By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Bookending the regular meeting of the Emery County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Sept. 16, was an item proposing a decrease in the salary for the commissioners. Creating contention among the commissioners, the item was ultimately shot down in a 2-1 vote.
“I’ll just be honest here. Last commission meeting when we were talking about the Regional Opportunity Council and my concerns with losing elected official authority, and where people are using our name and pursuing a $10 billion grant, which would have probably been awarded if the election was different. I think, as Commissioners, we need to protect our office, our elected position, and I just don’t know if we’re really worth our salary,” said Commissioner Keven Jensen, opening the discussion.
The $10 billion grant referred to by Jensen was through the Southeastern Utah Regional Development Agency and Energywerx, a grant which Jensen stated in June of 2024 that he believed ” should have come through the county.” He added,” And we should have looked at Energywerx when we were sending support letter. When you look at wanting to go green, clean, new energy, no one knew it was going to be hooked to billions of dollars.”
Jensen explained that he understood the need for collaboration between the county and nongovernment organizations, but that he wanted safeguards in the process so that one commissioner could not make major decisions without the others’ approval.
“Is that the real intent of this,” asked Commissioner Jordan Leonard,” the grant?”
“That’s huge,” replied Jensen.
Leonard responded,” Who was the commissioner on that board when they were going after that grant?” To which Jensen answered, “I’m talking about two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, the previous commissioner doesn’t matter. That happened, and what are we going to do to safeguard it? That’s my concern.”
“I get it. I know this was a campaign promise a long time ago. And I actually respect that, but to tie it to something else. I don’t think it is appropriate,” said Leonard.
This sparked a back and forth between the Commissioners, with Jensen stating,” I thought you would have said, yeah, this happened, and we can’t have this happen again.”
Leonard answered,” We’ve got to collaborate with the state and these other economic,” before Jensen interjected,” We don’t have to give away our authority. You can collaborate, and I said that even in the meeting, I said, every agency company, business individual, they’re welcome to come into the commission chamber.”
Continued Jensen,” I understand the want to collaborate. But just to have no safeguards essentially. Like, I’m gonna potentially be the guy on the ROC board when they get this developed. But then, who’s going to be on in the future? And I even said that one commissioner can go and completely push an agenda without coming to the commission, and this commission just kind of, didn’t say something to say ‘yeah, we need safeguards. Yes, that should be a commission action item.’ And that kind of bothered me, and I don’t know. I don’t think we’re worth the salary.”
Commissioner Dennis Worwood spoke on the matter, “I’m not opposed to looking at the commissioner’s salary. And adjusting it if you need to, and I would do that during the budget process. What I don’t see is how the salary has anything to do with the grant.”
“Why should people pay us to come here and represent Emery County if we’re not willing as elected officials to fight for our authority as the people elected by the people,” asked Jensen. “We’re elected by the people to represent them to defend this office to make sure that we’re not run over by special interest groups, but that we’re protecting our people.”
He continued, posing a hypothetical to the board,” Let’s say we get rid of coal power plants and we put in solar power plants. They don’t produce hardly any jobs. Are we as a commission going to go along with that just to go along with it? Or are we going to try and protect our people and try to leverage our positions in this County? And if the state wants to go nuclear, to replace our coal mining jobs, we need manufacturing jobs and a tax base to come here to replace our coal mining jobs. And we all tell the state that, but instead, it’s like the state comes in, special interest groups come in, and they just expect us to be puppets. To me, a puppet’s not worth the salary.”
Closing his Remarks, Jensen added, “To me, as a commissioner, when we have a dialogue with the AOG (Association of Governments), and I bring up a $10 billion grant we didn’t even take a commission action item on, it is disturbing. And that’s where I think it’s connected. I think a salary and the authority to go after a grant that would fundamentally change our economy, fundamentally change our area, should take a commission action.”
“I think we need to be involved. The challenge is. You need to be willing to go to these meetings and be involved and share these opinions,” said Leonard.
“You’re playing the two against one game. You played it with the Solar Company,” he added, referencing the 2-1 vote earlier in the meeting to approve a conditional use permit for Pacificorp’s planned solar power and battery energy storage project. Both Leonard and Worwood voted in favor of granting the permit, with Jensen being the lone voice of dissent.
“You know I hate solar,” replied Jensen, prompting Leonard to respond,” We all hate solar, but it’s on a business’s property.”
Jensen shot back,” I want an ordinance, you know, I want an ordinance to shut this down, go listen, Public Lands Council.”
“Yeah, come to meetings, that would be good,” replied Leonard. “You’re more than welcome to give your salary back, if you’re going to get on this soapbox – I’m voting no – but I want you on record to say you’re giving your salary back.”
This prompted a shouting match between the commissioners, with Jensen stating,” This isn’t personal, this isn’t personal, this is political,” and telling Leonard,” I don’t want to hear about the establishment whipping you.”
“Whipping me? What are you talking about?” replied Leonard.
“Yeah, since we go personal, I don’t want to hear about it,” said Jensen.
“I’ll just repeat, I will be perfectly happy to talk about adjustments to commissioner salary during the budget process and decreasing them if that’s what’s going to be best for the county,” said Worwood. “I served three terms on the Ferron City Council for $75 a month. I view this the same way. There’s no amount of money that can compensate for some of the stuff you have to put up with, but I’m glad to do it.”
Leonard added,” If it was the campaign promise, I get it. Then, we can discuss it, but that’s pretty dangerous to go down that road,” before voting to deny the motion. Worwood seconded. In a 2-1 decision, the denial was approved. Jensen again provided the sole dissenting vote.