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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Mayors from throughout Utah County appealed unsuccessfully to Utah County commissioners to reconsider their decision to withdraw from the Mountainland Association of Governments.
The county commissioners decided last month to withdraw from the tri-county regional planning association.
Commissioners Jerry Grover and Steve White have said there's no real oversight in the association, costs are too high, Utah County isn't getting its share of funding, and the county no longer has any real ties to the other two counties in the association -- Summit and Wasatch.
The association's executive committee decided to send the commissioners a letter asking them to reconsider and discuss the problems with the mayors, which Springville Mayor Fritz Boyer feels commissioners didn't do.
"There are discussions that haven't taken place and apparently won't ever take place now," he said.
"Our intention is not to draw battle lines -- we are not trying to work against you," he told the commissioners Tuesday. "It's the method in which you made this decision that made us uncomfortable."
MAG officials and mayors were shocked when commissioners decided to withdrawal from the association without any conversation beforehand, Boyer said.
Commissioner Larry Ellertson, who voted against withdrawing, said he brought the item back to the commission because he thinks there needs to be more time to discuss the association's problems and what can be done. He was hoping the commission could essentially withdraw their withdrawal, but his motion failed.
The mayors and commissioners still are part of the Utah County Council of Governments.
"We will work with them on that level," said Eagle Mountain Mayor Kelvin Bailey. "They are an integral part of that, whether they like it or not."
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
