Eagle Mountain mayor on job

EAGLE MOUNTAIN — Embattled Eagle Mountain Mayor Kelvin Bailey said Tuesday he is ready for any challenges that lie ahead.

And there will be plenty of them.

Despite calls for his resignation, the 47-year-old mayor, who has kept a very low profile in the three weeks since his overnight disappearance that led to a concocted story about being kidnapped at gunpoint, said he would be back in the mayor's chair starting today.

Bailey, frustrated with personal problems and the pressures of being mayor, drove to Barstow, Calif., in an attempt to clear his head.

To explain his time away, he told his wife and city staff members that he'd been taken at gunpoint by a man who pretended he needed gas for his car.

Later, he admitted the story was a hoax and that he simply wanted to buy some time until he could talk to his wife at home in person.

Bailey has been charged with filing a false report. a class B misdemeanor.

"It's been a struggle," Bailey said. "But things are fine and we're just going to go ahead."

Bailey issued a statement Monday indicating intention to stay in office.

Bailey said he's received a lot of support from residents. And while he doesn't expect the city's problems to go away overnight, Bailey said he plans to take steps to lessen the pressures of the office, such as delegating many of the mayor's tasks.

Bailey has been in office for 15 months, taking over after he won in the 2000 election against councilman Greg Kehl.

Ironically, Kehl has been the one who has kept the city running during Bailey's absence.

Eagle Mountain, which has grown in five years from a population of 200 to nearly 8,000, has had its share of troubles. The rapid growth has put intense pressure on city services and the city's tight budget. Money collected by the city mostly comes from property taxes and income generated by five city-owned utilities.

There is little commercial tax base in Eagle Mountain.

When it became clear that the town would be facing a large budget deficit, the council decided to start selling off the utility companies.

Bailey has been critically involved in those negotiations and at the same time, faced a downturn in personal income as the economy slowed and his job as a construction industry consultant became less needed within the state.

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