Estimated read time: 9-10 minutes
OREM — There is a stark divide in Orem City Council candidates because of endorsements from opposing political action committees, one of which says it's fed up with the lack of civility in city politics and the other contends the current administration has to continue keeping high-density housing at bay.
The election has been heating up over the last few weeks since the primary election. As is typical in many cities, yard signs and candidate posters are up everywhere you turn and residents are bombarded with flyers and mailers about who to vote for.
Allegations of removing campaign signs last week illustrate just how heated this City Council election has become.
Removal of campaign signs
A police report was filed on Halloween after campaign signs for Chris Killpack were taken down in front of Red Wing shoe store, 248 N. State Street. The person taking down the signs received permission from an employee of the business, but it was later determined the employee didn't have the authority to grant permission to remove the signs, the report says.
Since then, Killpack has returned the campaign signs with permission of the property owner. The case is still under investigation.
Killpack said he was called that day by a customer at the store who reported witnessing Orem Planning Commission member Helena Kleinlein get mad at an employee for the signs being placed in front of the business. Killpack said the customer told him Kleinlein removed the signs and threw some of them in a dumpster.
Killpack said he went to the business, showed he had written permission from the property owner for the signs to be placed there and told the employee if the business owner wants them taken down he will oblige. Killpack said he was never told by the business that the signs were not wanted.
Kleinlein told KSL.com that Killpack "illegally placed the signs in front of multiple Orem businesses" without their permission.
"The business gave permission for it to be removed and set aside for the candidate to pick up," Kleinlein said. In a subsequent email to KSL, she said she removed one sign but put it in the back of the building and not in the trash.
"It's inappropriate for Mr. Killpack to use his developer friends to bully Orem small businesses," Kleinlein said, but she did not elaborate.
Kleinlein was appointed to the planning commission by Orem Mayor David Young. The mayor declined to comment on the incident.
"I am just a citizen grandma who was trying to help a small business," Kleinlein said.
Ballots are now being mailed to residents who have from now until Nov. 21 to vote for who they think should fill the three vacant City Council spots.
Endorsements for the candidates appear to be split evenly between two local PACs, which both hope to improve the city.
Dueling PACs
The Stand For Orem PAC endorses candidates Crystal Muhlestein, Matt McKell and Spencer Rands. Stand For Orem was created by a group of Orem residents who say they want to preserve Orem's reputation as "Family City USA."
"We don't want Orem city to become a place where thousands of people live in apartments and there's too much traffic. We just wanted to work together to save that, save what we have," Stand For Orem primary officer Karen Adamson said.
When asked about the Stand For Orem candidates, Adamson said the PAC vetted all of the City Council candidates in the primaries and started hosting cottage meetings to get to know all of them. After the primaries were done, the PAC debated whether it wanted to endorse any of them, and said it came down to what organizations were already supporting the candidates.
"The candidates we chose to endorse are supported by local people, grassroots people, their friends, their family, those kinds of people. Where the three people we did not endorse, they're supported by people nationally. And we don't want national people in our city government," Adamson said.
But Val Hale says that allegation is not true. The three candidates endorsed by the Stronger Orem PAC — Killpack, Jenn Gale and current City Councilman Jeff Lambson — are not supported by any national organizations, he said. Killpack, Gale and Lambson secured the top three spots in the primary election in September.
While selecting the candidates to endorse, the Stronger Orem PAC wanted to pick "people who were intelligent, who had courage and integrity and could think things through and could solve problems," said Hale, an advisory board member of the PAC and former executive director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
The PAC asked the potential candidates whether they voted for or against Proposition 2 — a 2022 ballot proposal to create an Orem-only school district — because they felt those who supported it were giving approval to the "concerning" process used by the council to push the proposition through, according to Hale. That was the only issue the candidates were asked about.
"We didn't even ask about other issues and where they stood on them because we figure these people are smart enough they'll study the issues and they will make good decisions in their role," Hale said.
High-density housing
Adamson said based on people that Stand For Orem has talked to, one of the most important issues in the city is the amount of multi-family apartment buildings being built. Adamson believes there have been "way too many" approved and Stand For Orem wants to slow that down.
"We would support multi-families, if the people who live there could buy them and have home ownership. So condos and townhomes rather than seven-story apartment buildings. Home ownership means a lot and renters, just on the whole, don't have home ownership pride. They tend to not stay in one place very long so we would rather have people who want to buy and stay," she said.
When asked why this is such an important election for the city, Adamson said the mayor was elected to stop a lot of proposed multi-family complexes.
"He and a couple City Council members turned the tide so we could stop that," she said. "The way it looks like to us in all the research we have done, is that the people that are running that are sponsored by national groups, those are people who want high-density, multi-family, profit-driven buildings. We feel like if we vote for those people, we will get apartments we don't want because they are being supported by people who want that."
Hale calls such allegations "fearmongering," and said the Stand For Orem PAC "from day one" has pushed a "false narrative" about high-density housing.
Hale and JoDee Sundberg, one of the founders of Stronger Orem, claim Stand For Orem has been passing out flyers and falsely telling people that Stronger Orem candidates are wanting to put in thousands of new apartments and a rapid bus system that would cause houses to be torn down. Sundberg said their candidates have never mentioned wanting thousands of apartments and a rapid bus system.
"All six of the candidates do not support high-density housing. They all say they support responsible growth, knowing that growth is going to come," Sundberg said.
Sundberg said the PAC knew high-density housing and controversy over the State Street master plan would be big issues for this election, but the Stronger Orem PAC chose to endorse people who can find consensus, be respectful and work with all stakeholders to find the best results possible for the Orem community.
Worry of incivility
The Stronger Orem PAC started as a political issues committee called Stronger Together which was created to oppose Proposition 2 to split Orem from the Alpine School District.
Sundberg said the mayor never mentioned the idea of an Orem-only school district while he was running, but once he was elected, he and the City Council came out in "full force" to get it on the ballot. Sundberg said many members of the community tried to ask the council to slow down on the initiative, but the city government wouldn't listen.
"The community, the teachers, PTA and others, by the time the vote was ready to be taken, were so disturbed at the actions of the mayor's majority on the council, that you saw the vote — it was a resounding 72% against Prop 2 and 21,000 people voted not to support it," Sundberg said.
Six City Council members and the mayor make up the city of Orem's elected government. Sundberg said there are three City Council members who back the mayor, creating a "mayor's majority" that she believes is creating negative impacts for the city.
Sundberg said it's crucial for all three Stronger Orem-endorsed candidates to get elected so that "the mayor's majority" can be broken and replaced with seven people who can collaborate together.
"All of the candidates are good people. The thing that separates our candidates from their candidates, is our candidates do not want to continue the toxic relationship that has happened with the current mayor's majority, with other community members, other communities, other government organizations and Alpine School District," Sundberg said.
In response to Stronger Orem's claims of voters feeling blindsided by Proposition 2, Adamson said many residents expressed concern in cottage meetings about the size of the Alpine School District and a proposed bond.
"All seven council members voted to do the feasibility study. As it turns out, the schools are still being closed and taxes still going up, despite the claims used to defeat that proposition," Adamson said.
After the Proposition 2 controversy was over, Sundberg and her colleagues organized Stronger Orem and tried to gather people who could "bring civility and trust back to, or restore it to the Orem City Council."
Sundberg referenced recent City Council meetings where she has seen the mayor, council members, and residents in public comments personally attack other people by name and she's been blown away by how uncivil the government leaders have acted.
"We're not wicked people. We're not trying to stir — we just want civility brought back," she said.
Hale said if people want to see change in Orem, they need to get out and vote.
Adamson said over the last few decades, many people have not gotten involved in politics and it has allowed "terrible things to happen" because not enough people are voting.
"What we really need to do is just learn how to still like each other when we disagree, but quit letting these people slide stuff past us. We have got to know what they are doing," Adamson said. "We like all of the people that are running for City Council, but we don't like who is supporting some of them. We worry about what those people will expect."
Orem voters will also have the chance to vote on Proposition 6 which extends the Cultural Arts and Recreation Enrichment (CARE) Tax for another 10 years. The proposed tax is collected at the rate of one cent for every $10 spent in Orem to be used on parks, playing fields, trails, bike paths, splash pads, live theater, symphonies, operas, ballet and dance companies and choral groups.
