WASHINGTON TERRACE -- Mayor Richard Jackson isn't going to leave office without a fight.
The embattled Jackson, whose controversy-punctuated mayoral term has been cut in half by a public decision to change the city's form of government, is mounting a write-in campaign to reclaim his seat for another two years.He filed a declaration of candidacy Oct. 15 and launched his campaign by posting signs and circulating a highly critical political flyer that lambastes the current council, police chief, city manager, the former mayor and past city officials, city attorneys and assorted "opponents."
Jackson will face primary election winners Mark Allen and Robert Tucker, a city councilman, at the polls on Nov. 2.
Also mounting write-in campaigns for the upcoming election are John R. Dallinga in Council District No. 4 and David E. Christensen in District No. 5.
Jackson's term of office was cut short when Washington Terrace voters approved a ballot initiative last November calling for a shift from Utah's traditional council-mayor form of government -- with a part-time mayor and a full-time city administrator -- to the "strong mayor-council" form.
Under the "strong mayor" form, the new mayor will serve as the city's chief administrative officer and will not participate in policy-making decisions because he is not part of the legislative body.
The initiative also expanded the size of the council from five members to eight. Council members will elect a chairman to run their meetings.
Jackson did not file for office by the statewide Aug. 16 filing deadline, however, choosing to wait instead for a Utah Supreme Court ruling on whether he could finish his original four-year term.
The ruling, handed down Sept. 10, affirmed a 2nd District Court decision indicating the change of government requires Jackson to run for office again if he wants to retain his mayoral seat.
Jackson said he decided to seek re-election because he believes the City Council has fallen into a pattern of not listening to Washington Terrace residents.
"When it appeared that the two mayoral candidates were of the same school of thought and wanted to maintain the status quo, that's when I decided I was going to run," Jackson said. "I want to provide residents with a clear choice between the mess that we've been dealing with and getting out of it. I want to return the government back to the people."
Whoever wins the upcoming mayoral race, however, will only serve for two years. To comply with state law, a Washington Terrace mayor will have to be elected again in 2001 to bring the city into compliance with the election cycle for third-class cities.
Jackson said he's comfortable with that, because winning the election as a write-in candidate would allow him to complete the four-year term he originally sought in 1997.
If re-elected, Jackson said he would run the city as a part-time mayor/administrator without incurring the expense of a full-time chief administrative officer.
Among other things, the incumbent mayor is clearly rankled by the way the city administrator's duties have been structured, "ugly negative gossip perpetrated by my opponents," "personal attacks" and what he described as being "verbally abused behind closed doors by members of our City Council" and being "told to 'shut up.' "
"Please don't put any of the 'old' council back into office," he wrote in his campaign literature. "Now is our chance to stand for our God-given rights and say, 'Enough is enough, we want our city back! We want our freedom of speech back.'
"Like our fearless forefathers, we refuse to drink this tea and will throw it into the proverbial Boston Harbor," Jackson added. "If they want another Boston Tea Party, then we'll give them one. We will not tolerate taxation without representation any longer by allowing a non-elected, non-resident city manager to dictate to us any more."