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Show Consolidation Vote Delayed to Aug. 70 An opinion from the Utah Attorney General's Office has forced a 90-day delay in the local election on consolidation of government, originally set for May 25. This election has been rescheduled for August 10. The action was taken in regular commission meeting Monday when County Attorney Attor-ney Bill Benge informed commissioners he had received receiv-ed the opinion stating that it would not be legal to hold the election on consolidation any sooner than 90 days after the adoption of any changes to the plan. The Utah Code 17-35a-3 was statutory basis for the opinion. The first opportunity to take official commission action on the three additions made to the consolidation plan, published pub-lished in last week's Times-Independent, Times-Independent, was Monday, although commissioners had all approved of these changes earlier. Members of the study committee on consolidation met with the commission Monday to discuss alternatives in light of the Attorney General's opinion. There were three outlined: to retain the May 25 voting date and delete the additions to the plan; to adopt the plan with the additions and set the election date ahead at least 90 days; or to defer voting on consolidation consolida-tion until after the 1976 general election in November. It was the consensus of all present that the additions to the plan were very important, and should be included before the general electorate voted on the plan, since these changes give the voters more power over their elected and appointed appoint-ed officials. Therefore, this alternative was rejected. Since it was felt that putting off the consolidation vote until after November 2 would be waiting too long, the decision was made to incorporate the additions to the plan, plus the change in election date from May 25 to August 10, and defer the vote until that date. Commission Chairman D.L. Taylor commented:"! think it's unfortunate we didn't know about this 90-day provision provi-sion earlier, but I can see its value. This will give the voters additional time to study the plan and to make a well-informed well-informed decision about consolidation." con-solidation." The plan will be as printed in last week's paper, with the exception of the change in election date to August 10. Printed copies are available at the County Clerk's office and at the Time-Independent. Also, the entire plan will be printed again twice within 30 days before the election, as provided by law. |