Lindon Mayor Jeff Acerson easily steered through a Utah Senate confirmation hearing Friday toward becoming a new member of the Utah Transit Authority Board — vowing openness and a willingness to listen at the agency that was scarred by scandal in recent years.
He won unanimous committee endorsement, and the full Senate is expected to vote later this month on his nomination by Gov. Gary Herbert to represent Utah and Tooele counties on the three-person, full-time commission that oversees UTA. He would replace Kent Millington, whose board term expired Nov. 1.
After scandals over high executive pay, extensive international travel, questionably closed meetings and sweetheart deals for developers, the Legislature two years ago disbanded the old 16-member, part-time board that had overseen UTA and replaced it with a full-time, three-member commission to provide closer watch and control.
Acerson was a member of that former, now-disbanded UTA Board, and more recently has served on a new part-time UTA Advisory Council of local mayors and other political leaders.
“I always want to have our meetings open,” he told senators Friday. “I want to make sure everyone has a voice and not just a voice, but that they have the opportunity to share their opinion or insight or ask their question in a way that they’re not threatened.”
He vowed that his door will always be open to the public or UTA workers with concerns. Acerson said he learned as a mayor that issues can become “emotionally charged because [people] don’t feel that they’re being listened to.”
He added, “I’m not coming in with a preconceived idea that I’ve got the solutions. I try to talk to people. I try to include people, and I try to be supportive of the organization. … I’m open to recommendations, suggestions, conversation. And I think I think we make better decisions the more inclusive we are.”
The only member of the public speaking on Acerson’s nomination was Andrew Gruber, executive director of the transportation-planning Wasatch Front Regional Council.
He praised Acerson for being “very involved in transit issues and a collaborative worker with the other communities,” and said he “understands the value of transit to the future of the region.”
The other current members of the full-time UTA Board are Chairman Carlton Christensen, who represents Salt Lake County, and Beth Holbrook, who represents Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties. Board members are paid a $140,000 salary annually, plus benefits.