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Show h Grant Recommit Set s0 , 3 By TOM BL'SSELBERG JJ North County Editor 3 FARMINGTON -- A re- 0 count of the 1983 Davis Coun- 0 ty community block grant bai- 0 lots requested by Lay ton will 3 be held at 3:30 today in the county planning commission i chambers, w f C" i THAT WORD came from 1 Layton Mayor Lewis G. ' Shields who received notifica- o f tin thrush a euer frm tne 5 0 county council of govern- 8 ments. It reflects findings in a 19 A A review of the block grant proc- 0 uC edures sou8ht by Layton from s HI the state division of commun- V i ty and economic develop-Q develop-Q ment. Salt Lake Attorney Pe- 1 n ter Grundfossen. The mayor, 2 U City Councilwoman Ann Har-e Har-e PV I ris and Clark Adams, down- W town redevelopment associa- IimJ tion chairman, represented the S (I J city at the hearing April 22 in 5U Salt Lake City. 7 I The mayor related Mr. J ,1 Grundfossen's feelings that a 3 recount would probably make I loan! ''"'e difference in any rating 1 0c outcome but had definite feel-3 feel-3 op i ings of his own, as well. bo' I 'i "THERE ARE a lot of ques- I (ions on how to count (ballots) with so many discrepencies--it just really seems to be a task reading these (ballots)," he added in a telephone interview. inter-view. The hearing was called by Layton after officials were concerned they may've lost out on obtaining some of the $850,000 in community block grant funds to be allocated to various cities. The city had sought nearly half that amount for its downtown redevelopment, redevelop-ment, from street improvements improve-ments to beautification but was unsuccessful in this, its second, attempt. IT LOST out by what some think is a razor thin edge to Kaysville, the eighth project to receive partial funding for a water project-some $66,000 was awarded. One of the grants approved, however, for $90,000, was disqualified by the state department of community com-munity and economic development, develop-ment, freeing that money. Davis County had sought the funds for a public safety communications system but didn't provide any matching funds as it mandated. Last month, the Council of Governments Govern-ments group of mayors and county commissioners unani mously voted to allot that $90,000 to Kaysville if it was freed up rather than pass it down to Layton. That motion was approved before the hearing hear-ing that was held in the State Capitol in Salt Lake City. MR. GRUNDFOSSEN outlined out-lined several recommendations, recommenda-tions, including the ballot recounting re-counting using the "initial" North Salt Lake ballot that was only partially completed by the city councilman who sat in for Mayor Robert Palmquist but said of the recount, "I recommend re-commend the Division (of Community and Economic Development) referee any recount: re-count: feelings are running high. "Under the facts discerned through the hearing process, this should result in the WFRC-COG list of potential grant recipients remaining unchanged" un-changed" but said if "closer scrutiny" revealed a change, the state could take action as outlined. HE URGED rules "relative to scoring procedures be committed com-mitted to writing" in the future, fu-ture, explaining that "we have a strong tendency in Utah to trust peers to 'do the right thing' and to know intuitively what is 'right' " but said it's becoming more difficult to "maintain consensus as to the 'right' way to proceed." The Clearfield City Manager, Mana-ger, Gayle Starks, had asked to look at the ballots on the night of the meeting where they were compiled, Feb. 16, and was denied. Later attempts by Layton officials were also denied de-nied until Mr. Grundfossen requested re-quested they be opened for inspection. in-spection. "I RECOMMEND that the COG make this and future ballots bal-lots available to legally interested in-terested parties," he wrote, adding, "Layton's request was not frivilous. It had serious se-rious concerns about the way the ballot had been scored by each individual member and about the way the staff had calculated cal-culated the rankings." He called the COG's attempt to keep identities of balloters secret "correct" but said further "it is not correct in disallowing a review of the ballots bal-lots for errors in relation to calculation cal-culation or the rules by legally interested parties." "I DO NOT believe Layton could have constructed an appeal sufficient to cause a finding of error if it had had the ballots longer in advance," the attorney continued. Calling for simplification in the way ballots are scored, Mr. Grundfossen said it would "seem much simpler to simply add all the applicants' point totals and award the highejst cummulative total first place, etc." RESPONDING to Layton's contentions of error he processes proces-ses as raised at the hearing he said denying Mr, Starks access to the ballots "had no bearing on the outcome." Other points Mr. Grundfossen Grundfos-sen raised included his opinion "Layton has failed to show how Councilman Rodney Wood's instructions as to the use of the ballot wers inadequate inadequ-ate or were in any material respect re-spect different from instructions instruc-tions given to all members of the COG." HE FURTHER said COG "was not in error for accepting Mr. Wood's ballot the night of the balloting or of counting it. "I agree with Layton that COG was in error in giving Mr. Wood a chance to augment his 'initial' ballot" but he said that only invalidated the so-called 'scratch ballot.' |