to determine fair representation.  

Megan McKenna is a member of the Summit County Council. She can be reached at mmckenna@summitcountyutah.gov

The post H.B. 356: Fairer for whom? appeared first on Park Record.

Last month the Summit County Council voted 4-1 to amend the Dakota Pacific development agreement. While I was not yet sworn in, I support and stand by the council’s decision.

They know the complexities of the issue more than most and gave a very thorough explanation prior to voting.

Since then, a referendum to overturn their decision has been filed and a petition is now circulating to gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot this November.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion surrounding the issue. An anonymous website spreading misinformation, while claiming to protect Summit County, certainly isn’t helping.

I encourage voters to educate themselves on the community benefits/impacts, seek out reliable/known sources of information, question anonymous claims, reach out to your county councilors, and know before you sign.

I’ve heard some supporting the referendum say the developer should “build what they bought.” While a tech park may have been viable in 2008, when the original development agreement was made, a tech park today would bring thousands of commuters to Kimball Junction at peak traffic times.

I say the developer should “build better than they bought” and address the 2025 needs of Summit County. The amended agreement the council passed last month does just that.

The recent community support for our local ski patrol was tremendous, but wages alone aren’t enough. Supporting working people in Summit County also requires a wide range of affordable housing options.

Where better for much-needed housing than next to a transit center, a library, trails, urgent care, a theater, restaurants, gyms, stores, shops and more? If not Kimball Junction, where? Mixed-use here is not only inline with the Kimball Junction Neighborhood Plan, it also addresses critical community needs and prevents further sprawl, which protects open space and the rural parts of our county.

In my successful campaign for Summit County Council last year, I had the unique opportunity to talk to a broad spectrum of residents from across the county. The concerns I heard most often included affordability, sustainability, traffic, a sense of community, and the ability to age in place from one generation to the next.

The county’s recent visioning exercise, in addition to significant public input throughout the developer’s application process, identified much the same and informed the council’s decision.

While many are frustrated with Dakota Pacific and legislative overreach, not everyone is opposed to working together and finding real solutions to our community’s greatest challenges. In fact, many understand the critical need for housing and have expressed a interest in negotiating with the developer to minimize the impacts and maximize the community benefits.

Lastly, the referendum will not make Dakota Pacific go away or teach our legislators a lesson. In reality, they own the land, the state needs to build housing, and something will end up there.

The question we need to ask ourselves is do we want a seat at the table or do we want to risk our land use authority and leave it up to the state? Whether the legislative fix is incorporation, zone overlay, or another surprise bill this session, I’d rather secure the traffic solutions, phased construction, civic spaces, new library, improved transit center, capture lot, public plaza, senior care facility, transit funding, and various needed housing options (a significant portion being affordable) that the elected council negotiated and approved last month.

Informed decisions make for better outcomes. I encourage all to know before you sign. If you’ve already signed and change your mind, it’s not too late. You can remove your signature at https://www.summitcountyutah.gov/2562/Signature-Removal-Information

Megan McKenna is a member of the Summit County Council. She can be reached at mmckenna@summitcountyutah.gov

The post Know before you sign appeared first on Park Record.

My name is Megan McKenna, and I am running for Summit County Council seat C.

In the 2024 Equity Enhancement Cohort class, we were recently tasked with writing our why statements. Reflecting on the exercise, I realized my equity why statement is the same as my
County Council why statement.

In light of recent unsolicited, anonymous and disingenuous emails that ended up in Summit County voter in-boxes, I’m sharing my why statement.

My parents settled in the Snyderville Basin at a time when the local workforce could afford to buy a home and raise a family in the area. From humble beginnings, they moved to Summit County for a job opportunity and put five kids through the Park City School District. I believe it takes a village, and we certainly had one at that time. I am forever grateful.

I graduated from Park City High School in 1999 and was so excited to cast my first ballot in the
2000 election at Treasure Mountain Middle School. While I was a TMMS student from fourth to eighth grade, my teachers helped us save the wetlands behind our school and start a school recycling program
with the newly founded Recycle Utah.

I worked as a professional ski patroller for 11 years. My rookie year at the Canyons in the 2001-02 season provided an unforgettable and influential Olympic experience. During that time, I worked several other local service industry jobs while earning a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry.

I went on to earn a master’s degree in science education and returned to teach in the district that provided me with a world-class public education. I had several excellent teachers in the Park City School District who profoundly impacted my life. My teachers were my neighbors, active community members and mentors.

I aspired to continue that legacy into the next generation. My love for the outdoors further fueled my passion for the environment and for the next 11 years, I taught high school Earth Science, Biology and AP Environmental Science.

In that time I saw family, friends, and coworkers pushed out of the area due to affordability. My
experience teaching also provided insight into the growing challenges of our young people and
families.

While teaching at Park City High School, and after several years on the waitlist, I had the opportunity
to buy an affordable home in the Park City Heights neighborhood, and it was life-changing.

I’ve always been an advocate for our local workforce and when Mountainlands relaunched the Housing Resource Center in the fall of 2022, I jumped at the opportunity to help advance affordable housing along the Wasatch Back.

Since then and through my work on various boards and commissions, including the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Citizens Climate Lobby, Recycle Utah advisory board, the Mayor’s Seasonal Workforce Taskforce, Park City leadership class, and participating in countless public meetings, I’ve learned even more about Summit County’s greatest challenges.

Change is inevitable, but sustainability and affordability are not. I am not one to let perfection get in the way of progress, and I understand that meaningful solutions require pragmatism, collaboration and compromise.

I don’t advocate for developers and certainly don’t support Dakota Pacific and how they’ve conducted themselves. I advocate for the people and places that make up Summit County. I support negotiating with developers to maximize community benefit and minimize impact while addressing critical county needs.

While we can’t go back in time to the Summit County we first remember, I am hopeful that together, we can build a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable Summit County for generations to come.

I am rooted here and care deeply about the people and places that make up our communities.
My motivation to run comes from my former students, my niece and nephews, and the working people of Summit County. They are why I am committed to equity enhancement and why I decided to run for Summit County Council.

Check out the Park Record’s recent voter guide for a side by side candidate comparison and please take unsolicited, anonymous emails for what they’re worth. Informed decisions make for stronger democracies and better representation! For more about why I’m running and where I stand on the issues visit mckennaforsummitcounty.com.

The post Megan McKenna: This is my why appeared first on Park Record.

Dear fellow Parkites,

As we find ourselves amid another record-breaking spike in COVID-19 cases, I beg you to please have some compassion for our greater community. These next few weeks are going to be exceedingly tough on our town and our already strained workforce. The aftermath may be just as devastating if we don’t proceed with care and caution.

While many are finding relief in the early evidence of omicron’s milder effects and Summit County’s high vaccination rate, we must also acknowledge the sheer number of cases we will continue to see due to its remarkable transmissibility and our failure to respond accordingly.

In addition to protecting our most vulnerable Summit County residents, we must once again extend our compassion and care to our frontline, essential and service industry workers, who have worked tirelessly the past two years. They are our only hope in facing the even greater challenges that lie ahead.

I’ve heard many Parkites and visitors recently comment on the consequences of such a thin and depleted workforce. Not only is this vital workforce exposed to COVID-19 on a regular basis, but they’ve been subjected to the misguided abuse of those inconvenienced by the reality of a pandemic. All this while mixing our drinks, plowing our roads, taking out our garbage, caring for our children, ringing up our groceries, stocking the shelves, mitigating avalanche danger on the slopes, delivering our packages, scrubbing surfaces, tuning our skis, practicing life-saving medicine, cutting our hair, making our meals, responding to emergencies, driving our buses, teaching our students, directing traffic and the numerous other services we all rely upon. Not to mention navigating the personal mental and emotional demands of a global pandemic.

Much of our workforce can’t afford to take unpaid sick leave, let alone housing in Park City. Child care and health care options are lacking for many of our workers. The pandemic has only highlighted these labor deficiencies and increased the demand on our drained workforce.

If we don’t have enough first responders, nurses, firefighters, pharmacists, law enforcement or snowplow drivers, everyone’s safety is at risk, regardless of vaccination status. When you don’t have enough subs to cover sick teachers or bus drivers, remote teaching may be the only option and limited at that. Lift lines don’t matter when you have no one to maintain the lifts or take injured riders off the mountain. When bars, restaurants and stores are forced to close due to staffing issues, everyone loses — our lowest-wage workers and families the most.

In a global health crisis, our national and global health agencies should guide experts in our county and state health departments to best protect the health and safety of our communities. In turn, and for the greater good, we should follow such guidance and be better off for it. Our inability to prepare for the much-anticipated omicron surge and respond accordingly is a failure of leadership at every level. There is no excuse for putting profits over Parkites, allowing politics to dictate public health policy or disregarding public health orders all together.

The time will come for accountability and we must demand it when it does. However, now it is imperative that we do all we can to protect our most vulnerable citizens and the lifeblood that is our workforce. We can do that by properly wearing a good mask in public, getting tested often, staying at home when we’re sick, washing our hands frequently, getting outside, socially distancing, limiting crowds, getting vaccinated and boosted, advocating for better working conditions, having patience, following the science, extending gratitude, tipping well, supporting local businesses, checking in with our neighbors and sacrificing a little inconvenience for the common good.

And so my fellow Parkites, this teacher is calling for more compassion now as we face this storm and a commitment to accountability when the dust settles.

The post Guest opinion: A call for compassion and action as we confront the latest coronavirus surge appeared first on Park Record.

Park City is home to a growing and increasingly diverse backcountry community that shares an appreciation and love for the off-piste Wasatch experience. Having the Park City ridgeline in our backyard is a privilege that some of us have enjoyed for upwards of 50 years. From the various historical access points and approaches, we’ve navigated the patchwork of shared public and private land to earn our turns in our local, world-class winter terrain.

Following the second tragic avalanche accident this season and a period of extreme avalanche conditions, Vail Resorts closed the Canyons-side backcountry access gates at Park City Mountain Resort indefinitely. Devastated by the loss of an avid and beloved long-time local backcountry skier, many waited patiently and welcomed discussion surrounding improved avalanche awareness and backcountry access. Because the vast majority of avalanche victims leaving the Canyons gates did not have a beacon, shovel and probe, requiring avalanche gear to leave the backcountry gates seemed like a logical response to many locals. As the weeks passed and avalanche conditions improved, we have reached out to Vail Resorts, local leaders and other stakeholders. We have written letters and made phone calls to no avail. Next year’s season passes are now on sale and still no official announcement from Vail Resorts regarding the future of the backcountry gates.

The unresolved and ongoing closure of the backcountry gates on the Canyons side of PCMR is unprecedented, unacceptable and impedes our right to access our shared public lands. Permanent closure of the backcountry access would be the end of an era and a disservice to the next generation of backcountry enthusiasts and public land stewards.

• We petition Vail Resorts to reinstate U.S. National Forest access from the Park City ridgeline immediately and for the remainder of the 2020-2021 ski season.

Due to the increasingly limited access, many of us buy the Epic Pass primarily to use the backcountry gates. We were especially grateful this year to avoid the resort crowds and gain a sense of peace and solitude in the midst of a global pandemic. Since Feb. 2 pass holders have not only been denied access to their public lands but denied a voice in the decision-making process and left in the dark in terms of decisions made and future plans.

While final gate decisions may be Vail Resorts’ to make, they should not occur in a vacuum without meaningful community input. The stakeholders most directly impacted by this decision and most noticeably absent from the conversation thus far are the skiers and riders that use the backcountry access and the ski patrol that will have to maintain, enforce and respond to access-related issues.

• We petition that Vail Resorts include ALL stakeholders in the decision-making process moving forward. We are directly impacted by their decision. We have a voice and we deserve to be heard.

Rumors are now surfacing that Vail Resorts has made a decision to keep the gates closed for the remainder of the season and permanently close the 9990 access gate. If this is true, we do not support this decision. While the location of the 9990 lift is problematic for several reasons, that is where the lift is and the hike provides the safest access to the ridgeline.

• We petition our local nonprofits, leaders and representatives to publicly voice their support to reinstate National Forest access for those in our community most directly impacted by Vail Resorts’ decision. We believe that with proper input, corporate and community concerns can be addressed for mutual benefit.

If you support reinstating National Forest access from the Canyons side of PCMR and that local stakeholders should be informed and engaged in gate decisions moving forward, please let your voice be heard and sign this petition at change.org/nationalforestaccesspetition.

The post Guest opinion: The ongoing closure of PCMR backcountry gates impedes access to public land appeared first on Park Record.