"We the People"
My Testimony Before the Utah State Senate
I was invited to speak before a Utah legislative committee hearing today about a long-standing fight between the residents of my home county and a large developer. Local matters are usually more crucial than those that take up hours of our day on social media. Reed.
Testimony Before the Utah Senate Rules Review and General Oversight Committee
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
9:00 am
State Senate Building, Room 110
[As Prepared for Delivery]
I want to thank the members of the Committee for inviting me here today. If you read the headlines about what has been happening in Summit County around Dakota Pacific’s proposed development in the Kimball Junction area, it would be easy to see this as simply an argument about who can build, how big the development can be, and how the locals are angry about more building and traffic coming to their already-congested area.
That would be overlooking the core issue at stake here: That the people, in their capacity as the ultimate source of authority, remain sovereign.
Throughout the years this development has been under discussion, debate, and deliberation, the residents of Summit County have made it clear – to their elected representatives and to the developer directly, that the plans as developed created too many new problems, solved too few core issues, and provided too little benefit to the county’s already over-burdened services, infrastructure, and coffers.
In 2021 during a public meeting, I stood and told representatives of Dakota Pacific that their presentation made little sense, was poorly designed and provided little-to-no community benefit. As someone who has worked on behalf of developers, much larger than this, in fact, their plan offered far too little to Summit County and its residents.
Having spent decades in politics and public affairs, I laid out for Dakota Pacific’s representatives what they would do. The Summit County Council, seeing massive public opposition, declined to vote on the proposal. The developer immediately came here, to the Utah Legislature, to begin the process of dismantling local control for their benefit; a strike against the ‘conservative vision’ of governance I grew up with.
After years of back and forth, the Summit County Council ultimately agreed to a proposal that once again required too little from the developer. They didn’t even get an actual signed version of the agreement. To that end, several Summit County voters took matters into their hands and began the process of qualifying a referendum earlier this year.
In just a few short weeks, we gathered more than 6,500 signatures, well above the required threshold, to put the county’s development agreement before the people this fall. I should note that this was a truly bipartisan, countywide effort. Friends and neighbors of all political stripes – from the progressive left to the conservative right, signed our petition, understanding, after so many years of fighting, that our elected representatives had gotten too little, and given away too much, under the immense pressure of a deep-pocketed developer, their lobbyists, and the members in this building.
Despite the clear and overwhelming support for our measure, the Summit County Clerk determined that half our signatures were invalid due to her subjective interpretation of an arcane and ambiguous definition of ‘binding.’ Relying on little more than grainy cell phone pictures, the clerk disqualified those signatures and declared our effort insufficient.
As an elected representative of the people, however, in questions such as this, in which she has the full authority to decide, she should side with the clear will of the people. Again, this was not a matter of whether we had reached the appropriate threshold for qualification: We did.
This, instead, was an official, looking over all the facts, sided with a large, moneyed interest over the residents they are sworn to represent. Just as in baseball, if a tie goes to the runner, the benefit of the doubt, if there is any, should lie with the people, for whom her authority, and the authority of every elected official, ultimately springs.
Here in Utah, and in too many other places, our leaders have forgotten that the act of being elected does not make them sovereign. Their positions are given to them by the people, who, by their rights as citizens, reserve the ultimate authority.
As Justice Peterson wrote in the Utah Supreme Court’s decision regarding Proposition, Ballot initiatives are protected by a provision in the state constitution that gives citizens the right to "alter or reform their government as the public welfare may require."
This right does not stop at the state level; it also travels up Parleys Canyon to Summit County. When the opportunity arises, our elected representatives must provide the people the opportunity to make certain decisions on their own behalf.
I don't get to say this too often but, "Well, boy howdy, Reed, that was very good." Beautiful photo of Monument Valley, Utah, also.
Your comments are thoughtful and get to the point. I hope you and your neighbors prevail. Local government is easily impressed and overwhelmed by big developers. The due diligence is often rushed. Keep up the pressure.