It has floated, rudderless, ever since.

Today, the township on the Salt Lake Valley's western tip begins rowing toward respectability, as applications for new community council candidates get distributed for a June 28 special election.

"They really do want to start over," Jacqueline Murphy, community-relations specialist for Salt Lake County says about Kearns' scandal-weary 35,000 residents.

So the search is on for people to represent the township's five districts, as well as four at-large council members. The only requirement: They must be a Kearns resident for at least six months prior to the election.

Salt Lake County officials recently debated whether to wait until November or open the polls in June, while Mayor Peter Corroon insists the problems should be resolved "sooner rather than later."

On April 19, the lame-duck Kearns Council obliged, voting 5-2 to support the June special election. One month earlier, Corroon dissolved the group because of concerns about infighting and the administration of more than a half-million dollars worth of state and federal grants.

An ongoing DA investigation involves the Kearns Coalition, a nonprofit that became the fiscal agent for the grants and the roles of Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, his wife - a former Town Council member - and their extended family.

This week, a steering committee will meet to form new council bylaws and select election judges.

Since last summer financial questions have kept the government body - it must change its name from "town" to "community" council - paralyzed.

Jeff Silvestrini, an Association of Community Councils official charged with orchestrating the overhaul, said just a single council member agreed to sit at the table during a recent meeting. "I was dumbfounded," he said. "I've never seen, unfortunately, such a dysfunctional organization."

Of the nine members, several have resigned. The rest are not saying whether they will run - though they are not restricted from the ballot.

Claudia Nabos, a current council member who hasn't decided if she's running, says some of her colleagues would rather be mentors.

"You have to have the old to guide the new," she says. "You can't just start with a blank slate."

djensen@sltrib.com