KAYSVILLE -- The three initiative petitions resubmitted to Kaysville city on Monday by a citizens group wanting to change city government have not been accepted by the city for a second time based on the language of the petitions not complying with state law.
City officials made the decision after meeting late Wednesday with legal counsel Felshaw King, who serves as the city attorney.
Kaysville Mayor Steve Hiatt said the city notified the group, Kaysville Citizens for Responsible Government, on Thursday morning to discuss the rejections and how to move forward.
Hiatt said rather than ping-pong the initiatives back and forth between the city and the group, the city may have the two sides bring their legal counsels together to hammer out the language needed to make the initiatives ballot-ready.
"It is our advice and our recommendation that we offer to meet with the applicants and their attorney to revise the language into acceptable form," reads a letter drafted by King.
"If that effort does not resolve the issues, we recommend that you consider seeking a declaratory judgment to determine whether or not to accept the petitions."
The petitions seek to change the city's form of government from a city manager form to a strong mayor form; to district five of the six council positions; and to establish a public service commission to oversee how revenue from the city's electric company is being used.
To place the petitions on the 2011 Kaysville ballot, the group also needs to collect 1,177 valid signatures before 5 p.m. April 15.
Before signatures can be collected, the city's budget director must evaluate the fiscal impact the changes, if approved, would have on residents.
State law allows the budget director up to 25 days to perform that analysis, meaning the group's time to collect signatures is dwindling.
"We realize this group is on a tight deadline, and Kaysville city is doing what we can to help this process along," Hiatt said. "However, for the second time, it appears the applicants have submitted initiatives that contain inadequate or invalid language."
Orwin Draney, a member of Kaysville Citizens for Responsible Government, said the fiscal impact of creating council districts is neither positive nor negative, but changing the form of government from city manager to strong mayor would save $150,000 a year.
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