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Show Thursday, August 24, 2006 State School Board election law flouted again Howard Stephenson Surveys have repeatedly shown that most people don't know the names of their elected representatives, even though a majority voted for them. The higher the candidates candi-dates are on the ballot, the greater the likelihood that people can name them once they're elected. Presidents, governors, US. senators and congressmen are named accurately ac-curately more often the local officials. A majority of those surveyed sur-veyed cannot name their county commissioner, county mayor, county councilman or city councilman Legislators are almost anonymous to the Obituaries Don C Van Sickle Our wonderful husband, dad, grandfather, greatgrandfather great-grandfather and brother, Don C Van Sickle, 77, passed away unexpectedly at home, Friday, Aug. 18, 2006. He left us a legacy of hard work, integrity, service ser-vice to others and love of family. Don was born to Annie and Neal Van Sickle in Alamosa, Ala-mosa, Colorado, on May 12, 1929. He was raised and educated in Alamosa. He married his sweetheart, Fern Crowther, on November Novem-ber 16, 1947 in Alamosa. They were sealed for time and eternity on November 21, 1950 in the Mesa Arizona Ari-zona LDS Temple. They were blessed with four children: Sharon (Monty) Foster of Colorado Colo-rado Springs, CO; Leon (Mary Lynn) Van Sickle of Mapleton, UT; Donna (Keith) Sorensen of Fer-ron, Fer-ron, UT; and Brent (Kelly) (Kel-ly) Van Sickle of Price, UT. Don was proud of his 20 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. His earthly labors were in many kinds of occupational occu-pational fields. He was a self-taught man. He spent over 30 years working for the government as a machinist and industrial specialist in Southern Cali- Public NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Notice is hereby here-by given that the Springville City Council will hold a PUBLIC HEARING HEAR-ING at their regular regu-lar meeting to be held on September Septem-ber 5, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, Civic Center, 50 South Main, Springville. The purpose of the hearing is to consider an amendment of Section 11-6-116 of the Springville City Code regarding regard-ing Home Occupations. Occu-pations. Information Informa-tion concerning this application is available in the Community De PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby here-by given that the Springville City Council, at their regular meeting held on Tuesday, Tues-day, August 15, 2005, adopted Ordinance No 24-06 amending Section 9-2-108, Truck Traffic and Parking, of the Springville City Code, 1991. This ordinance is on file in the Office Of-fice of the City Recorder and may be viewed by interested OD more Edison lar Hearina V 777 N. 500 W. As. ProVO Deciding to sell was . i . nrmrnnft -J Using a nLMLlUn nidue Utah County Assoction of REALTORS www.ucaor.com man or woman on the street, notwithstanding the fact that legislators think they're pretty pret-ty famous. But there's a group of elected officials who wield tremendous power over public education in Utah but who are even more anonymous anony-mous than legislators: school board members-more than 200 of them This anonymity is especially true for the 15-member 15-member state school board. That's why the Utah legislature legisla-ture has established a law to ensure greater visibility in the selection of state school board members. This effort toward improved im-proved qualifications and ac- f if - , ? Don C Van Sickle fornia and then back to Utah to work with his son in construction. In his retirement re-tirement years he enjoyed working on his boats, fishing, fish-ing, gardening,, traveling, bird watching and was always working on many more than one project at a time. Everything he did, he did well and over the top. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has held many church callings. He loved the Gospel Gos-pel of Jesus Christ. He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren, grandchil-dren, great-grandchildren and by his younger brother, broth-er, Harvey Van Sickle of Mapleton, UT; many loving lov-ing in-laws, nieces, nephews neph-ews and friends. Don will be missed by those who had the privilege of knowing know-ing him. Funeral services were held Tuesday, Aug. 22, in Springville. Interment was in the Springville Evergreen Ev-ergreen Cemetery. Condolences may be sent at www.wheelermor-tuary.com. www.wheelermor-tuary.com. Notice velopment Office during regular business hours. Interested persons per-sons are invited to attend and comment. com-ment. Venla Gubler, City Recorder Published in the Springville Herald Her-ald on August 24, 2006. persons during regular business hours. Venla Gubler, City Recorder Published in the Springville Herald on August 24,2006 like Self Improvement... Stanford Centers 005 Doctor's Park 373 - 5887 tough. p J&f i :t L?t,,'S " f' u easy. SPRINGVILLE HERALD countability of state school board members began in 1995 with Congressman Rob Bishop when he was speaker of the Utah House of Representatives. Repre-sentatives. Unlike partisan elections in county races, statewide officers and legislative legisla-tive races, there is no political party process for recruiting and nominating state school board members. Consequently, Consequent-ly, few candidates sign up to run. In one instance where this process has been allowed to work (three of the seven races in the 2004 election) it vastly improved the quality of school board members and pulled business leaders and other qualified persons out of their private worlds and in to the very important arena of education policy. The process has been amended a few items, but finally voters are finally ensured en-sured that they will have a choice of qualified candidates on the ballot for state school LYAYAYfl i ovul board. The sad thing is that the law has never been obeyed. The law requires that a 12-member 12-member recruiting and nominating nomi-nating panel be formed by November 1 of the year prior to the election to give the committee com-mittee ample time to do the recruiting of candidates for eight seats up for election in 2006. The committee was not formed until March-just days prior to the candidate filing fil-ing deadline. Members of the committee say they received communications from the governor's education deputy Christine Kearl (former Rich School District Superintendent Superinten-dent and former Assistant State Superintendent informing inform-ing them that they would soon be called together to meet. Kearl also ensured that if the committee were to meet, the votes would be stacked against school choice advocates advo-cates and employers. For example, the charter school committee slot was filled by former state superintendent i rT7H KTiTTTl ZI0NS BANK BILL 131 M E EARN INTEREST OMAN , ABSOLUTELY FREE CHECKING ACCOUNT. You have the right to an Interest-Bearing Absolutely Free Checking Account.,.and then some. That's why Zions Bank offers a lucrative Cash Rewards program, a 6-month no interest Visa Credit Card and a free box of checks! Anything less would be un-American. TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT, CALL 1-866-761-8349, VISIT FREECHECKING.ZI0NSBANK.COM OR STOP BY YOUR LOCAL BRANCH. i ZIONS BANK r Unj ujijjiJ Steve Laing, not a charter school provider or parents; the committee slot representing represent-ing parents was filled by Granite School Board member mem-ber Sarah Meier; former state senator and long time UEA loyalist Ron Allen who sits on the Public Service Commission Commis-sion was chosen to fill the employer em-ployer slot representing public pub-lic utilities and transportation-they transportation-they picked a regulator of the industry, not an employer or employee; the "service, trade and IT' slot was filled by former for-mer state school board member mem-ber John MiHecam Consequently, none of the eight races had more than two candidates while three districts with incumbents who are anti-education reform and pro-UEA are running unopposed. unop-posed. In those three districts, voters have no choice over who represents them on the state school board and in the other districts. ' In a terse E-mail justifying her actions, Christine Kearl OF BANKING RIGHTS A N S 13 wrote, The process for this year is consistent with 2004." Everyone knew from the legislature's leg-islature's fight with Governor Walker that the law had been violated in 2004. Why would Kearl use the 2004 process as a standard instead of simply reading the law? Attorneys tell there is nothing that can be done about the law being flouted again Consequently, leaders of the UEA teachers' union and the old-guard education edu-cation leaders are laughing all the way to the ballot box as they have successfully scuttled scut-tled state law one more time. Their victory by subterfuge has succeeded again in ensuring ensur-ing perpetuation of a school board with too many members mem-bers who are pro-establishi-ment and anti-school choice. Perhaps the legislature should take the governor's office out of the school board nomination process and creating cre-ating a nominating process which works. Utah school children deserve nothing less. Custom, Quality Memorials Large Selection of Colors & Styles 374-0580 |