It’s truly astounding that on the same day the city was essentially told it was going insolvent, it decided to spend yet another million dollars of borrowed money, which the residents will now have to pay back via their utility bills. It’s reckless spending like this that’s driving our city into the ground. Note that the consulting company did not suggest that the city council cut spending as a way to solve its financial difficulties.

According to the same resident who attended the April 16 council meeting, the city voted to amend the consolidated fee schedule, which includes the utility rates, in such a way that it would raise utility expenses an average of 3 percent for residents. Gas rates will go down immediately, but electric rates will go up on the November bills, which arrive after the election. The minutes of the meeting quote Ifo Pili, the city administrator, as stating these changes will result in a net decrease for residents. The Mayor’s May newsletter claimed the same thing, although she made it seem like the decreases will be dramatic. Stay tuned for a more detailed analysis of what these rate changes will mean for the average EM household.

For more information feel free to read the city council meeting minutes, but note that these minutes do not contain lot of the discussions witnessed by residents who took notes at these meetings.

City Council Minutes – March 19, 2013
City Council Minutes – April 16, 2013

On our site and on other FB pages within the city our supporters had their home addresses posted online, their medical histories were disclosed, and their private emails were leaked. Even our FB group page was hacked and almost all of the members (over 450+ people) were booted off the group. Some of the bullies were quite open about having personal connections to city employees, others created fake FB accounts so they could harass the members of our group in anonymity. This kind of behavior demonstrated just how vindictive and immature some of the city’s supporters could be.

One person who had to endure an amazing amount of harassment dubbed it ‘Government Sponsored Cyber Bullying.’ While I doubt that any city funds were actually budgeting for these kinds of activities (unless there’s a black budget I don’t know about), it’s very clear that some of the perpetrators were receiving government paychecks at the time and were doing their best to support the city’s current administration.

-Sam Allen

Also, during our discussions he highlighted many of the ways in which our current representation has failed to protect the interests of the residents. I wish I could describe them all here, but suffice it to say that the city is generally way too quick to settle when litigation would actually be more cost effective.

Eagle-Mountain-City-Attorney-Proposal-Sent

-Sam Allen

• Utility and enterprise fund transfers and corresponding rates
• Entertainment and travel expenses
• The alleged missing $7 million in sewer bonds

It may take some time for his office to begin their investigation, but it has been officially added to their statewide list of potential investigations. More details are in the letter which can be found here:

State Auditor Responds to ‘Eagle Mountain Utility Scandal Report’

Included with the letter from the auditor was a copy of a letter written by Richard Ellis, the Utah State Treasurer. This letter offers some more details on the city’s use of an offshore bank account.

State Treasurer Responds to Citizen Concerns about Offshore Accounts

Enjoy!

-Sam Allen

(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