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Show 2, 2002 - Page 2 ah - Wednesday. January Lindon New Uta Ncu L'lah Pleasant Groe Review Opinion l-X- Clr '1! Some words of advice for new offic Express your Subverting the process Mayor Ed Sanderson seems determined to leave office with the same kind of Ixjmbastic style he has demonstrated throughout his four years as mayor of Fleas-ant Fleas-ant Grove. While his most recent actions may appear more vindictive than constructive, they raise some important questions about who should make appointments for city boards the outgoing administration or the incoming one? In an unprecedented move, Sanderson has announced plans to replace the pesky planning commission chairman at the same meeting where his successor, Jim Danklef, is to be sworn in. In effect, by the time these appointments could be approved, Sanderson would no longer be Pleasant Grove's mayor. In general practice, these appointments are reserved for the new mayor and council members. That seems appropriate, since these are the elected officials who will be working with the appointees. The new mayor is then free to appoint as board members individuals indi-viduals who share his political goals and with whom the mayor and council will be comfortable working. This seems to work well for most cities, for obvious reasons. But Sanderson seems determined deter-mined to take Vic Orvis with him when he leaves office, and obviously obvi-ously hopes to leave his personal stamp of approval on the planning commission long after he is out of office. He says he simply wants to give Danklef a "clean administration." administra-tion." It seems like a bold move for an elected official whose own turbu lent administration failed to earn him enough popular support to come in second place in last years primary election. The issue is further complicated complicat-ed because Orvis is planning to contest the termination of his four-vear term one year early. Apparently city administrators made a determination that Orvis is only completing the final three years of another planning commissioner's com-missioner's four-year term, and informed him of the discovery with a letter signed by four of the five citv council members without informing the other council member, mem-ber, who would have objected. The issue was never discussed in a open meeting. All that aside, what is at work here is clearly an action taken to satisfy a lame-duck mayor's ego at the expense of the new mayor, the new council, the planning commission commis-sion and Pleasant Grove residents. resi-dents. The attempt by Mayor Sanderson to appropriate the appointment process should be stopped dead in its tracks. Since these appointments are made with the advice and consent of the council, this shouldn't be too hard. The council can abort Sanderson's appointment attempt and then move ahead with its own agenda, allowing Mayor Danklef to make the appointments as he sees fit. Hopefully, this will come after Orvis has had an opportunity to make the case for his own appointment appoint-ment in an impartial hearing. This is a great opportunity for the newly elected city officials to demonstrate their commitment to fair and friendly government in Pleasant Grove. Given the acrimonious acrimo-nious nature of the last four years, it would be a breath of fresh air. vpars ao I wrote an editori-alo'Sgce editori-alo'Sgce for newly elected li'tyofourcityofficials b?Soe mS' not an attempt to tell our elected officials what to do just some advice about how they should dThis week, newly-elected city council members throughout Utah will participate in the time-honored ritual of taking the oath of office Or as conventional wisdom has it, they will be sworn in and then sworn at. Each man and woman will come to the job with varying degrees ol preparedness. But it's safe to say most still don't understand what they have gotten themselves into Government, even on the small-city small-city level, is complex. Here are a few things our new city council members might remember as they are initiated into the intricacies of municipal government. govern-ment. Remember the people who put you in office. Most city council coun-cil members don't forget that they have been elected to represent their friends and neighbors. But some people get carried away with the powers of office. As long as elected officials put the concerns of the voters and their community ahead of their own, they are doing a good job. Listen to the people who put you in office. They don't speak out often, but when they do, it is a i because they feel strongly about an issue. Don't make up your mind until you have heard what the people peo-ple have to say. Make decisions. People expect their elected officials to act. Often newly-elected council members will want to survey the community for each decision. This is impractical. People elect council members to make decisions, not to turn that responsibility over to the pollsters. Don't get discouraged. One of the problems with our form of government gov-ernment is that few people will tell an elected official when he or she is doing a good job. And when they don't agree, they speak out with a forcefulness that is surprising, and sometimes hurtful. Do what you tliink is best for the community, and take comfort in being right. Get along with your fellow officials. There have been some ugly incidents in city councils throughout Utah County in recent years because council members failed to agree on crucial issues. But ill-mannered behavior in council coun-cil meetings damages the people and the process, as well as eroding public confidence. Take issue with the issues, but not the man or woman espousing his or her opinion on the issues. Conduct the " a ness in public. Of? If much easier to ? pub ic view expoS A criticism and m-and m-and controversy. K dui a tree supped KSS f h"-ujecis The ancient world and today's global perspet Rather than seek ;ck, for reasons to dose f idy your meetings, lookf,iho keep the doors open iTh. public involved Vs Utah's public nnp; wntten to encourage or n. too often city councillor to justify closing Je public. I All those governmeiT that routinely include uth session as part of courAtt mgs should examine -i D( tices, and limit those er11 closed meetings to thVyc1' nary circumstances for nY were designed. 'hel' Finally, a word f0, ld lie: 'we Under any circum? Bf next four years wif endurance, patience ar, all the people we A I, November. Help them! '' to the issues and avoidir- I attacks when controvert' ' Attend an occasion meeting, and become fr A how the system works 'st'n You'll probably find i;)na prisingly well. 'e ;ak CI: I ar CL Time of sadness, time of joy The death of a beloved member of our family led to a blessing for us at Christmas time this year. My husband's mother, Mary Lucille Wright Walker, died on Saturday, Dec. 15, 2001 of causes incident to age. She was 95 and had lived a full rich life but she was in poor health the last couple of years. She was ready to return to her Heavenly Father and although it was sad for her family, it was a blessing for her. But this was not the only blessing bless-ing her death brought. Our daughter and her family, who live in Madison, Wise, were able to come to Pleasant Grove for the funeral and stay over for Christmas. Christ-mas. All of you parents who have children who live far away will really understand how wonderful it is to have those children return home on occasion for a visit. Because of the distance and our grandchildren being involved in activities in Madison, and our son-in-law, Paul Oliphant, being bishop bish-op of their LDS Ward there, it is difficult for them to come home very often. We never get to have them here for Christmas, although we try to -isit them for Christmas when we can. So this was a very special occasion. occa-sion. Not only for the funeral but to have them here for a whole week, and that coming during Christmas week. The younger grandchildren were, of course, worried about leaving home to come to Utah. After all, how would Santa Claus find them out there? The decision was made to leave Santa Claus a note at their home explaining the situation and asking Santa if he would come on New Year's Eve instead of Christmas Eve this year. On Christmas Eve in Utah they left another note for Santa reminding him that they would be in Madison on New Years Eve if he could stop by then. However. Santa did leave a few things for each child and next to the cup for milk and the cookie plate where the children had left goodies for Old Saint Nick was a note from Santa stating that he would remember them on New Year's Eve in Madison. It was a very fun Christmas even though they only had a part of their gifts at that time. There were gifts from cousins and they had brought back the box of gifts we had sent to them so they could open then here. This was certainly certain-ly special for us to get to see them open the presents. And Santa left a few things, too. Each year near Christmas we have a family party which includes a nice dinner and other activities. This year we did things a little differently and had a program pro-gram with each family contributing contribut-ing something. It was very special. spe-cial. But this is the first time in many, many years that we had the entire family here for the Christmas Christ-mas party. Usually we have everyone every-one except the family in Wisconsin. Wiscon-sin. I know that this will be a Christmas to remember and it was because Grandma Walker happened to- die when our daughter daugh-ter and family could come and stay for a few days. I hope Grandma Grand-ma Walker knows what a special blessing this was for us. And I am sure the Oliphant family here in Pleasant Grove shared in that blessing because they didn't know the kids were coming until they showed up on the Oliphant doorstep singing carols car-ols one night. You who knew Lucille Walker like our family, will miss her but she is free of the infirmities of age now and is reunited with her husband, hus-band, parents and all of her brothers broth-ers and sisters. Because of her our family was together for a very wonderful time of year and we hope she felt our happiness as we did. Until we meet again! As we begin another new year in the first century of a new millennium, mil-lennium, our world view is becoming becom-ing just that increasingly more global. According to the U.S. Cen-' sus Bureau, in less than my lifetime life-time alone (40 something), world population has more than doubled to approximately 6.2 billion. Anyone Any-one the age of President Hinckley has seen world population almost quadruple. As we bless or curse the amount of snow dropped on us this winter and as we water our spacious lawns this summer, we might want to remember this: Although three fourths of the earth's surface is water, only about 2.5 per cent of it is fresh and only about 0.5 per cent is accessible ground or surface sur-face water. We have, at least in this country, coun-try, a clean abundance of water, food, energy, shelter, and health care. Most of the rest of the world can only imagine such prosperity. Three times as many people as live in the U.S. do not even have access to clean water. Over 2 billion bil-lion lack adequate food. Worldwide about 11 million children die each year of preventable disease. There seems to be a widening gap between the rich and the poor. The 200 wealthiest people in the world own almost as much as the combined income of the world's ill- icei poorest half. We're fighting an expensive high-tech, yet justifiable war in a country of extreme poverty and oppression particularly to women. If we took the resources the world spends on armaments, illegal drugs or pornography just pick any one of the three we could easily end world poverty. As I sit at my computer in my comfortable home with the blessings bless-ings of the restored gospel in the United States of America, I try to make some sense of all this. Within With-in minutes I can go to the Internet and become overloaded with information infor-mation that is very confusing. What about global issues of the future? Will the earth become overpopulated? Will we deplete our energy and poison our environment? envi-ronment? Will the conflicts over territory, theology and scarce resources ever end? I have to trust that compara- m e c tively tiny amount ofre. information in the scri:;,af just do the best I canv: Rc have. When I started wanted to write about o. 1 J I atively condensed viewl ' history. In terms of scie: covery and invention, the . eral thousand years jj' ' almost nothing compai;'rov : last 150. Unfortunately,!: may , tend to view t progress in the same w;; I keep thinking of:,je whose ancient k extended through mrfm tions to our day and 't: fact, most of the propk Abraham and his pes-yet pes-yet to be fulfilled. And.. not, his ancient world: now at the center of cue events. God is still fulfilling with Abraham. I think appropriate that thisye of study in LDS gospel d the Old Testament. Sua events in the Middle t more meaning than ever I've registered for an gion class about Jeru.: Eternal City. Some day actually go there. That have a lot to do with : that of my children ant the next generation. ( The colors of hope Pleasant Grove Review NewUtah! 1 ISSN" Xo. 1521-6S61) (U.S.P.S. Xo. 435-TSOi 59 West Main American Fork, Utah 84003 Like Daint.s from a noloto bright colors, the events of the world wash around us and through us. Many events flow by us, we observe, we comment on, and then we continue on our way. However, like some bright pigments, pig-ments, a few events permanently color our lives. Probably the most profound events that affected each of us were the terrorist attacks of September Sep-tember 11. Dashed to pieces were the rose-colored-glasses through which so many of us had naively viewed the world. Yet from the blackened ashes and the red-bloodied ruins rose the red, white and blue of Americans Ameri-cans of all backgrounds and colors reaching out to help each other, lhe color of a hopeful future is a mixture of all these colors black white, brown, red. I hope that the mingling of the colors of America will continue, and that we can, together, once again stand tall and proud and strong. Closer to home, the year 2001 seemed to begin bright with promise, prom-ise, yet it ended somewhat tarnished, tar-nished, with high rates of unemployment. unem-ployment. So many industries have faltered recently; and nothing noth-ing seems immune, from the producers pro-ducers of important raw materials to the producers of the most intricate intri-cate technology. As dismal as the employment picture is for many families, the outlook is not entirely bleak. Our state symbol, the beehive, stands for industry. We are an industrious industri-ous and hard working people, and will work diligently to make the present and the future bright. As these colors of world and local events wash through our lives, we also have many opportunities opportu-nities to add our own colors, our own voices and talents to the world around us. We may think, "I am just one person. My voice is small. My vote doesn't really matter. J ters.Wemaynotcharv a global or national can impact and color-those color-those who live near- Some of our youngest residents ; powerful, brilliant fo Little children havetX; and sent cards, money help the many fem devastated by the W attacks. , ,: Young men and through Scouting, -school projects, se , ind' a.: hnrS.Ad"1" men 11C15"" . r- . i tirnfi & give 01 men t'- ? vritv.toi"-; improve uui n for all of derful people are 5 "true colors" and I W applaud each and them. A member of Telephone Numbers C,rculall0n 375-5103 News & Advertising 756-7669 Publ,sher BrenBezzant Managing Editor Marc Haddock C"y d;tor KarliPoyfair Subscription price S26 per year Periodicals Postage Paid at American Fork. Utah POSTMASTER: send address change to 59 West Main. American Fort Utah 84003 Deadlines Classified Advertising . . .Tuesday, noon Display Advertising . . . .Monday. 5 p m News Monday. 2 pm Missi0naries Monday. 2 pm Weddin9s Monday. 2 pm Letters to the Editor .. Monday 10 am SPr,s Monday. 10 a m Community Calendar . .Monday. 10 am 0blluar,es Tuesday. 11 am We welcome letters to the editor. All letters ; ir,, author's name (printed AND signed) an , clar' :.' Der. we reserve the right to ean ltJl , ' e 0n a"; Tacto anrl onnth prtffrs are woi . .. . tion HOW TO R EAClj By Mail P.O. Box 7, American Fork, UT 84003 In Person 59 W. Main, American Fork US ByFa. 756-52 editor' |