Two years ago, when proponents of a change of government in Summit County met with the Tribune Editorial Board, they said a five-member county council would serve the dynamic needs of the rapidly growing county better than the hundred-year-old three-member county commission. We agreed.

A council-manager government would probably be more efficient and more representative, especially of the Snyderville Basin, the center of county growth, although we argued that a better idea would be incorporation for the burgeoning area at Kimball Junction and along SR 224.

But we disagreed with the idea they promoted of having all five members elected at-large instead of from districts. We feared the more populous west side would elect candidates from that area, leaving the communities around Kamas in the east and Coalville in the north underrepresented.

We hate to say we told you so, but that's exactly what's happened.

On Nov. 4, Summit County voters elected four Democratic, west-side members to its first County Council and one Republican from Kamas. No one from the county seat, Coalville, or its neighbors, Wanship, Hoytsville and Henefer, was elected. And the political divide, with the more urbanized areas being largely Democratic and the mostly rural fringes of the county generally Republican, just adds to the uneven representation.

We believe all the members of the new County Council will work for the county as a whole, as they promise they will, but there is an undeniable tendency for people to lean just a bit toward the interests of their home towns. They hear how their neighbors feel about issues and they simply know the terrain, both geographical and political, better.

The Salt Lake County Council is a better model.

It has nine members, six elected from districts and three at-large. All nine consider and vote on countywide issues, but, at the same time, each district gets a little extra attention from its representative.

As a result of this year's election, residents of the Coalville area have no council member to call their own, someone they can telephone with complaints or suggestions. Someone they are confident will press their interests and desires.

And that seems to us unfair.