San Juan County approves new Public Health Director, updates NDOT road agreement

Members of the San Juan County Commission appointed a new public health director, approved an amendment for bus route maintenance on the Navajo Nation, and a settlement with a centrally assessed property at their latest meeting.
Members of the county commission approved the appointment of Jordon Begay as the county Public Health Director and local health officer at the September 16 meeting.
Dr. Begay was recommended by the public board of health following a search process with more than six candidates interviewed.
Public Health Board Chair Ron Skinner shared that he and the board were happy to make the recommendation.
“He's very well qualified and I think he will do a very good job.”
Skinner also offered thanks to Mike Moulton who has served as the interim director since December.
Commissioner Jamie Harvey, who works with the health board, also thanked Skinner and the board for their effort and noted that Begay is from San Juan County.
“We want our young ones to become leaders and to return to the community to serve the community. This is one of those instances where you've got a young man returning to his community to the county to be a huge asset.”
In other public health news the county approved the receipt of an additional $12,000 received from the state of Utah for the Women Infants and Children (WIC) program.
County Chief Administrator Mack McDonald explained this was due to an excess from the state that needed to be spent.
Commissioner Silvia Stubbs added her voice of support for the program seeing its success in her professional career, noting the change in the health of children after the implementation of the WIC program.
“There's two federal programs that I think are good for the mobility up the ladder of people. One is the WIC program. I have worked with children in San County for many many years and in the beginning before wIC program they came with Kool-Aid in the bottles and it was so nice when they had the WIC program they start having they could have many things they can buy with it like real juice, milk, eggs and cheese, so I think it makes healthier children by having healthier moms.”
Members of the county commission also approved an amended intergovernmental agreement between the county and the Navajo Nation.
County road superintendent Todd Adair shared that the amendment helps the county to receive payment from the Navajo Department of Transportation (NDOT) for county maintenance of bus routes on tribal lands.
“This attachment is to get us paid through March of 25 and then through March of 26. So there's $100,000 for the work we've already done. And then there's 116,000 for this next year.”
Adair added that the amount has increased with additional bus routes to maintain.
“We have taken on a few more roads that are now bus routes that were not a year ago. We are back in Navajo Mountain with this new agreement as they have a bus driver again.”
Members of the commission approved the updated agreement with Commissioner Harvey noting thanks to the Navajo Utah Commission, Aneth Chapter and delegate Curtis Yanito for their help on the issue.
Members of the county commission also approved a settlement stipulation with Met American Pipeline regarding the company's centrally assessed property values dating back to 2018.
The company runs pipeline through eastern Utah with about half of the valuation of the pipeline in Grand County, with roughly 25-percent in Uintah and San Juan Counties and a very small percent in Daggett and Summit counties as well.
The counties, the Utah Tax Commission and the company have come to a settlement.
With the settlement dating back since 2018, the end result will be some refund from taxing entities in eastern Utah to the company.
The settlement decreases the company valuation in San Juan County between $7 million and $16 million each year. All together that’s a decrease in how much the county ‘should’ have taxed the entity for over that stretch. The settlement makes the county current.
McDonald noted it also makes sure the Utah Tax commission gets numbers in the accepted range in 2026.
“There's going to be more discussions over centrally assessed and how to appropriately handle these in the future. (...) Typically on companies that are under centrally assessed. They have made a lot of money and yet the county is not and it shifts the centrally assessed burden over to our general taxpayers”
The Mid American Pipeline is operated by Enterprise Products Partners LP publicly traded as EPD. Company earning reports show a net income of $5.6 billion in 2022, $5.6 billion in 2023 and $5.9 billion in 2024.
Members of the county commission also approved a letter supporting a proposal to rescind the US Department of Agriculture’s 2001 roadless rule.
County Public Lands Coordinator Nick Sandberg explained the rule prohibits new road construction and timber harvest in inventoried areas except under limited circumstances.
Sandberg presented the item noting the additional latitude in management for local managers can help manage undergrowth and the health of the forests, noting about 30-percent of forest lands in the county are inventoried in the roadless area management.
Members of the commission approved the letter of support to rescind the roadless rule.
Members of the San Juan County commission received an update on the status of the general plan from McDonald.
McDonald noted that the county is receiving help from Todd Thorne, regional planner with the South Eastern Regional Development Agency (SERDA) out of Price.
McDonald presented some proposed updates to the general plan, among the changes was changing the reference from previous county surveys and instead using data from surveys including the citizen-led Public Awareness Committee (PAC) which surveyed non-municipal residents in the county; the county update also references the points housing survey conducted as part of a housing report.
A proposed update to affordable housing in the plan also references the county received study in November 2024.
The proposed update would also include a state-mandated portion related to water use and preservation. The update includes evaluations of availability in water systems especially as it relates to depleting aquifers as it compares to plans for future development.
It was noted that potential for an influx of mineral extraction jobs could bring 100’s of new workers which could further deplete the affordable housing shortage. The update plan would also include a recognition of potential future annexation areas around municipalities.
Commissioner Lori Maughan asked if the 200 survey results of unincorporated residents by PAC was enough of a sample size for the county.
McDonald noted that the process will come back through the planning commission and noted that the PAC survey is a tool
“That's something that I think we need to do better at is utilize the collaborative effort of citizens that we have to get the messaging out. There's changes on (the general plan). What does the public want to see changed? Utilizing them and their resources is going out to the public. Obviously, by law, we have to have the appropriate public hearings, but I need that that mechanism to communicate it out,”
Commissioner Maughan added,
“Which I don't disagree with. I just want to make sure we have the correct sampling and also if we can see the points housing survey as well. We need to just make sure the data that we're putting in this is completely credible and a great representation of the county as a whole.”
McDonald agreed, adding that it can be difficult to get citizen engagement.
“They had more of a survey response than the previous survey response of unincorporated citizens, but also more than our county's efforts in the town hall and of open houses that we held prior to the public hearings. And so I think there are just a great resources to capture that pulse. But I agree with you on the numbers”
Commissioner Stubbs added she’s attended all the meetings but they aren’t able to get everyone there.
“The opinion I get from the public is we elected you to represent us. So they don't have time for surveys, they don't have time for things but then on the other hand we have a group of citizens that came and offered to help us and they spend lots of time doing this survey. So we had to validate what they had done, something we as a county were not able to do to recruit the people to come to the meeting.”
As part of the discussion County Attorney Mitch Maughan also asked about a previous decision to issue a request for proposal to hire a consultant for the update to the general plan, at an estimated cost of $10,000 that decision was delayed by the commission at their August 5 meeting to allow the county to explore using state offices to help in the update before hiring a consultant which is the direction the county has since went.
Commissioner Harvey added that with work being done with the five state agencies the next step is handing the general plan update back to the planning commission.
Harvey added a request that as the planning and zoning commission revisits these issues they do so with a listening ear.
“When the (county) commission finally receives the final document by technicality it's not a forum for public debate at that point. It's really to approve the document because ultimately it rests upon the planning and zoning commission to provide that with the public and to gather all the comments and opinions there. That's my best encouragement is please be receptive to the public comments and the organizations that want to have that opportunity to speak to this general plan so that everyone's voices are heard and not closed off. That's my request. That's very important.”
With that members of the commission gave an unofficial approval to move the outlined suggested updates to the planning commission for their review and approval.