The gunshots were unmistakable and close. Too close.
John Self had been putting down drinks, along with Pamela Joseph and three others, in the Big Water Saloon in Kane County when he heard the shots. He looked out a window just in time to see Big Water Mayor Alex Joseph, Pamela's husband, firing rounds into Self's Camaro and smashing out the windshield with the butt of his shotgun."That will teach him to mess around with another man's wife," Joseph said, calmly walking to his van and driving off. Self then ran to his car, pulled a pistol from under the front seat of the damaged car and fired in the direction of Joseph's fleeing van.
"I should have killed him right there in the parking lot, is what I should have done," Self now says. "It would have saved a lot of people a lot of grief."
And there's been a lot of grief in Big Water recently. For more than a year now, the tiny town of less than 500 residents near the Utah-Arizona border has been caught in a swirl of controversy between rival political factions, both with quick-triggered propensities toward threats, exaggeration and accusations.
And there's no sign of reconciliation anytime in the near future. Meanwhile, the skirmishes continue.
When dust had settled after the shooting incident, both Alex Joseph and John Self - the latter one of a growing number of people politically and philosophically opposed to Alex Joseph - stood charged with Class B misdemeanors: Joseph with criminal mischief and Self with unlawful use of a dangerous weapon.Self, while admitting he shot his gun in the air, is still fighting the charges. Joseph pleaded guilty and was fined.
"It only cost me $200. I'll do it again tomorrow for $200 more," Joseph said. "John Self is a bully. He is a pig."
That angers Self, who still carries a loaded firearm beneath the front seat of his car. "If (Joseph) wants a Hatfields and the McCoys, he's got it."
"Yeah, and I'm training my poodle to kill on command, too," retorted Joseph.
And so continues a war of words - a war more often than not carried out on the pages of the town's rival newspapers, the Joseph-owned Big Water Times and the anti-Joseph Lake Powell Cities Advocate.
Traditionally, Big Water has provided a rather quiet refuge to Joseph, his nine wives and 21 children. Perhaps the nation's most often-quoted polygamist and certainly Utah's most famous Libertarian, Joseph has always had his detractors. Through it all, Big Water has been a haven.
But things are changing in Big Water, Joseph admits. While claim
ing to enjoy the diverse political climate, Joseph also dismisses the current opposition voices as the whining of a disgruntled few.
Nevertheless, those disgruntled few managed to garner one-third of the votes cast in the 1989 mayoral election.
What Joseph opponents have not been able to accomplish at the ballot box they are now trying to do in court. Lawsuits are pending or are about to be filed against Big Water, Kane County and the Kane County School District.
In response, the normally anti-taxation Big Water officials recently imposed the town's first property tax - to help pay legal fees, Joseph says.
"The entire Big Water budget is $47,000," Joseph said. "There just isn't enough money to hire lawyers to overthrow all those blatant lies."
Alex Joseph leans forward in his office chair, smashing yet another Camel cigarette butt into the already crowded ash tray. A hint of a smile breaks across his face.
"Before me, there was no Big Water," said Joseph with more than a little pride. "There was nothing here. Big Water has been nothing but a success."
Not everyone in this town in deep southern Utah would agree. But few will argue that "Big Water" is and always has been Alex Joseph's town - a sanctuary of sorts where the charismatic politician and polygamist has ruled virtually unchallenged since his family relocated there in the mid-1970s.
Before Big Water was incorporated in December 1983, there was Glen Canyon City - an attempt by the U.S. government to build a town for construction crews working on the Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s. Most residents left after the dam was completed.
But some stayed on.
"I've been here 19 years - way before he came in with his guns and knives and started bullying people around," said Betty Olsen, a longtime Joseph opponent and one of the mayor's most vocal critics. "There were only senior citizens here at the time, and it wasn't hard to push them around."
But times have changed over the years. Joseph supporters have come and gone, and more and more people without family or political connections to Joseph have moved to Big Water.
As their numbers grow, so does their willingness to speak out.
"Alex doesn't want the town to grow," said Big Water resident Carole Wagener, whose husband publishes an opposition newspaper. "If it does, then he loses control. And to Alex, control is all that matters. He is willing to intimidate and push people around to maintain it."
Joseph dismisses the allegations with a shrug of his shoulders. He's unhappy that a lot of retired people accustomed to living quietly in Big Water have been needlessly "stirred up" by the anti-Joseph "hysteria."
"But is all the trouble worth it? I love it. I really love it," he said. "This is America. They can publish anything they want. But I get so angry at the stupidity, at the lies."
The irony of the controversy swirling around Big Water is that Joseph is a polygamist and self-professed Libertarian, and the opposition's chief voice, B.J. Wagener, is also a polygamist and a self-professed Libertarian.
Yet they despise each other. Joseph calls Wagener a "pathological liar," and Wagener calls Joseph a power-hungry would-be monarch who "breaks the law whenever he feels like it and uses his attorney wife to cover his tracks."
And each claims the other has been unfaithful to true Libertarian principles.
Big Water politics
"The Libertarian Party has some real problems. But I pay my dues," Joseph says with a glint of mischievousness in his eyes.
Criticisms aside, Alex Joseph remains the pride and joy of the Libertarian Party, not just in Utah but across the nation.
"Yeah, but I'm also a dues-paying Republican, too. I'm a politician," he said, proudly pulling an autographed photograph of President Bush from his office desk.
As town mayor, Joseph remains the dominant political force over the vast expanse of wind-blown desert east of Kanab. But dominance has bred resentment.
"Anything Alex wants, Alex gets," said one longtime opponent. "No debate, no dissent. Nothing."
What Joseph has is a majority of the popular votes - by about a two-to-one margin. And that, said Joseph, enables him to pursue his own political agenda, Libertarian or not.
"I am a pragmatist, and I have a small community to model and test my ideas," he said.
"When I moved here, there was a $571,000 tax base for six square miles. Now there's a $5 million tax base. This was a deadbeat, busted boomtown and we have put a million dollars a year into it. And that's not fast enough? I'd like to see anyone else turn in that kind of growth figures."
Joseph has been the town's mayor since the town incorporated in 1983. But there are allegations that Joseph - and the state's Libertarian Party - are engaged in dirty politics to keep Joseph in office.
Said Wagener, "The Libertarians have been beat up and pushed off the ballots in so many states for so long they are dying for a showcase. And Alex Joseph and Big Water give them a showcase."
As such, a lot of people - though not enough to sway the election one way or another - return to Big Water come election time to cast their ballots. Many actually live in nearby Page, Ariz., while others come from as far away as California and Salt Lake City to vote.
Most own property in Big Water, claim residence there and are duly registered to vote with the Kane County clerk. Yet Joseph opponents claim the only time those individuals actually reside in Big Water is at election time.
Among those who voted in Big Water in 1989 but who don't actually live there are Bob Waldrop, former state Libertarian Party chairman who is now running for the Legislature in a Salt Lake City district, and Willy Star Marshall, Region 1 representative for the National Libertarian Committee and a longtime Salt Lake City resident.
"I don't know why Bob would have voted here, but Willy owns some property here," Joseph said. "But you have to realize, people come and go all the time. If they want to use Big Water as their place of residence and they register to vote here, I don't have a problem with that."
But some people do. Carole Wag-ener, a Joseph opponent, has lived in Big Water for three years. But Joseph disqualified her 1989 vote, contending she was not a valid Utah resident.
Ironically, Carole's husband, B.J. Wagener, did vote in the 1989 Big Water election and his vote was allowed.
"I've been registered to vote here for two years," she said. "I voted in the last two elections, and there was never any challenge to my residency. I live in Big Water."
Joseph opponents call it hypocrisy when Joseph supporters who don't live in Big Water are allowed to vote and Joseph opponents who actually live there and meet the Utah residency requirements are not allowed to vote.
"Willy Marshall doesn't live here. Bob Waldrop doesn't live here. So what are they doing voting down here? I am a resident. I have a home here. So why is my vote thrown out and they are allowed to vote? I have a right to vote, too. Is it because I am a woman? Is it because I vote against Alex?"
Marshall - who lives in an apartment at 1048 S. State in Salt Lake City - claims he is a Big Water resident, even though his residence there consists of an undeveloped piece of property. "I stay with Alex when I'm there. Usually," he said.
Waldrop - who admits he has never lived in Big Water - said he voted there because "I thought I was going to be a resident there at the time of the election. I was overly optimistic and it didn't work out. But it was not part of any nefarious plot (to keep Joseph in office)."
Meanwhile, Joseph opponents are still seeing red over another political maneuver - a perfectly legal one - used during the 1989 election to try to silence an opposition candidate.
In the mayoral race, Joseph opponent and local schoolteacher Joseph Smith decided to run for mayor on the Democratic ticket. Then David Ruiz, an Alex Joseph brother-in-law and ardent supporter, announced his Democratic candidacy for mayor, thereby forcing a Democratic primary.
Because Utah law allows cross-over voting in primary elections, Joseph supporters voted for Ruiz and Smith lost the primary by a 74-61 margin, leaving Ruiz to run against Libertarian Alex Joseph in the general election.
In the general election, Joseph tallied 105 votes, while Ruiz, who garnered 74 votes the month before, received only four votes. Though his name was not on the ballot, Smith received 51 write-in votes in the general election.
Adding insult to injury, Smith was later fired from his teaching job at the Big Water Elementary School - opponents believe because of pressure on the school board by Joseph.
"Alex is threatened by new people coming into the political system," said Carole Wagener. "He's never been challenged before. So he gets rid of people who oppose him."
Joseph disagrees. He says he moved to Big Water to be left alone and associate with people who feel the same way. "I'm not going to move. I came here to get away from people who would control my life. I had nothing when I came here. Now I don't have to move on," he said.
"If they want the mayor's job they can have it. Contrary to popular belief, I don't get paid for it. Who needs all this grief?"
Education
"It broke! It broke! The ground it did break . . ."
The headline in the March 21 issue of the Big Water Times proclaimed the town's giddiness over the prospect of a new $800,000 elementary school in a town where children have gone to school in temporary trailer houses.
"That's $800,000 of our tax money that belongs in this community," Joseph said.
But is it $800,000 well spent? The new school has its fair share of critics, who contend that a large percentage of the children who should be attending the Big Water Elementary School are instead attending school in Page, Ariz., or are being taught at home by their parents.
And many refuse to enroll their own children in a school they say is replete with incompetent and uncertified teachers who are controlled by Joseph and his family and friends.
"The school system here is the most appalling thing I have ever seen," said one mother, who said her children dropped one full grade level by the time she later enrolled them in Page schools.
Parents who oppose Joseph complain that teachers use extremely profane language in the classroom, that some are intoxicated while in the classroom, that classes have been dismissed because of "headaches" and "hangovers," and that teachers are unqualified.
"I home-school my children," said another local mother. "I will not use public schools here, and I will not subject my children to what's going on there."
Some parents says 40 percent to 50 percent of the students who should be attending school in Big Water are either being taught in home schools or in Page public schools. School district officials put the total at closer to 10 percent to 15 percent.
"There are 17 kids we have identified who go to Page schools, and a few more in home school," said Nils Bayles, superintendent of the Kane County School District. "Once the new school is finished, we will pressure them to attend school where they reside."
But some parents - all political and philosophical opponents of Alex Joseph - say they will never allow their children to attend school in Big Water.
Joseph Smith taught school at Big Water for several months. "I had tears in my eyes when I left," he said. "The kids there do not know they are living in a dirt pile with incompetent teachers and insufficient materials. They think they are into something good, but they are not. Smith maintains he was "treated like gold" until he announced he would run for mayor of Big Water. Other teachers then shunned him, certain children stopped going to his classes and he was accused of sleeping in class and general incompetence.
One teacher, sympathetic to his situation, warned him: "You know you are opening a can of worms here. It probably needs to be done in this town, but you're cutting your own throat. Alex will do everything he can to get you out."
Smith said the warning was prophetic. Alex Joseph attended the Kane County School Board meetings later in 1989, testifying that Smith was incompetent and should be fired.
"He is (incompetent) and he was (fired)," Joseph said.
After the election, the school board gave Smith the option of becoming a full-time substitute teacher in Kanab or resigning. When Smith refused, he was terminated.
But Bayles has nothing but praise for the six teachers at the Big Water school, saying they have done a remarkable job under difficult circumstances. "We gave people a task three years ago that was termed insurmountable and we took kids that had been going to Page schools, put them in trailers and hired six teachers who had never seen each other before.
Bayles said four of the six teachers at the Big Water school are certified by the state. He said the other two are only one or two classes short of state qualification and are working toward that end.
Nepotism
Family businesses are not at all unusual in southern Utah. But newcomers to Big Water are often caught by surprise when they discover the family business here is the town government.
Alex Joseph is not only the town mayor but runs the town water system and publishes the Big Water Times. His wife Elizabeth is the town attorney and prosecutor. His wife Delinda is the town clerk. His nephew, Jeff Banfill, is the town marshall, as well as the Kane County deputy sheriff assigned to Big Water.
Other family members and close friends are in other positions in the town. All of which has Alex Joseph critics claiming a deliberate attempt by Joseph to control every aspect of life in Big Water, from law enforcement to water connections.
And they say Joseph uses that power to target his opponents with a vindictive nepotism that drives many people to leave Big Water, rather than stay and fight.
But Joseph makes no apologies for the nepotism, a rather common phenomenon in any small town in southern Utah:
- Elizabeth was the low bidder for the contract as town attorney, bidding legal services at the rate of about $5 an hour.
- Delinda is the town clerk by default because the previous town clerk quit to teach school, and no one else would take the job. "If anyone wants to put in an application for the job, they can have it," he said.
- Jeff Banfill is the only certified peace officer in the area. For his services to Big Water, he receives the grand sum of $24 a week.
"We're not talking a lot of money. The whole town budget is $47,000 a year," Joseph said, pointing to his Libertarian philosophies of privately bid service contracts and revenue that comes from user fees.
But there is, nevertheless, a distinct paranoia among many in Big Water. Of particular concern is what they say is inequitable application of law and justice.
"If the Joseph people do something, no report is made out. If someone else does it, then it's a big deal and makes their paper," said Kathy Self, wife of John Self.
Joseph opponents say they have been subjected to burglaries, vandalism and harassment by Joseph supporters. Yet none of the incidents has been thoroughly investigated, they say.
County officials call those allegations bunk. "Jeff Banfill is the most professional law enforcement officer I've got," said Kane County Sheriff Maxwell Jackson. "I've never seen him partial to Alex or his family. In fact, he's harder on Alex than I am."
Jackson has told those who complain the loudest that if they believe Banfill is not doing the job that Jackson himself would handle the investigation. No request has yet been made.
"I've said, `Until you can prove something without blowing it way out of proportion, Jeff Banfill will continue to be my chief deputy,' " Jackson said.
Still, Jackson acknowledges the situation in Big Water is "strange and volatile," compounded by the fact that many people on both sides are armed to the teeth.
"I carry a gun with me wherever I go," said John Self. "And I'm not afraid to use it."
"I've always carried guns," responds Joseph. "My kids carry guns. There is nothing against the law to carry guns."
Added Jackson, "There is certainly a potential for violence out there. It was worse during the elections, but things appear to be cooling down now. It's generally a pretty quiet town."
Currently, the hottest issue in Big Water is the recent announcement of mandatory water hookup fees. Those fees are required under the provisions of the Federal Farm Home Administration loan that built the water system.
While Joseph has been accused of imposing the fees to line his own pockets, the fees actually repay the FHA loan. Wagener is challenging the legality of the hookup fee in court, something Joseph says is adding to the town's current financial woes.
"I agree with him on the legality of the water connection fee," Joseph said. "But to imply I am doing it all (for personal gain) is a mistake. Those funds are all audited by accountants in Cedar City."
But the accusations and counter-charges continue unabated. And both Joseph and Wagener wonder whether Big Water is really big enough for both of them.
"I don't have to leave," Joseph said. "I won't leave. If he doesn't like it, he can leave."