Utah County Commission Chairman Bill Lee faced accusations of obstruction and insincerity from his colleagues on Tuesday after he joined a last-minute effort to impede a vote on moving to a council-mayor form of government.
At 8 a.m., one hour before the commission was scheduled to debate and vote on putting the government change on the November ballot, Lee and four other county residents filed a petition with the clerk-auditor initiating a campaign to collect signatures and instead create a 5-member expanded commission form of government.
The petition preempts the Utah County Commission from moving forward with the recommendations of a Good Governance Advisory Committee — which called for an elected, full-time county mayor and seven elected, part-time county council members — and likely delays public consideration of a change of government until 2020, or later.