After petition, Highland dumps $5M road bond

Caleb Warnock - DAILY HERALD

HIGHLAND -- In a rare reversal, Highland has kowtowed to its residents, voting late Tuesday to kill a controversial road bond, at least for now. Looking to stop Highland from issuing up to $5 million in road bonds, in late March residents here handed over a petition signed by 2,112 registered voters -- an effort weeks in the making, organized by dozens of volunteers who walked the city. Residents have said they were concerned about the total city debt, especially given the uncertain economy. In addition, residents said they are unable to get any information from the city about how the money would be used. On Tuesday, council members voted 3-2 to simply kill the unpopular bond proposal by withdrawing its earlier authorization to issue up to $5 million in bonds. This means the matter will not go to a vote of the public and is essentially dead. The outcry of residents over the proposed bond proves that "the process is working," said Councilman Larry Mendenhall. "I would like to thank those who have e-mailed and written and actively helped us come to this decision. It has not been easy." Councilman Brian Braithwaite and Councilman Brian Brunson voted against killing the bond, saying they wanted to leave the option on the table until the city's transportation advisory committee has a chance to draw up a list of road priorities. The council did not take public comment on the matter before the vote. No member of the public spoke on the issue during the general comment period at the beginning of the meeting. Mendenhall said the local, national and global economic outlook is too unstable for the city to issue bonds with confidence at this time. He also said there is "substantial risk" that state road funding could be cut or changed, making it difficult for the city to pay back the bond. Councilwoman Claudia Stillman said the city should not consider issuing bonds until there is clear information about what the city's finances might look like next year. The city's transportation committee is expected to continue its work over the next several months to come up with a road priority list for the city, which could mean another road bond proposal of some kind in the future, depending on what the committee recommends.

Petition Certified!

The Utah County Clerk/Auditor's office completed the certification of signatures for the Highland Road Bond petition.

A total of 1,497 signatures were needed to equal the required 20% of registered voters. On Monday, April 6, 2009, the County Clerk Auditor's office said, "Petition packets with a total of 1,956 valid signatures were delivered to and certified by the Clerk/Auditor's office."

Highland City has also been told the number of certified signatures.

(The total number of signatures submitted was 2112. That means only 156 signatures, or 7.4% of the total, were found to be invalid. The County office had told us to expect that up to 20% of the collected signatures would be invalid. Getting those 50 plus people to register to vote really helped.)

Thank you again to all who helped make this happen.