Protect Summit County, the volunteer-led referendum effort against the Dakota Pacific Real Estate development in Kimball Junction, is confident they gathered enough signatures to put the ordinance on the ballot.
But they have less faith that the referendum effort has not been undermined.
Monday evening was the deadline for the seven sponsors — Scott Greenberg, Joe Urankar, Ruby Diaz, Robert Lattanzi, Shawn Stinson, Brendan Weinstein and Jennifer Sexsmith — to submit 4,554 valid signatures to the Summit County Clerk’s Office for verification. The group estimated that they submitted 77 packets containing over 6,000, about 33% more than the minimum threshold.
“Per the code, we needed to reach 16% thresholds in terms of overall Summit County voters and in three out of four voter participation areas. We ended up with more than 21% of overall voters and over 20%, 26%, and 28% in three voter participation areas,” Protect Summit County said. “The numbers speak for themselves. The only way Ordinance 987 doesn’t end up on November ballots is if election interference succeeds.”
Protect Summit County said it upped its signature collection goals “once the extent of the sabotage became evident.” Sponsors have raised concerns with the Clerk’s Office after more than a dozen petition packets were rejected for improper circulation. They’ve also questioned efforts by Wasatch Back Future, a Political Issues Committee formed by Dakota Pacific executives, encouraging voters who signed the referendum to remove their signatures, calling those efforts “intimidating.”
Referendum sponsors and many residents also took issue with a partner from a lobbyist firm, Foxley & Pignanelli, hired by Summit County three years ago to help advance county issues working separately with Wasatch Back Future. During KPCW’s “Local News Hour” on Feb. 25, Summit County Manager Shayne Scott said “there is no conflict” of interest because the county has taken a neutral position on the referendum.
Protect Summit County disagreed.
“Our own Summit County lobbyists are working harder to kill the voter referendum than they are to advocate for us voters down at the Legislature,” the group said in a statement to The Park Record.
Sponsors started obtaining signatures about 45 days ago, bringing on dozens of volunteers and hosting numerous collection drives to reach the minimum threshold to put Ordinance No. 987 on the ballot, letting voters decide whether the mixed-use project near the Park City Tech Center should be allowed.
Public criticism regarding the development has been loud since the first iteration of the Dakota Pacific application was submitted about five years ago. The referendum sponsors said the 4-1 County Council vote approving the amended development agreement in December was “in opposition to the people.”
Those who signed the referendum petition said they feel they weren’t well represented by the County Council, seek an opportunity to better understand the details of the development agreement, or want to repeal the ordinance to force the officials to negotiate for a better deal with the developer.
If the referendum makes it to the ballot, voters will decide during the general election whether the approved development agreement should stand.
“The people hired by those working to kill the referendum started tracking our locations and showing up to interfere. In certain instances, those people actually helped draw more attention and support for our efforts. And once news broke about Summit County’s own lobbyist taking money from Dakota Pacific to kill the voter referendum, it motivated a whole late wave of signers to come out and stand up for democracy in Summit County,” Protect Summit County said in a statement.
Summit County Clerk Eve Furse expected an update on the signature packets by Tuesday afternoon. Furse has maintained the Clerk’s Office is neutral in the process and is following state law. She said the packets were rejected because they could have been improperly bound, meaning the signature sheets may have been separated from the voter information pamphlet.
“The Summit County Clerk is currently reviewing signature packets submitted for the referendum. At this time, we are working through the verification to ensure it is accurate and protects the processes by which Summit County residents express their political will,” Summit County officials said in a statement to The Park Record. “The Clerk’s Office is committed to following state statute with guidance from the Lieutenant Governor’s Office and the Summit County Attorney’s Office.”
Utah Code states the county clerk has 21 days after a packet is submitted to certify on the petition whether each name is that of a legal voter; post the name, voter identification number and date of each signature on the lieutenant governor’s website; and deliver the verified packet to the local clerk.
It also states the county clerk may not count a signature on a packet that is not verified or does not have a date next to it. A packet cannot be verified if it was not signed in the presence of someone at least 18 years old, if the verification on the last page of the packet isn’t completed or if each signer didn’t read or understand the law the referendum seeks to overturn.
The sponsors estimated that 31 packets were turned in on Monday. Protect Summit County maintains that all the packets adhere to state code and all the signatures are valid. The sponsors plan to pursue a legal remedy if the Clerk’s Office declares the petition effort insufficient, they said.
“Win or lose, the people of Summit County have spoken out against legislative interference, a County Council that sided with a developer over its constituents … repeated attempts at sabotage, and a county clerk acting outside her scope of duty and introducing chaos mid-process,” Protect Summit County said. “This is a clear mandate for the highest levels of government in Utah to stop interfering in local issues and for local elected officials to represent the people who elected them.”