I have a few observations to make about last night’s town hall meeting.

(1) It was orchestrated by the city to preserve the careers of select politicians and city employees. They spent the first 1 hour and 40 minutes telling us their feelings and concerns so we could sympathize with them, as if they were the ones being victimized. It’s the first town hall meeting I’ve ever been to where the feelings of the public servants took precedence over the concerns of citizens.

(2) This meeting proved that not even mobs at City Hall can get the current administration to reform, let alone admit that there are serious problems in Eagle Mountain. In fact, the mayor, council members, and city employees kept lecturing the residents on why things had to be the way they are now. They had lots of excuses and very little solutions. It was truly insulting.

(3) Since the current administration doesn’t want to implement any of the major reforms in the ‘Utility Scandal Report‘ (except putting rates on bills), the only real way to fix things is to take over the city government. Fortunately, this will be much easier to do this year than in the past.

Consider these facts:

In the 2009 municipal elections there were only 7,578 registered voters in the entire city and only 928 voted for Mayor Jackson. Since Mayor Jackson has lost much of her popularity in the last 5 days, it’s unlikely she will ever be able to match that total again. But even if she does, it should be relatively easy for us to turn out 2,000 to 3,000 people considering how many people are mad at her corruption.

One of the keys to winning this race is getting our reform vote behind a single candidate (or two) and not splitting it up among too many people on the ballot. The same holds true for the two council seats that are currently held by John Painter and Nathan Ochsenhirt. If we win these two seats on the council as well as the mayor’s position, we can combine our influence with Ryan Ireland’s to create a clear majority that supports fiscally conservative principles. That will leave only two Big Government politicians at City Hall.

We also need to do a really good job of vetting our candidates. We don’t want any ambitious, fake reformers to get on the ticket by pretending to support reform when they don’t actually do so. This is how most reform movements fail. I intend on doing much of this vetting myself, but it’ll be up to the community to share their personal thoughts and insights too so we can have as much information as possible. Some people are really good at giving first impressions, but when you dig deep into their past you often find they aren’t what they claim to be. We need to ensure this process is thorough.

It was amazing to see so many people at the meeting because it showed that the residents of Eagle Mountain truly care. And even though many of you left the meeting disappointed and disgusted, your attendance did serve a very important purpose: it put the city on notice that change is coming. The mayor, the council, and the administrators thought they could fool us with their long-winded explanations and misrepresentations, but you saw straight through it, and now they know it.

We aren’t out to take revenge or hurt anyone at City Hall, but we are going to defend ourselves from the bureaucrats and officials who are making it too expensive to live in Eagle Mountain. And everybody should know that we can win this fight.

Sam Allen