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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.
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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.
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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.
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4. Commissioner Inaction Would Be An
Attack on Citizen Efforts
If the commissioners do not
immediately pass this resolution, the following could occur:
-
These frivolous lawsuits could drag on — costing both
taxpayers and supportive citizens in legal fees.
-
Commissioners might feel emboldened to utterly refuse to put
this on the ballot until it is too late to do an initiative
petition.
-
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.
- 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.
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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.
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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
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If you have comments or
suggestions, please email us at
info@accountabilityutah.org.
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