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Show , ? expires 01309 UTHH PRESS ASSOCIATION c EAST 300 SOUTH - SALT LAKE CITY UT 84111 F 7 Serving American Fork. Up'uw and Highland Vol. 13, No. 3 Wednesday, January, 16, 1991 50 cents a single copy Alpine will fight Leseberg law suit By RACHEL C. MURDOCH The attorney for the City of Alpine Al-pine is recommending that the city not pay Brent Leseberg a million and a half dollars nor reinstate him as chief of police. If the city follows his advice, they will go to court, based on a document docu-ment presented to the Alpine City Council at their Jan. 8 meeting. Attorney for former police chief Brent Leseberg, George Brown, read the document to the city council, saying that if they did not comply with one of those demands within 30 days, Leseberg would take the city to court. As reason for the action, the document states two parts of a Nov. 27 agreement made between the city and Leseberg which, in Lese-berg's Lese-berg's view, the city has violated. One was that the tape recording with allegations of improper behavior behav-ior against Brent Leseberg be given to him or destroyed, along with all transcripts of the tape, with the exception of a single copy to be kept by the city. The other was that no agent cf the city make comment or reference to the allegations, tape or any part of the matter to the public. The document says that members mem-bers of the media received copies of the tape before it was delivered to Leseberg, and that more than the agreed upon comments were made public. City attorney Lyn Lund said he has reviewed the document, which was accepted without comment by Mayor Elaine Barnes during the Jan. 8 meeting. "I will recommend that the city not pay Brent Leseberg a million and a half dollars or any part of that amount, and I will further recommend recom-mend that they not reinstate him as chief where he can only be fired for just cause, and that Brent Leseberg Lese-berg gets to determine what is just cause," he said. Lund agreed that if the city follows fol-lows his advice and does not fulfill one of those two requirements, it will throw the case to court. ""What that mcpns is that one, we would go tc lVrt ati w.; and two. Brent Lesebm: is .:"..-r he burden of proving that ; r violated its agreeniFiU. e from the city gavv ihr -e ; os to the media,r said Lund. He said he will have affidavits from the Deseret News, Utah County Journal and KUTV stating that it was not an agent of the city who gave them the tapes. Lund said Leseberg would likely demand a jury trial, where thejury will determine the damages, if an. "We would welcome a jury trial," he said. After the council meeting on the eighth. Mayor Barnes said the city-tried city-tried in their best effort to get it over with and let Leseberg get on with his life, even signing the agreement agree-ment when they had some questions ques-tions as to whether Leseberg had kept his part in it. "And now he wants to sue his neighbors for 1.5 millv.i, dollars?" she said. Council fails to seat nominee for Planning Commission By BARBARA CHRISTIANSEN American Fork's City Council last refused to seat the nominee selected for membership on the city's Planning Plan-ning and Zoning Commission. The motion by Councilman Crosby Mecham for Juel Belmont to be a member of the commission was met with no second and did not come up for further open discussion. Mecham, who serves as the council's liaison with the Planning Commission, chastised the council for lack of courtesy and statesmanship states-manship in not considering consider-ing the nomination and for subvertingthe spirit of the state's "sunshine law" on open meetings. He explained that the four other members of the council had apparently appar-ently tried to circumvent his assignment as-signment to find a member to fill the vacancy on the Planning Commission. Com-mission. Not only did the others make a recommendation for the spot, they apparently worked together in the process, what Mecham called a violation of the spirit of the open meetings act. "I have seen a letter," he said, "that I consider to be meddling and interference and unstatesmanlike." The letter was from the other four council members with a specific spe-cific recommendation to fill the vacancy. Mecham said it was an example of something not right as "Sometimes elected officials would like to have someone in office who agrees with us. In fact I think we have the duty to avoid that." -Crosby Meacham council members interfered in other's assignments without their request. He noted that he had been given the task to recommend a new planning plan-ning commissioner to the mayor. When it was delayed while he was getting back on his feet from an accident, the PlanningCommission continued to function and to function func-tion well, he said. The suggestion from the other councilmen was not in the best interests inter-ests of the city since it was based on cronyism, said Mecham. "Sometimes elected officials," he said, "would like to have someone in office who agrees with us. In fact I think we have the duty to avoid that." He explained the provisions in the open meetings act, called the "sunshine law" because it keeps public business out in the open. According to the law, all public business must be conducted in open meetings with proper notice to the citizens. "Business should he conducted in the open." he said, "rather th an some people who secretly go about making deals that would defeat and interfere with the public interest." He explained that a chance or social meeting of council members did not fall under the act, but said American Fork's Council has violated vio-lated the spirit of the law. "The exception to this, the chance or social meeting," he said, "has been trampled upon." Regarding his nomination, he pointed out that Ms. Belmont is active in civic affairs. "In fact," he See APPOINTMENT on page 3 I i . IsWW -4 Praying for Peace Members of the St. Peter's Catholic Parish gather to 'Pray for Peace" Tuesday afternoon as the deadline for action in the Persian Gulf neared. The parish members met four times Tuesday to offer prayers. Eight parish members are currently serving in the Gulf area. The parish members are joining Catholics nation-wide to urge President Bush to seek a peaceful solution to the Gulf Crisis. Highland to proceed with policy declaration By ANNLEIGH MCMANIS The Highland City Council plans to vote on proposed changes in their policy declaration declara-tion at their Jan. 23 meeting. At the January Planning Commission meeting the commission felt that the changes proposed to the council should continue to stand. The Highland planning commission proposed pro-posed several months ago for the declaration to follow the current Lehi corporate boundary bound-ary west to approximately 7400 West and to the county line at Traverse Ridge. The commission wants to include the property south of Cedar Hills boundary at 10000 North and go straight south to the Provo Reservoir Canal. Also to be included will be the back of all property that faces 9600 North, starting at the Alpine highway. The main reason for including the property prop-erty south of Cedar Hills is because 4800 West currently has half of the property in Highland and other half in the county. Maintenance Main-tenance of the road is shared between the county and the city. A policy declaration doesn't bring anybody in or out of the community. Instead it allows the individual property owner to annex into whatever community they choose. Property that is already a part of a city can ot be included in a declaration statement. Until a property is annexed into a community commu-nity the county is responsible for the utilities and the road to that residence. After annexation annexa-tion it become the responsibility of the city. In December Highland held a public hearing hear-ing where both Mayors and residents expressed ex-pressed concerns over the proposed changes. Richard Noble, city engineer, said that he feels people think Highland has something up their sleeve by proposing the changes. Prior to the public hearing Highland made an effort to send a letter to all residents that would be included in the policy declaration changes. "It wasn't a legal requirement to send letters out. It was out of courtesy," said Noble. Jay Haws, city operation manager, said that the people who attended the public hearing and complained about not being notified weren't notified because their property iz already included in Highland's present policy pol-icy declaration. Mayor James Hewlett reiterated that the changes are not what one citizen suggested as "a land grab." The idea to change the policy declaration began when the Palmer Ruzickas, Van Leeuwen and Foster families approached Highland desiring to become part of their community. ,vKs amp J Blake Evans to lead Board of Education Dr. Blake Evans was elected as president presi-dent of the Alpine School District Board of Education at the first business meeting of the board for the new year. Mrs. Linda Campbell was selected as vice president of the five member group. They will serve for a term of two years. Dr. Evans, a resident of Lehi who practices prac-tices dentistry in American Fork, has been vice president for the past two years. He succeeds Richard Gappmayer, an Orem businessman, as president. Mrs. Campbell, a resident of Orem, teaches on a part-time basis with the Provo Blake Evans, newly elected president of the Alpine School district Board of Education. School District. Dr. Steven Baugh, district superintendent, superinten-dent, thanked Gappmayer for his "unselfish "unsel-fish service to the board, employees, and students of the Alpine School District during his tenure as president." Both heand Evans were presented with plaques for their service as officers of the board. Prior to the selection of new officers, Evans and Mrs. Campbell were given the oath of office. Both were re-elected to the board this past fall. The oath was administered by Jack McKelvy, board clerktreasurer. During the meeting, McKelvy was reappointed re-appointed as board clerktreasurer. His term is also for two years. School lunch price up Members of the Alpine School District Board of Education have approved raising the school lunch fee by 10 cents. 'Die raise will g into effect with the start of the m- a semester later this month (January), according to board members. "I feel the food service is an excellent ex-cellent service, offers high quality food, pnd Is cost efficient," Supt. Steven C. Baugh told board members. mem-bers. Board member Richard Gappmayer, in presenting the motion to raise the fees, said it was with a "great deal of reluctance" that he did so "but the cost of the service is going up like everything else." The vote was unanimous. Jack McKelvy, district business administrator, said the program has been operating at a deficit for the past three years -- using food service serv-ice program reserve funds to make up the difference. In a memo to Dr. Baugh, McKelvy McK-elvy said increase is needed because of salary increases (for food service workers) due to the negotiation agreement and because of increased food costs. With board approval of the increase, in-crease, lunch prices go to $1 for elementary students and $1.10 for secondary students. The amount is reduced five-cents with the purchase of a 20-meal ticket. Even with the price increase, school lunch prices in the district or lower or even with their neighbors, McKelvy said. |
