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Show Editorial Can Springville ignore the law? papers. Who can tell when the legality le-gality of such action may be contested con-tested if the present situation continues? con-tinues? The mayor remaining in office, regardless of the law, may also set a precident and a similar problem could arise at some future date. It has been suggested that the mayor return to Springville and establish es-tablish residence for the remainder of his term, which expires approximately approxi-mately a year from now. This would apparently meet general specifications specifica-tions of the state law. However, in the meantime we are of the opinion that compliance with the state law is the first duty of the city council to the citizens of Springville regardless of feelings and friendships with those with whom they have worked. The Springville City Council at its last regular meeting on Monday of last week "refused to consider the resignation" of Mayor Paul Hay-mond, Hay-mond, according to the official minutes min-utes of the meeting. The action came as a result of Mayor Haymond submitting his resignation in as much as questions had been raised as to his right to hold elective office in Springville since he had moved to Mapleton. As mayor of Springville, Mr. ' Haymond, in the opinion of most people, has done an excellent job. And according to all report, he has functioned with the present city council without any conflict and in I a most admirable manner. The council and the people of Springville appreciate his efforts in this capacity and the city council exhibited their faith in him by their vote of confidence, confi-dence, but at the same time, this governing body refused to consider his resignation. Now, we ask, did the city council coun-cil have the right or the power, under un-der present circumstances, to refuse to consider the mayor's resignation? Was such action fair to the mayor? Was it fair to the people of Springville? Spring-ville? Mayor Haymond, as has been pointed out, presently resides in Mapleton and has also sold his drug store interests in Springville. The Utah Code Annotated, containing the general and permanent perman-ent laws of the State of Utah, states: " any elective officer of any city or town, shall at any time during his term of office, remove from the limits of the city or town, his office thereby becomes vacant." And further, fur-ther, "Whenever a vacancy in the office of mayor occurs, the city council shall elect a mayor, who shall serve until the next municipal election elec-tion and until his successor is elected and qualified." As much as we appreciate the services of Mayor Haymond and the things for which he has worked, and as much as we would like to have him continue in office until some of the proj'ccts now well underway under-way are completed, we believe it to be our obligation to citizens of this city to draw attention to the state law, which in our opinion defines clearly the manner in which the problem should be solved. The mayor of any city is called upon often to make important decisions de-cisions and to sign certain legal |
