Few people are moving to Goshen, one of the slowest-growing communities in Utah County. But even fewer want to serve in city government.
Only two candidates - Randy Thomas and three-term City Council representative Howard Morgan - met the August filing deadline for two four-year City Council posts open for election this year. Only minutes before the filing deadline ended, Thomas was the sole council candidate."I got conned into running again," said Morgan, who turned in his application five minutes before the deadline passed. "I swore up and down all summer that I wasn't going to run again, but a lot of people talked me into it. There was nobody else."
Morgan originally won election to the council in 1985, filling the last two years of a vacant four-year council seat. In 1987 and 1991, he won re-election to his office as a write-in candidate by popular acclaim - meaning voters had decided he had better run for office again.
"When someone has to make a decision here, I can usually be found, unfortunately. That's how I keep ending up here," Morgan said.
Worse still, Goshen currently has no mayor, because Leon Jensen moved to Payson in September, even though he had more than two years remaining on his term. Because the seat became vacant after the filing deadline, members of the City Councilwill have to appoint a replacement, and little interest has been expressed from the community so far.
"I've already been on the council and I'm running again, so nobody had better think of me," Morgan said.
Goshen has only had to hold a primary election once this decade, in 1993. And that election was held only after officials cleared up confusion regarding the eligibility of one of the candidates. City officials, including City Recorder Verna Ausdal, were hoping that meant there was finally some interest in city politics, but no such luck.
In fact, to say that the town has had a few problems finding council members and mayors may be an understatement. It took the council months to appoint Jensen as mayor in 1993, after Forrest "Pat" Branagan died in office.
The city is currently taking applications from residents interested in being the mayor for two years or more. Applications need to be filed within the next two weeks at the city offices, 12 W. Main. Council members are hoping they will have a candidate pool from which to choose.