On June 18 at 7 p.m. a local nonpartisan group called CEAG (Coalition for Ethics and Accountability in Government) assembled at the Bountiful City Library to announce the candidacy of various group members in this upcoming October election for positions in public office.
Candidates include Jeff Novak, a 23-year officer of the USAF and former Chairman of CEAG who will be running for the position as Mayor of Bountiful City; Phill Wright and Eric Hattabaugh will also be running for positions in the city council. Phill has 25 years of professional business experience in finance and was the president of Bountiful Performing Arts center in 1998 through 2007; and Eric, who has served in the USAF as a medical technician, a medical personnel instructor and served on the Board of Directors of the Utah Figure Skating Club.
Each candidate had the opportunity to address the assembly and share their reasons for running for public office. Their deep love for their community was apparent to all who were present, and you could see in them that these men are not running for office for personal gain and local influence, but rather to give a meaningful and whole-hearted service to their community. Jeff mentioned his gratitude for our current mayor and the work he has done over the many years he has been in his position; however, he feels it is time for the city to have new representation in order to bring some fresh ideas and new game plans to the table.
Jeff calls himself a “John Wayne American,” meaning “I love my country, I shoot from the hip, and I tell it how it is.” They all have great ideas to bring forward like time limitations for public offices and other ideas that will help our citizens and businesses in our community prosper like incentive for buying locally.
Dean Boren, interim chairman of CEAG, read a pledge that each candidate has signed committing that they will uphold the values of CEAG, which are to be ethical in their actions, both publicly and private, and hold accountability for said actions. Various members of the community also addressed the assembly and expressed their support for said candidates.
Paul Rapp, Former Chief of Police for Bountiful City, expressed his gratitude for our current representatives. He talked about his experience as the Chief of Police. Paraphrased, he said he learned that after a few years you no longer have a game plan and it is then that new representation is necessary in order to further continue progress for the good of the community.
He stated that his confidence for a good new “game plan” was in these three candidates. CEAG will next assemble on July 16 at 7 p.m. in the Bountiful Library basement where residents are welcome to come, participate, and hear from these three candidates.
Jeff personally invites all members of the community to get involved and he would like to hear your personal views and concerns so as to better represent you.
As for myself, a resident and patriot, I urge all who love our community to come and take part in the contributions of further development and growth for the bettering of our great city.
This is not an event you can afford to miss. This is our city, our government, and they would like to represent you.
Daniel Bledsoe
Bountiful
A different viewpoint was raised about the recycling issue that I feel needs to have our consideration.
It is my desire to represent the concern/issue as accurately as I can recall. There is a question as to whether or not the petition would achieve our goals. If we succeed and get the referendum on the ballot and 80% of the people vote to keep the recycling as it now stands, would CEAG then appear to be ineffective? Would there be a perception then that the city council did it right and the processes they applied were good and fair. It was offered that some people will not understand what we are doing and why and they won't sign the petitions.
A suggestion was made that perhaps we let it be and address it on our tickler as another example of government gone awry like we did with the alcohol variance. Then we should select an issue we are confident we could win to bolster our credibility.
I said I would take it to the group for review and offer my thoughts on it before I took the application to the city. This is my organization or my "cause de jour". If I represent CEAG I represent what we feel is best and I want to ensure that this is the case.
I will offer my thoughts on this new strategy position.
1. The alcohol variance left us no alternative to recant, fight it or change it. Recycling is an issue we can take action on.
2. Regardless of what issue we tackle, we have no guarantee we will come out on the winning position, therefore, to try and hand select issues that will make CEAG look good is a weakness in strategy.
3. What the city did was unethical and must be made accountable to the citizens who did not have a voice in the matter. That is why we are here.
4. You heard this from me before, people don’t care: 1/3 of the people will agree with us, 1/3 won't, and 1/3 don't have a clue what we are talking about. This will be the case on any issue we tackle.
SO, I would really welcome your thoughts. Should we go forward with this? I am confident we can get it on the ballot but will it make us look bad if we lose at the polls?
I welcome all opinions and request that you "reply to all" so everyone can read the collective thoughts, and that you do so quickly as we are running out of time to present this to the city if we go forward.
Please feel free to call me with any questions.
Jeffrey Novak