Eagle Mountain says Jackson's a keeper

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — House shopping is surprisingly difficult when you're 6-foot-5.

For months, Allen and Heather Jackson searched everywhere from Pleasant Grove to Nephi for a house big enough for Allen.

"The only homes in our price range were older homes," Heather Jackson said. "Lots of those homes had added a bathroom later, and (Allen) couldn't stand up in it."

Finally, a real-estate agent suggested Eagle Mountain, where developers were building new homes that fit the Jacksons' price range. Heather had been horseback riding in the area, but other than that, she hardly even knew there were houses out there.

Now, 11 years later, Heather Jackson is the first mayor in Eagle Mountain's history to be re-elected.

And much like the way she ended up in Eagle Mountain, getting into politics was an accident, too.

"I never dreamed of this," Jackson said. "I wasn't in the Young Republicans club or any of that stuff in high school. That wasn't me."

When she moved to Eagle Mountain, Jackson was working for a title company in a government affairs committee. Committee members were encouraged to know what was happening in their cities, so Jackson started going to City Council meetings.

In 2005, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain, approached her about running for municipal government. Jackson didn't expect to win, but she ran anyway and earned a seat on the City Council by 44 votes.

Just three months after Jackson took office, Mayor Brian Olsen's term started to unravel. Questions came up about travel reimbursements he requested for meetings he never attended, and there were allegations of other misuses of public funds. As the charges solidified against him, Jackson said she realized Olsen wasn't the person she thought he was.

"In the process of running my election campaign, I was encouraged to support Mayor Olsen," Jackson said, "and I tried my best to do that. Then I found out he had misrepresented a lot of things to me and the general public. It was highly frustrating and extremely concerning."

But the real problem came when Olsen announced his resignation. Who would take the last two years of his term and clean up the messes he was leaving?

"I knew it was a short term," Jackson said, "and anyone stepping into that position would need to know what they were doing to get anything done in that short of a period of time. I looked around and frankly just didn't see anybody else qualified that seemed like they would step up to the plate."

Jackson ran for the office in 2007 and got more than twice as many votes as her opponent, Richard J. Culbertson. She became Eagle Mountain's ninth mayor in 11 years — a figure that causes her to shake her head.