OREM — Eagle Mountain Mayor Kelvin Bailey refused to resign in 2003 after he fabricated a story about being abducted. Now that he's led the city out of a financial hole, he's decided to leave office six months before the end of his term.

Bailey announced he will leave June 30 because he needs to give more attention to his family, his job and an invention.

He told the Deseret Morning News on Friday that he had a nervous breakdown in March 2003 when he called his wife and told her a stranded motorist held him at gunpoint and forced him to drive to Barstow, Calif., where he managed to escape.

The story, he later admitted, wasn't true.

"My wife had just had a stroke, and I was going to sleep at the wheel," Bailey said. "I wasn't sleeping. About 48 hours and 500 miles later I didn't know where I was. It was a scary feeling to wake up from that and not know where you are. I took a couple of weeks off at the time and realized something snuck up on me I didn't realize was happening."

He said his resignation isn't related to stress. Instead, it's just the right time to focus more on family, church and his jobs.

Bailey knows most Utahns will remember him for the faked carjacking. Utah County Attorney Kay Bryson charged him with filing a false police report, a class B misdemeanor. He agreed to plead

no contest in May 2004 and paid more than $1,000 in fines. In exchange, the charges were later dismissed and expunged from his record.

"People need to recognize a person is not defined by one event," he said. "We should be judged by what we achieve overall, not by one event."

The mayor's seat is up for election in November, with the winner taking office in January. The filing deadline for the election is Aug. 15.

Bailey's term was to end Dec. 31, but now the City Council will select someone to serve out that term, City Administrator Chris Hillman said. First, Vince Liddiard will take over temporarily as mayor on July 1. Then the council will give interested residents 14 days to file a notice of intent before it makes a selection.

Eagle Mountain was foundering in debt when Bailey took office in 2002.

"I feel as though the city of Eagle Mountain was a bright new 'Titanic' that was moving full steam ahead without fear of sinking until we scraped into several icebergs," Bailey wrote in a prepared statement.

That first year, the city had a budget deficit of $480,000. Bailey hired Hillman and worked with the council to raise impact fees and cut spending. The following year's budget had a $730,000 surplus, a major turnaround for a city with a general fund of $3 million.

Last year, Eagle Mountain had a $1.1 million surplus.