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The Phil Lyman award might be bringing together the populous urban counties along the Wasatch Front.
Last month, Salt Lake County officials questioned what they were getting for their $320,000 annual contribution to the Utah Association of Counties (UAC) after one of its subcommittees honored the San Juan County commissioner for breaking the law in a public-lands dispute.
Since then, several council members said they heard separately from officials of other urban counties who have similar frustrations with UAC's seeming focus on rural issues, taking positions often contrary to the views of most urban residents.
So Salt Lake County Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton is taking the lead in organizing a Jan. 20 meeting for a "big county caucus" involving Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, Summit and Tooele counties.
She sees the gathering as a venture within UAC, whose leaders have been supportive of her efforts to increase communication among those larger counties.
"UAC wants to be involved," Newton added.
Jan. 20 was picked, she said, because Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, a former Utah County commissioner and past president of UAC, would be available to meet them. "A governor's aide said [Herbert] would love to talk about the economy," said Newton, a Republican, noting that another topic of interest for all these counties is the Justice Reinvestment Initiative and the unfunded mandates it carries.
"It's good for the other counties to see some of the things we're doing in that regard," she said. "There's also value in having a roundtable with them to find out what big issues they face."
Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, a Democrat who arranged the recent questioning of UAC Executive Director Adam Trupp, said there is value in determining "if a political coalition of sorts is really worth exploring."
Republican Councilman Max Burdick believes good can come from meetings such as these if "they're organized correctly with agendas and formatted in a way that they have some structure so, hopefully, we'll have some positive outcomes. I don't want a meeting just to talk about stuff."
Longtime GOP Councilman Michael Jensen said these kinds of sessions have been attempted in the past, but unless there's a burning issue, people tend to get caught up in their own affairs and aren't eager to add meetings to already-busy schedules.
Still, he added, "any time you have a coalition to talk about similar issues, it's good. Let's bring it back."
Newton said she expects the group to meet a couple of times per year for a morning.
Lyman was named County Commissioner of the Year by a UAC subcommittee after his misdemeanor conviction for leading an off-road vehicle drive up Recapture Canyon, which the federal Bureau of Land Management had made off limits to motorized travel.
The award caused a public uproar and Lyman, who awaits sentencing, declined the honor.