The Summit County Council has a new chairperson. Council members picked Chris Robinson, a Democrat, to replace Democrat Claudia McMullin in the influential post.
During the meeting in Coalville on Wednesday, the County Council’s only Republican member, Kamas resident David Ure, was named vice chairman of the panel.
Robinson and Ure have served on the Summit County Council since they were each first elected to a two-year term in 2008. The men were sworn into office Monday after they were re-elected to four-year terms last November.
As chairman, Robinson, a Snyderville Basin resident, will conduct the meetings, help create meeting agendas and have the power to steer discussions.
“You are running the meeting and you want to run the meeting efficiently without making people feel cut off. The key is to keep conversation flowing and to keep track of time. It doesn’t make the other councilors happy to have an agenda go awry,” McMullin said. “You have the power to frame the discussion and control the discussion both timewise and subject matter Ultimately the chair has the authority to put or not put something on the agenda.”
The chairperson also interacts with those who come before the County Council.
“You have to mange everybody who speaks to you in a way that is respectful and leaves them feeling heard while being cognizant of the time,” McMullin said.
Robinson is chief executive officer for The Ensign Group, a family business which owns, develops and manages agricultural, residential and commercial real estate in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Ure is a dairy farmer who served several terms in the state House of Representatives before being elected to the County Council.