Two minutes before midnight on Tuesday, a commercial banker was sworn in as Eagle Mountain's newest mayor.

After interviewing 15 candidates, Don Richardson was chosen unanimously by council members.

Before allowing Richardson to be sworn in, council members amended the city budget to include a salary for a city administrator, among other changes, and held a closed session to discuss personnel issues. Richardson was allowed into the closed session.

No council member gave any reason for their vote for Richardson or spoke about why he was a better candidate than the other 14 interviewed.

About 30 minutes after the vote and about an hour before he was sworn in, Richardson stood to say he would only serve as a part-time mayor.

"I'm pursuing my career full time as well as working for the city," he said. "I want to make sure that is OK with each of you so we don't get started on the wrong foot. If that is a problem and there needs to be a new vote, please let me know."

He said his employer, Central Bank, has agreed to give him some time off "to assess the status of the city and see what needs to be done to make things run smoothly. My first priority is to get a city administrator put in and make sure he or she is running smoothly and then go back to work full time."

When council members asked what salary he was expecting for part-time work, Richardson said "I am willing to negotiate. I was thinking half, to save the city some money."

To clarify, said Councilman Vincent Liddiard, a half salary would be half of the $50,000 salary and $20,000 in benefits that was paid to Brian Olsen, the city's first full-time mayor.

Rather than putting Richardson on the spot about a salary, Richardson should "study and come back to the council with a figure you feel comfortable with," Liddiard said.

Richardson will serve until November 2007, when voters will elect someone to fill the remaining two years of the term vacated by Olsen in mid-October. Olsen has been charged with seven counts of misusing public funds. His first court appearance is expected to be on Friday.

While being interviewed by council members before the vote, Richardson wept, the only candidate to do so.

"Why did we move here?" he said, his voice choked with emotion. He pointed to the council, and then the packed audience. "It's you, and you."

Richardson said his management and listening skills would be his greatest assets as mayor, noting he would listen to employees and residents and "find out what is happening."

"I believe Eagle Mountain's one challenge now is to have a vision, a vision for a year and a vision for five years," he said.

Such a vision would allow the city to operate without tripping over "tiny little things," he said. He also said the city should make financial decisions "that will add upon each other."

Eighteen candidates applied for the office of mayor and 15 were interviewed after one was disqualified for not meeting the 365-day residency requirement and two because they were not registered voters.

Even after reducing the interview time from 15 to 10 minutes each, interviews still took three hours, ending at 10 p.m.

Many of the candidates spoke of concerns about a lack of activities for children in the city, and the city's image in the media. Each council member asked at least one question to each candidate.

Some candidates were pressed with difficult questions.

"I'm just going to ask it straight out," said Councilwoman Heather Jackson to candidate James Peterson, who said in a letter to the city that he was a convicted felon. "What benefit could you bring to the city that could outweigh the negative press of Eagle Mountain being run by a convicted felon?"

"The press will play that game for a while," Peterson said, noting he had paid his dues for his crime.

Jackson said candidate Michael Edwards had run for mayor in the last election but did not show up for meet-the-candidate events and had not attended many council meetings.

"If you didn't put a lot of time into showing up to various functions, what makes you think you can put in time now? And in the election, you only received two votes, I verified that with the city recorder today. Why should we overturn a decision made by the populace?"

Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it