| OCR Text |
Show WHY MOAB'S MAYOR HAS ME ALL 'CHOKED UP" To quote Doctor Gonzo: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." By Jim Stiles A funny thing happened on the wiy to write a itoxy for this Issue called "What Makes Mayor Tom TfckT WelLunaybe not so funny. On April 23, Moab Mayor Tam Stocks grabbed me by die neck and we crashed Into a soda pop display at a local convenience store. An deputy sheriff finally separated Manner's grip from my shirt collar. It didn't hurt..it Just felt Bice a trip to the Twilight Zone. After the mayor's moat recent bitter dash with die Moab Oty Coundl and his personal attack ada in the Advertiser against die city's administrator, Donna Metzler, I decided laat month that the time had come to write an atoxy about our mayor-t- he good, the all die back his childhood. Tom Stocks to is the and bad, everything going way most well known public figure in recent Grand County history. And although he always seems to be doing battle with his real or perceived enemies, the fact is he's been elected Moab's mayor four times. Obviously, he has his allies too. And so to me, until die afternoon of April 23, 1 thought of Tom as an extraordinarily fascinating political ftgure...the only real politician in Grand County. Some people say he's crazy, and others say he's crazy like a fox. Some Moabites say the man is vicious and cruel and his supporters maintain that he is a tough survivor in a tough political town. I have never taken sides in this argument; which makes die events of "Black Tuesday" even weirder. I've found some of Tom's antics to be downright amusing; he has been, if nothing else, a colorful character in a town full erf boring politicians. And for a writer covering local Issues, Tom has been an absolute delight. You've got to have a soft spot for a politician who will dress in canary yellow from head to toe and stand by the Bide of die road waving "Vote for Tom" placards at would-b- e voters. I've agreed with Mayor Stocks on more than a few occasions and was particularly grateful to him a few years ago when he kept Utah Power Sc Light from cutting down a tree in my front yard. Still there was that perceived mean side to the mayor but I never really believed that he was as vindictive as his longtime enemies have maintained, i So I thought I could write a fair stray about this fM.. complex man. "Jim Stiles ? Mayor Tom.. let's not continue the interview. My wife was exonerated in a court of law over that issue about the telephone calls (sk) and I don't want to bring that up agdn; otherwise Fm going to haoe to get my attorney hmotoed. And theres no need for me making tire comments I did, even in yesterdays recording of it, people in this community. Its a good community and I think we need to mooe forward, not have a controversial thing going about it. You want to talk to people who resent what Fve been doing in life, that's fine. Go ahead. You can do the interview from off-du- ty there. Thank you." in-de- long-runni-ng 'v. In late March, I first told Mayor Stocks erf my plan to write a feature, story about his life and political career. And I sent him a questionnaire about the basic facts of his life., dates of birth and high school graduation, educational experience, political events. ..just background information. On April 19, 1 called Tom and we agreed to meet the following Monday, April 22. At 1:30 PM, I arrived at Mayor Stacks' home with my tape recorder and for the next hour Tom spoke candidly of his life and his politics.. He grew up poor in Moab, the son of a sharecropper, and couldn't even afford football shoes until he was a junior in high school. He served in Korea, received a degree in accounting, and first ran fra public office, as a city councilman, in 1965. After two unsuccessful campaigns for mayor. Stocks won " MOABS MAYOR Stocks ftien discussed a notorious battle that he waged with his political adversaries at the time. For years, the city had operated with a separate administrator. Stocks and a new city council did not reappoint rive city manager and Tom eventually assumed those responsibilities. Among the opponents of that move was Donna Jordan, then executive secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. Jordan was openly critical of Stocks at public meetings. According to Jordan it was then that she started to receive late night hang-u- p phone calls. Finally, she contacted the police and a trace was placed on her phone. A few nights later, her phone rang again at about 1 AM. The call was traced to the mayor's house. In my April 22 interview with the mayor he said, "That was unfortunate don't know what was happening because she had a tap on her phone, and then she got up at a public meeting and accused me of being a Bar ami 'How could you trust the nvyra?'" As fra the calls. Stocks said, "There were no calls originating from this house..there was a call, to my knowledge. I never called." When the police confronted the mayor, his wife Gay took responsibility for making the one call. The police charged her with telephone harassment, but because five police acted on the strength of a single call (there was no way to prove where the previous calls had originated) rive charge was dropped. He discussed other issues: his long time political war with a group of Moab citizens he rive "Moab Mafia" and the 'Super Seven," the bitter election of 1989 against Bill Meador, and his candid opinion of rive Masons in Moab and the power he believes they wielded in local politics. But I ran out of tape before we ever had a chance to discuss his latest conflict with the day at about the same time. However, aty Council. So we arranged to meet again the next find the following message from just past noon on April 23, 1 came home from lunch to Stocks: Mayor V Ml ifc - lAYiM'iiE in 1981. fiH That's too bad, I thought I had told several people earlier in the morning that when the story was done, most likely nobody would like it Tom's enemies would think I was too soft on riie mayor; hizzoner would think I was too hard. Now what? I decided to go up to the comer market and have a coke. When I got there, so was the mayor, to my surprise. I actually thought this might be an opportunity to unruffle his feathers. I told the Mayor that I had received his message and I hoped we could talk about it. We sat down at the table and he explained that he did not want the story of his wife's phone call to be included. To me it was a stray that received statewide media coverage when it happened and a significant chapter in his political life, mostly because he survived it and went on to be reelected three mote times. The fact his wife was "exonerated in a court of law" would be part of the story as well. Besides, out of a 3000 word essay, I expected the phone call story to cover no more than a couple paragraphs. But most of all, I tried to explain, I was acting as a reporter attempting to write this story, not as a political or personal adversary, and in the interests of journalistic integrity if nothing else, I did not feel I should delete episodes from the Mayor's life, simply because he objected. Maybe in a small town like this, some people can't make the distinction. And that's too bad because it destroys a lot of friendships, for no good reason at alL But that is when the mayor's very countenance began to change. "These are just rumors; you're &, spreading ugly rumors about my wife," he said. "No, I replied. I was merely repeating the facts as he had described them to me in the taped interview. And riven Mayor Stocks said, "I hear rumors about you, Stiles." T'm sure you do," I replied. "Yeah. Like ten yean ago, when your girlfriend supposedly committed suicide. And some people wonder in this town what you had to do with that" ...When it comes to bad taste and downright meanness, everyone has their own opinion of where the bottom of the barrel is. For me, at that moment. Mayor Stocks not only found the bottom of the band, he fell through it Later I could see it was the mayor desperately attempting to come up with somethinganythlng...no matter how mean, or how untrue, to keep a couple indies of column space out TOM of a two page article. I had now, unwittingly, joined the ranks of Tom's other poBtical enemies- -, the people he hates. We are a group growing almost as fast as Moab itself. Donna Metzler suddenly felt like a kindred spirit STOCKS And so I got angry and called him low and despicable. And when he persisted like a chihuahua on my ankle, I called him a son of a bitch. I turned to walkaway and Tom, the four-tim-e and we duly elected mayor of Moab, grabbed me by the neck and shirt crashed into the soda pop display. It was twenty seconds or so later, as I held the mayor at bay, that deputy sheriff Art Hines happened to walk in the door, saw die ruckus, and extricated Mayor Tom from my neck. I'll never speak any way but fondly erf the sheriffs department again. The mayor had a few more bizarre comments to hurl and then he left. Other than my shirt collar, is Mayor Tom losing his grip? You can be rive judge, but if you don't vote for him next time, I sure wouldn't tell him. He has a really short fuse. As for the unbiased stray I had intended to write, it will have to wait fra another time, if ever, and I doubt seriously if it will be written by me. off-du-ty Postscript; Since this "event" occurred Vve received an earful of advice and commentary. Some Moabites think I should file assault charges or a law suit. A few think 1 should give the mayor a hug and try to be pals. And some think I got what was coming to me because 1 "pushed hia buttons" by attempting to write the story in the first place. The response you've just read is what I consider the middle ground. One thing is certain: Yhen a free press in a small loam has to fear scurrilous reprisals and physical violence, just for reporting matters of historical fact, the real victim is not me, nor this newspaper.its you, the citizens of Moab. QQ 5H3ESE55E Ipoorcopy |
