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EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah (AP) -- As his predecessor refused to step down after making up an abduction story, Mayor Brian Olsen says he will not step down for lying about having a master's degree.
With residents standing against the walls of a full council chamber Tuesday, Olsen apologized for lying about the degree and vowed to retain his office.
Over the past two days, residents received an anonymous letter attached to their front doors asking them to attend council meeting and demand the mayor's resignation.
"If the mayor won't resign, he should be fired," read the letter. "We have had it with embarrassing Eagle Mountain mayors making national headlines."
However, all but three of 11 residents who spoke at the meeting voiced support for mayor.
Charlotte Ducos said that if her child stole candy from a store, she would require an apology but would not kick him out of the family.
"I do not accept lying in any form and it is a big deal, but a big deal is not the same as a show stopper," she said.
"Obviously it would have been better if he had confessed without being confronted," she said.
Kristin Cable asked the mayor to resign.
"I'm outraged," she said. "Honor and integrity are extremely important to me and it was extremely distressful to find out our mayor is a liar. If he stays in office, he will damage the city more. In the interest of the city you serve, I'm asking you to step down."
After the public comment period, Councilmen David Blackburn and Vincent Liddiard asked the mayor to allow council members to voice their opinions. The mayor asked other council members if they wanted to change the agenda to allow for council comment at that time, but they declined. Blackburn and Liddiard spoke later in the meeting, said Royce Van Tassell, community relations director for the city.
Olsen also spoke to the crowd.
"I am sorry," he said. "I have let my family, my friends and my colleagues down and all of you and there is nothing that can justify that."
Olsen said he had earned a certified public managers certificate, called a CPM, and when people did not recognize the meaning of the state-sponsored certificate, he began equating it to a master's degree in public administration.
"The more I made this comparison, the more I liked the way it sounded," he said. "Eventually sheer repetition and my own vanity convinced me that my CPM was actually an MPA."
In a written statement, Olsen said he had considered resigning "in the early hours after this came to light," but friends and family told him to finish his term.
No Eagle Mountain mayor has yet served a full term, he said.
The city was incorporated in December 1996.
Former Mayor Kelvin Bailey resigned last June 30 -- just more than one year after pleading no contest to providing false information to police for his faked kidnapping. He paid more than $900 in restitution.
Bailey had failed to return from a pheasant hunting trip in 2003. He later phoned his wife and said he had been carjacked, abducted and forced to drive to California, but had escaped. He eventually told Utah County sheriff's officers and the FBI that he had made up the incident due to the "stress and challenges" of running a city, a business, and helping his wife, who had had a stroke.
He said he had intended the story only for his wife, and he had not expected her to call police.
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Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldextra.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
