Home > Issues & Alerts > Legislative Alerts > Davis County Water Alert 9/22/03: Hold Officials Accountable for Deception

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Our Site Only
  
Entire Web

 

Site Index

 

 

 

Davis County Water Alert 9/22/03: Hold Officials Accountable for Deception


Summary: Voters in Davis County were deceived regarding the type of industrial fluoride costs being introduced into their water supply. They were also deceived regarding the true costs. Many citizens want to force a re-vote. Learn what you can do.

Topics:

1. Commissioners Squeamish to Put Industrial Fluoridation Back on Ballot.

2. Frivolous Irvine Efforts Begin to Backfire

3. Electoral Hypocrisy

4. Commissioner Inaction Would Be An Attack on Citizen Efforts

5. Davis County Voters Were Lied To

6. TAKE ACTION!

 

1. Commissioners Squeamish to Put Industrial Fluoridation Back on Ballot.

Proponents of adding industrial "fluoride" contaminated with lead and arsenic into the public water system, represented by attorney David Irvine and Citizens for Better Dental Health (loosely speaking, of course), are at it again. Latest is that Irvine has decided to appeal to the next higher court on their loss of the lawsuit seeking attorney’s fees from Davis County for their effort in killing our petition for a revote. After the last bruising that Irvine took at the hands of County Attorney Mel Wilson, I believe there is little prospect for his appeal to win.

Top

 

2. Frivolous Irvine Efforts Begin to Backfire

There is a silver lining, however. Because of Irvine’s efforts to rob Davis County taxpayers of more hard-earned tax dollars, Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson has also decided to appeal—and he will be appealing Dawson’s decision that removed water fluoridation from the ballot in 2002. We also still have our attorney, George Diumente, seeking a reversal of this same ruling. We are awaiting a ruling from Judge Glen Dawson that may lift the stay on the petition for the 2004 general election. If this ruling is negative, then Mr. Diumente is ready to roll on an appeal to the Utah State Supreme Court to lift this stay.

None of this is, of course, a sure thing. Courts, as we’ve seen recently in California, can be reminiscent of Lagoon’s Cliffhanger. All of these lawsuits (except Irvine’s Energizer-bunny appeal for attorney’s fees) can be dropped and this issue resolved happily if the Davis County Commissioners will simply pass a resolution—NOW—to put this on the ballot for the November 2004 election.

Top

 

3. Electoral Hypocrisy

If you recall, commissioners, which did not at that time include Michael Cragun, put this issue on the ballot simply at the request of proponents—with no initiative petition whatsoever. Now, over 10,000 Davis County citizens signed a petition requesting that this issue be put back on the ballot. Hundreds of people spent many, many hours gathering these signatures. Moreover, the legislature, with its passage of HB 64, has formally agreed that this recourse should be allowable. This should therefore be a no-brainer.

Top

 

4. Commissioner Inaction Would Be An Attack on Citizen Efforts

If the commissioners do not immediately pass this resolution, the following could occur:

  1. These frivolous lawsuits could drag on — costing both taxpayers and supportive citizens in legal fees.

  2. Commissioners might feel emboldened to utterly refuse to put this on the ballot until it is too late to do an initiative petition.

  3. The two lawsuits challenging Judge Dawson’s ruling may fail for whatever reason, or will be dragged out (the apparent goal of the Irvine Energizer Bunny). Initiative petitions take time, not only in months, but in personal time, time that you and I must sacrifice from our families and other activities that we would all rather be doing. I know that many of you would be willing to put forth this additional effort, if necessary. But if we apply the right pressure immediately, I believe this will not be necessary.

  4. Lastly, if the lawsuits and commissioners fail to put this on the ballot and an initiative petition is not done, then the next soonest time this could be voted on will be the next presidential election in 2008, a time that is far too distant in the future considering the amount of time and effort we have already spent fighting this issue.

For these reasons, every one of us (as well as our spouses) need to call each of our County Commissioners. Also, I am asking you to do something unusual — I am asking you to call them at their homes.

Top

 

5. Davis County Voters Were Lied To

Here is why. Water fluoridation has affected each of us personally. We were deceived by the county and the Davis County Board of Health. We were told that:

Only sodium fluoride would be used, but instead, to keep costs from skyrocketing even more, the liquid hydrofluorosilicic acid is being used, which contains traces of lead, arsenic, and mercury. (This HF acid is the toxic waste scrubbings from the chimneys of the fertilizer industry, straight to your drinking water supply) .

Costs would be about fifty cents to one dollar per person per year. Instead, costs are up to 500% higher than these estimates. Furthermore, The Davis County Board of Health misrepresented costs (in a major way) and spent over $8,000 in taxpayer funds to promote these misrepresentations by illegally publishing ads in major newspapers just days before the election. And this was done even AFTER they had admitted in Davis County Board of Health minutes that costs were going to be higher than anticipated.

Top

 

6. TAKE ACTION!

Let Commissioners know that they have imposed on you and your familiy, that you will not tolerate this toxic waste flowing into our homes and drinking water, and that you will not accept being lied to regarding the cost.

Note that none of these commissioners is of the opinion that industrial fluoride has any health hazards. You will get nowhere arguing with them on health hazards. However, you do need to let commissioners know that this issue WILL appear on the November 2004 ballot, with or without their help. Your best arguments will be:

1. Opponents of industrial fluoride already completed an initiative petition and that commissioners should pass a resolution putting this on the ballot in order to avoid further needless litigation and to ensure that the will of Davis voters is heard.

2. That since the Board of Health misrepresented costs and so-called "benefits," it is a no-brainer that citizens deserve another opportunity to vote, and their vote should happen just as soon as legally possible.

3. It is unacceptable that industrial fluoride proponents never did an initiative petition, yet they had their issue on the ballot. Opponents who have been lied to should not have to do yet ANOTHER initiative petition.

4. That you want to spend time with your family rather than wasting it gathering signatures again, and that should you be forced to gather these signatures because of the inaction of the commission (in refusing to immediately pass this resolution), you will remember it.

5. That commissioners will be saving significant taxpayer funds by avoiding additional litigation.

Lastly, please contact your city officials as well and ask them to persuade commissioners on your behalf to get this issue back onto the ballot as soon as possible. Beyond making personal phone calls, they can also prepare and pass a resolution asking the commissioners to put this on the ballot again.

Be firm, but please do not be rude on the phone as you talk to commissioners and city officials. Just explain these points in matter-of-fact terms. Remind them of the huge hassle it is to have to spend hundreds of dollars on water purification equipment or on bottled water along with its hassles when it would be so much less of a hassle for those who want fluoridation to simply purchase the pills.

Note that this effort will pay off additionally with the fact that a significant portion of our attorney’s fees will be refunded (so that they can be utilized in the Nov. 2004 election) to us if commissioners put this on the ballot and spare the county further legal action.

Thank you all for hanging in there with us. I hope that each and every one of you will make the calls.

Commissioner Michael Cragun can be reached at in Clearfield at 779-0964.

Commissioner Danny McConkie can be reached at 295-0321.

Commissioner Carol Page can be reached at 544-2168

(Note that Commissioner Page is out of town until the end of the month. Please leave a message there.)

For any of you who are not Davis County Citizens, but have reason to go there to visit restaurants, acquaintances, family, etc., please help us out with a call to our commissioners. Davis County certainly ought to be "visitor friendly", and the addition of industrial fluoridate to our drinking water is a serious damper to that.

Dave Hansen
(801) 544-2744
dahansen@symm.net

 

Top

 


If you have comments or suggestions, please email us at info@accountabilityutah.org.

 

Home | Issues & Alerts | Mission | AU Team | Reports | Citizen Library | Other Resources

Address: P.O. Box 141, West Jordan, Utah 84084
E-mail:
info@accountabilityutah.org  |  Website: www.accountabilityutah.org

Copyright © 2003 Accountability Utah