Another year’s in the books, and we have 362 days of 2019 ahead of us.

2018 was a year of ups and downs for many, including county officials, political representatives and members of minority groups.

With so much of 2019 ahead that we hope to look forward to, the Daily Herald Editorial Board has composed its own list of resolutions we hope to see met in Utah County this year.

Affordable housing

This may seem like a dead horse that will never cease to be beat, but we raise the issue again because obviously, the county still deals with a lack of affordable housing.

We are continually thrilled by the influx and growth of the population in Utah County as more come for job opportunities and overall superb quality of living. But with that, a demand on housing has spiked, to a point where anecdotes of 24-hour home sales are becoming the norm, less an exception.

With that, affordable housing has become a scarce commodity. According to reports from the Utah County Housing Authority and the Provo Housing Authority, more than 2,000 people are on subsidized housing vouchers. The waiting list to even receive a voucher is filled with more than 6,400 people.

There are major hurdles to clear to develop affordable housing, such as community response, land development, zoning and myriad other issues. We don’t disagree that this is a tough issue that will likely not be resolved by the end of 2019.

But we would hope that local leaders take measures to make affordable housing a priority in their respective communities and cities. We should be welcoming those who can help bolster and beautify communities and neighborhoods, rather than labeling them as intrusive or disruptive to our cities.

County issues

Utah County could never quite escape a series of unfortunate events this last year. Between the county suing Gov. Gary Herbert for not appointing the county’s selection for the Utah Transit Authority board to the latest in Commissioner Greg Graves’ trail of trivial behavior, it seemed that, as Herbert said, Utah County was the “epicenter of dysfunction” in 2018.

With a new county commissioner, Tanner Ainge, we hope for a stronger, more unified County Commission. We wish Ainge the best in his new role and hope for strong representation from his service.

We also hope for stronger funding for the Sheriff’s Office and other departments, so as to avoid an annual dip into county reserves just to meet the growing demands of our ever-expanding county. The quarter-cent sales tax increase was long overdue, and we are glad it will be appropriately overseen by the commissioners and local representatives to prioritize Utah County’s needs.

Representation

Speaking of representatives, we hope that our local elected officials resolve to represent the interests of their constituents, not of those in Washington. We received letters, read testaments and heard numerous accounts of Mia Love not properly representing her constituents, especially considering she was the mayor of Saratoga Springs, of her (now former) district. Of the 85 votes during the lame-duck session following her defeat, Love only participated in 14 of them. This put her in the 98th percentile for nonparticipation among congressional representatives.

We hope Ben McAdams, who will be sworn in Thursday, will be a voice for his constituents. We hope he will actually conduct town halls in his district — and not just in the most populous areas of his district.

Our newest senator, Mitt Romney, has taken a stand against President Donald Trump, recently issuing a scathing rebuke of Trump’s character and demeanor. We don’t have the room to dive to deep into the editorial. But we are of the opinion that this demonstrates Romney’s character, which we hope extends to his representation of Utah. We want him to show that Utah’s values are not always represented by Trump’s values. We hope he values his constituents’ voices over the interests of Washington bigwigs.

Transparency from UTA

We completely understand that if there’s any resolution on this list to laugh at for its lack of realism, this is it. UTA has long been maligned with corruption, fraud and deception. To hopefully close the door on the closet of skeletons, UTA has been massively restructured, including a three-person board of directors.

Kent Millington, who previously served on the Utah Transportation Commission, will represent Utah and Tooele counties, provided the state Senate approves his nomination. We hope that Millington, along with the other two board members, understand the mountains of distrust and ire that many in our community hold onto against UTA. The new agreement between UTA and the County Commission for management of sales tax dollars going to UTA is an encouraging first step for what we hope to be a more transparent, more communicative relationship between UTA and the public.

Had we more space and time, we surely could go on a diatribe of other things we hope to see happen this year. But that’s what later editorials are for.

We love Utah County and hope for the best here, as we hope all of our readers do.