Weighted Voting

In April 2020, a revised and restated Interlocal Agreement was adopted by the governing bodies of all member agencies.  Weighted voting was implemented as part of the new agreement.  The following information defines weighted voting as outlined in the agreement and provides tables that identify the weighted vote effective July 1, 2021 with the adoption of the proposed budget. 

For all matters related to the governance of the Authority, each Board Member will be entitled to one vote on the Board and matters, unless otherwise specifically stated herein, will be passed by a vote of at least a majority of the Board at a duly noticed meeting; i.e., the affirmative vote of at least a majority of all Board Members rather than a majority of a quorum of the Board Members present at the particular meeting.

In regards to any proposed vote of the Board, to be taken pursuant to the above, to adopt a fiscal year’s tentative or final budget, or to adopt any budget amendment, any two Board Members (or alternates) representing separate Parties who are present at a Board Meeting may call for a “weighted vote,” at which time, after an opportunity for discussion and deliberation by the Board,  a vote will be taken on such issue based upon a weighted voting system with the weight of each Board Member’s vote being determined as follows:

A “Member Fee Percentage” will be calculated by computing the percentage each Party is paying for the Authority’s services in comparison to the total of all Member Fees (Member Fees for this calculation do not include payments for County-wide services provided for by Salt Lake County).  UFSA will not be considered a Party for this calculation as its Member Fee in comparison to the total of all Member Fees will be allocated among its member entities in proportion to each Party’s taxable value for that fiscal year as calculated by the Utah State Tax Commission. 

A “Population Percentage” will be calculated by comparing a Party’s population to the total population of the communities served by the Authority, using the most recently available census data, as updated by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute or other agency subsequently designated by the State of Utah for population estimates.

Each Party’s Member Fee Percentage and its Population Percentage will then be averaged (i.e. 50 percent allocation by Member Fee Percentage and 50% by Population Percentage) to create the final “Weighted Voting Percentage” for that Party.

The County’s Weighted Voting Percentage will be divided and allocated equally to each of the County’s Board Members for the purposes of a weighted vote. In no event will the total percentage of weighted voting allocated to the County Board Members exceed the County’s Weighted Voting Percentage.

When weighted voting is requested under this paragraph, approval of the budget or amendment will pass with an affirmative vote of the majority of the weighted vote, i.e. a vote that exceeds fifty percent of the total weighted vote of all Board Members rather than a majority of a quorum of the Board Members present at the particular meeting.