Letter: Efforts to stifle ski resort referendum not in county’s interest
The District Court has now validated the Application seeking a referendum on the Wasatch Peaks Ranch (WPR) development in Morgan County. WPR appealed within hours of the decision. Now, Garrett Smith, the Morgan County Attorney, has also filed an appeal. Garrett Smith states, “This appeal is recognizing there are other rights [Wasatch Peaks Ranch] the petitioner is ignoring.” The petitioners are not ignoring anyone’s rights; they are exercising the community’s right to a referendum. The County’s priority should be protecting the rights of its citizens, not an outside developer who has acted to influence and intimidate the County to reject the referendum application in the first place erroneously.
The question is, why does the County Attorney have this loyalty to protect the subordinate rights of WPR while depriving the referendum sponsors and Morgan County’s citizens of their superior right to legislate through the referendum process guaranteed to the people by the Utah Constitution? In the past, Smith has justified his actions in fighting the appeal as protecting the interests of Morgan County; however, it is the community that ultimately determines its interests. The referendum provides no harm to the County. It simply provides a mechanism that determines if the approval of the WPR project is in the best interest of the county and corrects the decision if it is not. Without the referendum, Smith does not know if the WPR project is in the community’s interest. Fighting against the referendum does not protect the County’s interest. Instead, it silences the community from expressing their interest, and it is an assault on our democratic process and principles.
Robert Bohman
Morgan County