From Deseret News archives:
Ex-mayor reflects on past
For Kelvin Bailey, they are constant reminders of a difficult, yet rewarding period of his life that he doesn't regret but in many ways is glad to have behind him.
Now, some four weeks removed from his June 30 resignation, he takes some time to peruse some computer records he kept — a virtual history of his administration.
"Most of it is very good memories of how well things went," says Bailey.
But not all.
One of the documents is the public statement he made more than two years ago, a couple of weeks after that March night when he drove to Barstow, Calif., and called his wife to tell her he had been kidnapped at gunpoint.
Two years later, Bailey makes no effort to hide what happened that night.
"I actually had a nervous breakdown," Bailey said. "I had too much going. I quantify it kind of like driving a car late at night. You drive at night, and you don't think you're going to fall asleep at the wheel, but you find out you did after you already had an accident. Emotionally, I think we operate the same way, and in a sense, I fell asleep at the wheel mentally."
Bailey confessed a short time later but was still charged with providing false information to a police officer, a Class B misdemeanor.
He signed a guilty plea in advance, he said, because he couldn't afford to fight the charge. He was ordered to pay $200 in court costs and $923 in restitution to the law-enforcement agencies who were preparing to search for him. Both amounts were paid by June of last year, and the charge was expunged from Bailey's record.
Bailey says he wishes he would have handled the situation differently, but at the time, didn't know how he could.
"I didn't know how to explain what had happened," he said. "At that moment, I still did not know what had happened. I wasn't thinking clearly. If I had been, I could have come up with a better explanation than (the kidnapping)."
The issue stoked a public fire. Residents lined up at City Council meetings to voice opinions, some supportive, some asking for new leadership. Three of the five members on the City Council publicly called for Bailey's resignation.
But the political landscape changed dramatically last year when three new council members were elected. The present City Council has had a strong relationship with Bailey, and all five members signed a letter commending him for his service after he announced his resignation.
