Cache County Council Vice Chair Paul Borup and council members Gina Worthen and David Erickson have published an open letter to county residents listing pages of reasons why they believe that incumbent David Zook is unfit for the office of county executive.
CACHE COUNTY — Three members of the Cache County Council have published a manifesto criticizing the county executive.
Council Vice Chair Paul Borup and council members Gina Worthen and David Erickson wrote that they are “… deeply concerned with the actions and behaviors we have witnessed from County Executive David Zook.”
The trio of council members documented Zook’s alleged shortcomings with more than 15 pages of specific incidents and another five dozen pages of attached documents.
“This is not the normal friction that exists between branches of government or the usual ‘rough and tumble’ of local politics,” they wrote in an open letter addressed to the citizens of Cache County.
“This isn’t a personality conflict or a misunderstanding that could be resolved with clear communication. There is a much more serious problem here.”
Specifically, the manifesto accuses Zook of failing to follow through with the obligations and duties of his office; misrepresenting facts and situations to members of the county council, state lawmakers and the public; failing to follow county code by spending money not in his budget; and failing to work with the county council by respecting their authority as the governing body that sets county policies and its budget.
“I wish these council members would spend as much time and energy helping people as they’ve spent on witch hunts against me,” Zook responded when asked for his reaction to the manifesto.
“I’ve spent countless hours this week working on very pressing issues that directly affect our county residents – things like fixing our roads, our mental health crisis, housing, gas prices and more,” Zooked added.
“I invite them to join me in serving the people.”
The charges by Borup, Worthen and Erickson are an obvious attempt to influence the outcome of the county election on Nov. 8. Mail-in ballots for that election began to be delivered to local households this week.
That trio of county council members have previously endorsed businessman Marc Ensign as a write-in candidate in opposition to Zook.
Ensign, who has also been endorsed by a parade of former county officials and mayors, has promised to restore respect and transparency to the office of county executive and mend fences with the Cache County Council.
Relations between the executive and the county council have been deteriorating for nearly a year.
In December of 2021, the council voted to deny pay raises for Zook, County Clerk/Auditor Jess Bradfield and County Recorder Devron Andersen.
In February of this year, Worthen intervened to cancel a $9 million grant request to the Utah Legislature that Zook had proposed without the council’s approval.
Those branches of county government have also crossed swords on the issues of real-time access to budget information and funding of voter information mailings.
In their manifesto, the three council members agree that “… it is critical that people are aware of what is going on in county government …
“Given the circumstances documented in this report, we – the undersigned members of the Cache County Council – believe that David Zook is unfit for the office of county executive.”
The full text of the council members’ letter to county residents, and their supporting documents, can be found here: