I read Murray Low’s Guest Opinion about the Orem Transportation Master Plan (October 17, 2023). I remember when he was appointed to the Planning Commission in January of 2022. New members of the Orem City Council had just taken office. It became apparent that certain members of our city’s governing body were purposely voting together so they could control decisions made by the Mayor/City Council group. During their first council meeting they passed a resolution to move the Planning Commission from under the city manager to under the Mayor/City Council. Next, they ousted three commissioners from the Planning Commission and appointed three new commissioners who supported their ideas. Murray Low was one of those appointed to the commission. That series of maneuvers sealed their control of the Planning Commission and got them the needed positive recommendation to roll-back the State Street Master Plan that had been years in the planning. Their actions were pre-planned, agenda driven, and without consideration of the consequences.

Since one of them is retiring from the council, they will need one of their preferred candidates to replace him so they can maintain their four to three majority. Based on past behavior, here are three strategies they will use between now and the election:

1. Public relations hype to rebuild their credibility after the contention they caused last year.

2. They will try to discredit the three candidates who got the most votes in the primary election by inferring false things about them.

3. They will use a manipulation technique called problem-reaction-solution. Create/publicize a problem, escalate fear/crisis, then propose a pre-planned solution. I noticed this technique when they first ran for public office. In this case the pre-planned solution is to elect one of their candidates to the City Council.

Many things have been done in secret without the requisite transparency. That brings me to the conclusion that there is really only one issue in this year’s City Council race and that is integrity, including things like honesty and ethical behavior. We need to vote for people with these good qualities.

Virginia Sokolowsky, Orem

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