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Orem City Council to dismiss, replace 3 members of planning commission

By Genelle Pugmire - | Jan 25, 2022

Isaac Hale, Daily Herald file photo

The Orem Public Library’s hall auditorium stands with other city buildings Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020.

The Orem City Council will hold its second meeting of the new administration Tuesday, and the body is moving fast to implement change — amid allegations of intimidation and possible reprisal for past actions.

As part of its meeting, a scheduled agenda item includes the removal of a trio of city planning commissioners and new appointments to the commission.

Removals from the commission are to include Mickey Cochran, Marissa Bentley and Shauna Mecham. Appoints to be approved are listed on the agenda and include Madeline Komen, Amber Pope and Murry Low.

Getting to Tuesday’s discussion has been a learning experience for new Mayor Dave Young, the City Council and newly appointed Director Legislative Counsel Jesse Riddle.

A look back at important dates from the past month leading up to Tuesday’s action:

Jan. 3 — An inauguration ceremony was held for the new and returning members of the council plus Young.

Jan. 7-8 — As part of a retreat, Young and city council members discussed issues concerning the Planning Commission and the new Office of Legislative Counsel.

Jan. 11 — The first council meeting of the year was held. Two resolutions were passed, one creating the Office of Legislative Counsel with Riddle as the new director and another moving the Planning Commission from the jurisdiction of the city manager’s office and into the hands of the mayor and city council.

Following the meeting, as people continued to mull around the council chambers, a man came up to Councilwoman Debby Lauret, who voted against the two resolutions. He verbally accosted Lauret as others watch. He told her to get on board with the “new council regime” or else they would work to vote her out, according to a post on her personal Facebook page detailing the exchange. One of those witnesses was Kari Rugg, Orem’s human resource director.

Rugg immediately called it a hostile work environment and asked for police officers to visit the man the next day. Because he had verbally assaulted an elected official, he could be given a fine of $1,500 and/or one year in prison. Lauret said she would not press charges.

Jan. 18 – Riddle started working as director of legislative counsel.

Jan. 19 – Council members Terry Peterson and LaNae Millett pulled Cochran aside before the planning commission meeting and told him to resign, according to Cochran’s retelling of the events.

In a letter sent back to Peterson, Cochran recited in his own words what happened with Peterson and Millet. In part, it reads:

“I had also heard ‘through the grapevine’ that you and several members had determined to make changes to the way the city was run,” Cochran wrote. “One of those changes deals with the way that members of the Planning Commission are chosen — that it would now be under the direction of the City Council to review applications to determine if a candidate was acceptable to you.”

Millet “then added that it was only right that those applications should be available to members of the City Council in the name of ‘transparency.’ I agreed with her statement,” Cochran added. “I also asked you if that was not a ‘conflict of interest’ in that the majority of the City Council would now approve only candidates who agreed with the majority’s opinions, etc. … You demurred and deflected my question.”

Cochran said he also asked if it was the intent to change the current city manager/city council/part-time mayor form of government.

“You said that Orem City’s current form of government was illegal in the State. You did not answer the question I had asked. You indicated that the City Council — by majority vote of the members — had created a new Legislative (Counsel) Office and hired your own attorney specifically for the City Council and that you would no longer rely on the Orem City attorney’s Office,” Cochran noted.

Cochran’s letter then recounts a conversation in which Peterson told him Young “had determined that I should be delivered an ultimatum to quietly resign as the current chair of the Orem City Planning Commission” and not fulfill the year that remained of his three-year term, with Peterson allegedly suggesting that Cochran tell other planning commissioners his schedule was too busy to continue in the role.

“You also explained that the alternative would be unpleasant for me if I failed to resign. This unpleasantness would be that the City Council would have to put my removal from the Planning Commission on the next City Council agenda and that the council members would then give the various reasons why they wanted me removed from the Planning Commission,” Cochran wrote. “I said to you that I was not intimidated. I said to you that this appeared to be personal. You countered with a statement that there would be others on the current Planning Commission who would be dealt with in a similar way.”

Cochran has been accused of using the term “statistically insignificant” to describe 200 supporters of the South West Orem Neighborhood Association who showed up at a Planning Commission meeting to protest a project at 1600 N. State St. This is not true, Cochran said. He was also accused of telling Millett she was a liar, which he also says is not true.

Low, who is listed to be added to the planning commission, is one of the leaders of SWONA.

Commission members Bentley and Mecham also reportedly received the same treatment. Bentley and Mecham have been on the commission one year or less. Both claim to have no knowledge as to why they should be dismissed.

“We want to go through the planning commission and candidates and do an assessment,” Young said.

Young said the concern is the Feb. 8 rollover of the State Street Master Plan. If he had more time than this it would have been handled differently.

Saturday — Cochran received an email from Riddle telling him he was out.

The letter reads: “I have been asked by the Mayor to communicate to you his thanks, and that of the City Council, for your service on the Orem Planning Commission. Orem Code, Section 2-15-6 (A) provides ‘Any member of the Planning Commission may be removed from office by the Mayor, with the advice and consent of the City Council’. Through advice and consent, the City Council supports the decision of the Mayor. Your removal is effective immediately. The City Council not only thanks you for your service, but encourages you to reach out to them if you wish to serve on other Committees. Every good wish to you.”

Council members Lauret and Tom Macdonald say they were not happy with the fact that it appeared as if a majority of the council had already voted on the matter — which is against the law, according to attorney Jeff Hunt, who represents media in open meetings law, sunshine law and requests through the state Government Records Access and Management Act.

“I remember going to the gala where former Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt was honored as ‘A Giant in Our City’ in April of 2014. During his acceptance speech, he said: ‘The world is dependent on a steady stream of volunteers who have no idea what they are getting into.’ While we can all see the humor in his statement, I can also see the truth of that in my life,” Macdonald said. “It is disturbing to me to see some of our volunteers are being relieved of their duties simply because they don’t agree with some of the current council 100% of the time. Diversity in thoughts and backgrounds is a good thing. Perhaps most disappointing is that once again decisions were not made in public meetings, but rather in private meetings and emails.”

Lauret added, “We have wonderful volunteer committees in Orem. I love that we have a variety of people from different walks of lives and professions that bring their own experiences to the table. My preference is to always let people finish their appointed terms unless there is malfeasance.”

Lauret also said she was upset that she and other members of the council were not going to be allowed to share their opinion on the matter during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Sunday — Riddle sent a letter to the mayor and council stepping back from his Saturday letter, saying: “The threefold purpose of my letter was to convey the message of the Mayor and City Council to thank you for your service, to encourage you consider future service and to provide to you an update so that you were aware of the direction of the City Council. The statement that I made, ‘[Y]our removal is effective immediately’ was wholly in error. The effective date will be when a vote is recorded. I apologize.”

So while Tuesday’s council meeting will address the removal of three commission members in an open meeting, it still appears that a decision has already been made.

“I have loved working with the planning commission,” Bentley said, adding that to be treated so lightly hurts.

“This is a gross misuse of power,” Mecham said. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”

Young noted there is going to be a lot going on with Orem, but he is not “looking to blow up the city.”

“I believe in transparency and think that the citizens of Orem deserve that from their elected officials,” MacDonald said. “Hopefully this city council will begin to follow that practice as we have in the past.”

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