UEP Trust being reformed

The Fundamentalist LDS Church's United Effort Plan Trust is changing.

A judge in Salt Lake's 3rd District Court appears ready to sign off on a reform plan pushed by the special fiduciary appointed to oversee the UEP Trust. Religion has been "carved out" and people in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., will eventually have the chance to own property.

However, the people most affected continue to remain silent on any changes to the UEP Trust.

"I continue to be troubled that we hear from everybody but active, participating FLDS," Judge Denise Lindberg said Monday. "I just wish there was some way to reach that community."

The homes, the land and even businesses in the border towns belong to the UEP Trust. It was part of a "united order" that the FLDS Church created. In 2005, a judge took control of the UEP Trust amid allegations that it was being fleeced by fugitive FLDS leader Warren Jeffs and some of his followers.

"We have not had private ownership in this community for generations," said Don Timpson, a Colorado City man who sits on the UEP's advisory board and helped draft the reform plan.

The plan would ultimately privatize property in the border towns and create a number of "spendthrift" trusts that place the UEP's assets in control of a trustee, until the recipients are judged able to control the money or property themselves.

Independent of religious doctrine, the new UEP Trust would also not inquire about whether anyone living on its land is practicing polygamy. That way, the UEP is not seen as advocating an illegal activity.

But Jeffs has given an edict to his followers, telling them to "say nothing, do nothing, sign nothing." Because of that, many FLDS faithful continue to resist any involvement in changes to the UEP.

Court-appointed special fiduciary Bruce Wisan said he has maintained some contact with people in the FLDS community.

"They didn't see anything on the inside that was different or has changed," he said Monday.

As an example of the resistance, a park in Colorado City was abandoned recently because ex-FLDS members dedicated a monument to the 1953 raid on polygamists in Short Creek.

A similar monument was ordered destroyed by Warren Jeffs in 2003.