This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Even before the first public hearing on November's "community preservation" election, the Salt Lake County Council got an earful Tuesday.

Leaders of the Association of Community Councils Together (ACCT) lambasted the county for moving slowly in approving information that could be used to educate people in the county's unincorporated areas about all the ins and outs of the Nov. 3 vote on their future governance.

"We don't have answers to give the public because we can't get answers for the public," said ACCT Chairwoman Janet Geyser. "We need information now."

In just five months, residents of each of the county's six townships — Copperton, White City, Millcreek, Emigration Canyon, Magna and Kearns — will be given a choice of becoming a metropolitan township or a city.

Those townships whose residents opt for the metropolitan township concept then will decide whether to join and run a municipal-services district being established by the county to provide city services, such as snowplowing and street lighting.

Residents of 44 islands of unincorporated land, mostly along the fringes of Sandy and Cottonwood Heights, also will decide that day whether to remain unincorporated or to annex into an adjacent city.

Theoretically, if all the townships voted to go metro township and joined the service district, and the islands stayed unincorporated as well, the status quo would be preserved in the county after decades of internal boundary disputes, annexations and incorporations.

But first, specific boundaries of the townships and the unincorporated islands have to be set for the November ballot.

The County Council will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the County Government Center, 2001 S. State, to hear what people think about boundaries tentatively adopted last month. Boundaries are on display on Salt Lake County's website.

Most boundary proposals are unlikely to generate much comment. A few pockets of unincorporated turf could have issues germane to a property owner or two. But the two main areas of interest will be:

• Willow Creek — Should it stay unincorporated, annex to Sandy, annex to Cottonwood Heights or be split between the two cities?

• Millcreek — Should its eastern border be extended from the edge of current residential development up to the U.S. Forest Service property line, or should it go all the way up Mill Creek Canyon? And should Parleys Nature Reserve be allowed to annex into Salt Lake City, but only with assurance fire and police protection would continue to be provided by the Unified Fire Authority and the Unified Police Department?

These are complex issues, the ACCT leaders said, and the best way to educate people is to let community leaders at the grass-roots level disseminate the information, said White City's Paula Flint.

"Don't minimize the impact we have in those communities," she said. "Those citizens trust us. They may not always trust the county, but we have pledged to our citizens you can be trusted."

County officials, largely from the mayor's and district attorney's offices but also including Councilwomen Aimee Winder Newton and Jenny Wilson, apologized that the information-vetting process was frustrating for community council leaders but said it was necessary to avoid biased material from being distributed.

That's because taxpayer money is being used in the educational campaign, so complete county neutrality is required.

But as Sandy Hills Community Council leader Ron Faerber saw it, "we keep running into roadblocks constantly. … We just want information to get out to our folks. Time is running out."

Concerned about the level of discontent, the council pledged to accelerate the process. It instructed Deputy District Attorney Gavin Anderson and Legislative Director Kara Trevino to sign off on some documents for ACCT leaders to have at their disposal before Wednesday's public hearing.

The council also agreed to address community preservation educational issues every first and third Tuesday of the month until the election.