CACHE COUNTY – In this period of uncertainty, the Cache County GOP is providing a convenient way for local residents to keep tabs on the Utah Legislature.
Due to the coronavirus and the ongoing threat of social/civic unrest, the Utah State Capitol will be largely closed to the public when lawmakers begin their 2021 general session on Jan. 19. Legislative leaders announced last week that subsequent public testimony for and against proposed statutes will be conducted virtually rather than in person.
But county Republican chair Chris Booth said that local residents will be able to stay abreast of political developments and interact with their representatives through a series of virtual town halls scheduled throughout the upcoming legislative session.
“Beginning Thursday, Jan. 21, the Cache County Republican Party will be sponsoring and hosting the weekly virtual town halls on our Facebook page,” Booth explained. “The town halls will be held every Thursday at 7 p.m. and streamed live on the Cache County Republicans Facebook page, which is public so that everyone can watch there or share to your preferred page or group.”
For the past decade, the county GOP has hosted in-person town hall meetings with local lawmakers every Saturday morning throughout each general session of the Legislature. To help reduce the local rate of COVID-19 infection, however, those sessions will now be moved to an online platform.
But Booth says that county residents will still be able to be heard in those forums by submitting questions to https://forms.gle/ShmAn3TzLThmK5iM6.
The party chair said that Cache County’s six legislators are eager to participate in the scheduled town hall meetings and respond to residents’ questions. They are state senators Scott Sandall and Chris Wilson, plus state representatives Joel Ferry, Dan Johnson, Mike Petersen and Casey Snider.
An added benefit of the online venue, Booth added, will be that Spanish speakers will also be able to submit questions in their native tongue to their legislators. The lawmakers will respond in English and a translation of their comments will be provided in Spanish.
Booth said that the deadline for submission of questions for each of the forums will be 6 p.m. on the Wednesday prior to the event.
The county GOP is inviting all local residents, regardless of party affiliation, to participate in the virtual town hall sessions.
The town hall meetings are scheduled at 7 p.m. on Jan. 21 and 28; Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25; and Mar. 4 and 11. Those sessions can be streamed live via the Cache GOP’s Facebook page.